Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2011 12:00:36 -0700
Reply-To: Old Volks Home <oldvolkshome@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Old Volks Home <oldvolkshome@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Rubber Tramps and the Magic Bus was owsley
In-Reply-To: <vanagon%2011032513331816@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Rob -
Yep, that's what has happened and for better or worse, it's called
"progress" whether you (or I) like it or not.
For one thing, behind a full-timer living in my Westy, I don't much
care for driving my "house" around to go to the market or other
errands that can be more efficiently done in my KIA which gets 3 times
the mileage. This saves the Westy wear and tear for going to the
woods or the beach on the weekends and for just basic living in for
the past 12 years.
When I lived in a "real" domicile, I drove a 67 Deluxe 21 Window Bus
my father and I bought brand new in June 1967. Had it for 30 years, 2
restorations, 4 engines and two transaxles. I was the consumate
"splitty bus" owner, driving that thing everywhere and cross crountry,
but never once partook of the "counter culture" scene regarding the
venerable VW Bus - it's just the way I was raised and having seen too
many of my childhood friends either kill or seriously injure
themselves in the drug culture made it repulsive to me anyway. In
that time I had also owned a few Bays and a Vanagon, but one day in
1997 I decided that having my kidneys pounded to death in a splitty
had run its course in the area of comfort. I had just bought my 84
Westy the year before. I found that it was time to "grow up" and
enjoy the comforts of a more modern van (such as it is of course).
Having been divorced and no kids since 1976, I was unencumbered and
decided it was time to move on to something a bit nicer on the
disposition. Sold the 67 and have never looked back.
BUT
Your opinion does count (as does mine and others). That's the beauty
of the human experience - variety is the spice of life :)
--
Jim Thompson
84 GL 1.9 "Gloria"
84 Westfalia 2.1 "Ole Putt"
72 411 Station Wagon "Pug"
75 914 1.8 "Nancy"
Full Timing Since March 1999
oldvolkshome@gmail.com
http://www.oldvolkshome.com
***********************************
On Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 10:28 AM, Rob <becida@comcast.net> wrote:
> 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
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