Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 01:08:01 -0400
Reply-To: Stephen Steele <steeles@HORIZONVIEW.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stephen Steele <steeles@HORIZONVIEW.NET>
Subject: Re: State of the List... State your ages! (long)
In-Reply-To: <ce.4ce5b29b.2dd35826@aol.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Well, the "State of the List" has improved a little as of late. T.Y.
it's amazing what direction this List can take in just a few days!
I want to address a few posts all at once...
I'll preach to the choir about my 91 Ecodiesel with 190 K on it (I would
love to greazel it), my current and later Vanagons have all ran better than
my first one even though I am older, and also the only motorcycle that I
ever owned I owned by default, more on that later.
With that said, here's my age/VW/car bio:
I'm 52 going on 32. And my youngest son is 32 months old.
I never owned a car until I had graduated from college and Navy OCS. I was
home on leave and at a neighborhood bar when I friend stated that he wanted
to sell his brand new '74 MGB. I arranged to buy it on my next leave and did
so with $3750 and 3k on the odo. I still own it but much prefer to drive and
maintain my VWs over it.
My first VW experience was a ride in my brother's black '58 bug in '63. He
was just out of the Navy and going to college. He was hooked and I watched.
He later got a '67 yellow/black convertible new and I got to drive it while
he and his new wife were on an extended honeymoon tramping around Europe. I
was hooked, but was saving every penny to go to school. At about the same
time another older brother was putting together a Meyer's Manx kit..."and I
helped" (remember the Shake N Bake ad?). I worked for this brother painting
houses after school and on weekends. He let me drive it on days that he was
at work at the fire station. Can you say 16 and logging roads?
I did have a best friend who drove her mom's '68 bug. Introduced her to
off-roading in it. I taught my two-year-younger niece to drive a stick shift
in the '67 and became adept at teaching girls how to shift... a handy skill
when you are 16 and relatively carless. All this time I was honing my
cycling and bike building abilities. My parents let me drive their '65
Impala on dates. Dad had a gazillion second cars...mostly older Chevy
coupes and trucks. He did once have a '58 Anglia (piece o' crap)
Fast forward 5 years and I owned 4 bikes and no car yet. I had managed to
get through college by bumming rides, hitchhiking and cycling. The MGB, in
hindsight, should have been the $8k 911 that I looked at in RI.
Three years later my new wife boiled the MG dry and I got to do my first
head rebuild. The closest I got to the 911 was driving a fellow officer's
'73 when he was using my "B" as a chick magnet. What a thrill!
Now it's 2004 and I am sitting at this keyboard, looking out at my '87 Westy
and the EcoDiesel in front of my house and am thinking..."Whew! How did I
get here?"
In '77 I left the Navy, came home and my first son was born two weeks early
'cause my mom (the mother of 11) said, "That child is ready...take your wife
for a ride in that bumpy car of yours". I did and he was born the next day.
He and his three brothers all talk about the first Vanagon, an '81, with
great stories about camping with the Boy Scout troop and singing REM and
Devo songs at the top of their voices on long ski trips. It was the vehicle
of choice of the entire troop for a long time and I am personally
responsible for the VW addictions of several twenty-something y.o. young
men. not counting my own sons.
I bought a 750 Suzuki after letting my wife's cousin ride it (while I was
test-driving it). He wrecked it...I bought it...fixed it...rode it for a
week and sold it... I decided that there are far too many idiot drivers out
there trying to kill m/c riders. Bicycling was enough dodging for me.
Following a harrowing divorce in '91, I had to sell the van. I drove the
"B" for a while and then got a Jetta, an '88. It was wrecked soon and I
bought a new '92 Jetta GL. It was great. It got 35mpg doing 85-90 mph to
New Orleans and again later in '94 for a honeymoon trip to Williamsburg, VA.
In '96 I passed this on to son #1 and I bought the '91 Caravelle (Carat).
Son #2 bought a '68 KG and has been restoring it off and on for seven years.
He bought the '92 Jetta from his brother and sold in in Italy before coming
home from a 5 year Navy stint. It was still running like a top and tight in
every respect. Son #1 got a '98 VR6 GTi.
The Caravelle was a perfect daily driver for me for six years. I ventured
into the diesel world with an '81 Rabbit and nursed it for three years,
picking up an abandoned '82 caddy and putting a rebuilt 1.6 in it.
But after not driving the '91 daily and trying to camp in it more often, I
had the Westy bug. In 2000 I found an'84 in AZ with the help of KWolz. I
flew out, picked it up in PHX and drove it home to OH.
The Westy for us is a perfect camper. And as many of you know, it's hard to
own just one. I found my'87 in VA (Williamsburg, again) rust free and
needing some TLC. The '91 is now with son #1 and the '84 Westy is serving
split time between #1 and #2 sons. Sons #3 and #4 recently sold their
together car (a 90 Jetta) so that they can each buy their own.
That's about it. Son #5 adores the Westy and camping in it. If he would
just o to sleep at night when camping.
Stephen Steele*
Chillicothe OH
'87 Westy "Franz"
'84 Westfalia "Fritz"
'82 Caddy VW Diesel P.U. Unknown future????
'74 MGB My first car...yep, I've kept it since '74
'93 Chevy S-10
'91 Jetta Diesel My daily driver
'02 Jetta Wagon VR6 Wife's car
Ex Vans:
'91 Caravelle "Hans"...1995-2003 Now with Son #1
'81 Vanagon from 1985-1990
*all rights reserved/no portion of this document may be reproduced w/o prior
written permission
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