Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2011 10:28:32 -0700
Reply-To: Rob <becida@COMCAST.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Rob <becida@COMCAST.NET>
Subject: Re: Rubber Tramps and the Magic Bus was owsley
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTimtQhrBBQh5aweRT_-S5XRh+uxYJTL7pJ=h073D@mail.gmail.c om>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
At 3/25/2011 07:55 AM, Al Knoll wrote:
>Use your imagination. The truth is out there...
>
>If you say you remember, you probably weren't there.
>
>Pensionerd.
Last week I opened a small can of worms with a report on the death of
an old man in Australia and that generated some interesting talk both
on the list and p-mail.
I was told (on the list) that Owsley's passing had zero to do with
the Vanagon & to save it for Friday, this made me wonder if the list
still has it's soul.
Two of the p-mail posts & a comment I made sort of intertwined ..
The first post said the Vanagon has nothing to do with the old vw bus
and I should be talking about this on an LSD list.
The second post talked of the Vanagon no longer being many people's
daily driver rather something used on an occasional weekend. A toy of
the financially well off, a collectors item rather than the peoples van.
My comment was about driving a Chevy van.
I drive my westy every day, it's 'my' car & I have a mental link with
it that goes right back to the first 1959 VW bus I bought right out
of high school in 1971. The bus I drive today is a little bigger, has
better brakes and a larger engine than that '59 but other than that
(& the color) it's the same.
For what I have in the van dollar wise I could be driving a much
newer Chevy van, without the pop top. This is the first full westy
I've owned but have done a lot of camping in the VW with the standard
roof over the years so the poptop is not much of an issue.
My wife want's a newer van she can sleep in, one she can carry all
the grandkids in with all the modern marvels. There is a company that
builds camper vans, I wrote and asked if they could put a pop top on
a Toyota van, for about $6500 they can (a little more if you want a
bed in the top). Today there are alternatives to the VW bus.
Has the bus entered the world of collectors vehicles and occasional
weekend camping trips? Maybe so in other places but not around here
(around the I-5 corridor in WA state) I think.
That leaves me with the question about the list and it's soul. The
list has compassion, no doubt about that, the list helps, again no
doubt about that but when it's history is mandated to be set aside
for Friday something is missing.
If this was a Chevy van list or a Toyota van list there would not be
any history to talk about, when the VW is treated the same as a Chevy
or Toyota it is the same. It's soul? What kind of soul does a Toyota
or Chevy van list have? Actually who would ever think about a Toyota
van list having a soul? Too bad.... it's already missed.
Bummer.
Rob
becida@comcast.net
Western WA state with a Subaru powered '84 Westy
