Date:         Sat, 8 Jan 2011 13:48:13 -0800
Reply-To:     Evan Mac Donald <evanm@ATT.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Evan Mac Donald <evanm@ATT.NET>
Subject:      Re: VW Van Profiling
In-Reply-To:  <56de7.6e5163c5.3a5a27eb@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

My experience is a classic "small town - not from these parts" story. At the 
time, our family car was an '85 tan Vanagon, kept clean, and in obvious good 
repair. The four of us (Mom, Dad, and two pre-teen boys) had driven to my 
sister's house for the family Thanksgiving dinner and celebration. It was sort 
of late when we left, on Thanksgiving night, but we had an hour and a half worth 
of driving, so I was not too worried. As we had passed through the small town of 
Linden, MI on the way in, we saw an interesting Christmas tree decoration 
display at the town's hardware store. We pulled into the parking lot to look 
more closely at it, as we were headed home. Nobody got out of the van, we 
stopped for about two minutes to admire the display. We pulled back out onto the 
main road though town, and were pulled over within an eighth of a mile. Full 
routine of license, registration, etc. Being small-town residents ourselves, we 
are ALWAYS on the watch for speed limit signs, and the scrupulous following 
thereof. We wondered what had happened. After the usual ages wait, he came back 
to me and said I had a license plate light out, and that was why he stopped us. 
Considering the junk that we had seen rolling through that town on earlier 
trips, we knew that was bogus. But, no ticket (more evidence of bogus) and 
twenty minutes later, we were again travelling. During that twenty minutes of 
waiting, exactly ONE other car went by. "VW hippie freaks do not belong in this 
town" seemed to be that officers message, but I don't usually bow to such 
low-minded pressure. Just about everybody else smiles, and asks questions, and 
has nice, or at least non-threatening things to say. I will stick with them, I 
think...