Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2002 15:55:56 -0400
Reply-To: Colin Stanfield <cstan@IFP.ORG>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Colin Stanfield <cstan@IFP.ORG>
Subject: Re: WBX bashing
In-Reply-To: <14e.11b51f91.2a798962@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
While growing up, my dad drove my brother and I around in a '73 Westy (I
traveled at 7 years old to Florida from Atlantic Canada for some hippy
convention, learned to play poker on the fold out table and proudly claimed
the pop-up bed as my own). When I was 18 my brother and I bought a '78 2.0 L
bus which I later took sole ownership of and spent several summers carrying
around surfboards, mountain bikes, cute surf guards, and pink flamingos.
Later my brother bought a '69 Westy which he drove all over the US, Mexico
and Canada. It was decorated with the abstract painting of our artist mom.
Shortly thereafter there was a VW bus eruption in our neighborhood. Rasta
busses, deadhead busses, more surf busses, green busses with Thrush Headers
running straight out of the manifold. It was wonderful (This was Prince
Edward Island, Canada not Berkeley, CA).
I've been through it all: Anticipating wind shifts as you come out from
behind a forest (Just steer into it!), Jump-starting the van yourself by
pushing the van with your head on the dash while operating the pedals with
your hands, utterly, and completely freezing while driving in Canadian
winters without a shred of heat, the look on the muffler shop guy's face as
he see yet another of these vans trying to get their exhaust systems fixed
for the advertised price of $39.99 (see above Thrush Header solution).
Bragging about how early V-dubs had reverse geared lower than 1st so that if
you couldn't make it up a hill in first gear, you could always ascend
backwards.
I now drive an '85 Vanagon which I bought for $400, sight unseen on Ebay.
I've got 4 Audi 5000 rims in the back ready for Agilis. I hope to someday
get the power steering to work and fix the AC.
If you don't want to muck about with your car, why would you drive a VW
anyway? It's about the vibe and the feeling of gleeful satisfaction you get
from keeping a old, and funky vehicle on the road (which when coupled with
the aforementioned rejection of the materialist/consumption
driven/disposable nature of mainstream car ownership and the slightly
subversive history of the VW van in general contributes to a subtle,
personal anti-establishment statement). More imprtantly, it's also about the
wave you give and receive when coming across another van(agon) on the
highway.
Peace.
Colin
............................................................................
.................................
C O L I N S T A N F I E L D
Associate Director, No Borders International Co-Production Market
IFP
104 West 29th St., 12th Floor
New York, NY 10001
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf
> Of Ben T
> Sent: Wednesday, July 31, 2002 2:42 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: WBX bashing
>
>
> In a message dated 7/31/02 11:00:30 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
> warmerwagen@HOTMAIL.COM writes:
>
> <<
> You make the summit on the third attempt but this time you
> lose your feet
> and now you have to slide all the way back to the bottom.
> Yes- you made it! But it cost a lot of "parts" and labor.
> >>
>
> yeah but i bet you great gas mileage coming down from the mountain.
>
> BenT
> http://hometown.aol.com/bentbtstr8/myhomepage/index.html
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