Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 08:21:41 -0500
Reply-To: ddbjorkman@VERIZON.NET
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: David Bjorkman <ddbjorkman@VERIZON.NET>
Subject: Re: Is there anyone under 60 on this list???? WAS:Wife is done
with Vanagon a...
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<div style="FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); FONT-SIZE: 16px"><DIV>Really will put! And there is no other platform like it.</DIV><DIV></DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV><SPAN class=misspelled>Dave</SPAN> B.</DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV> </DIV><DIV style="BORDER-TOP: #bcbcbc 1px solid; MARGIN: 5px 0px"></DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px; FONT-FAMILY: arial; COLOR: #000000">On 07/11/13, <SPAN><SPAN class=misspelled>Jarrett</SPAN> <SPAN class=misspelled>Kupcinski</SPAN><<SPAN class=misspelled>kupcinski</SPAN>@GMAIL.COM></SPAN> wrote:</SPAN><DIV> </DIV><DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12px; FONT-FAMILY: arial; COLOR: #000000">Thanks for your vote of confidence, <SPAN class=misspelled>David</SPAN>. I think we probably will make it.<BR><BR><SPAN class=misspelled>Scott</SPAN> and <SPAN class=misspelled>Derek</SPAN> make interesting points about cultural shifts between generations, and I won't deny that <SPAN class=misspelled>Boomers</SPAN> see the world differently than <SPAN class=misspelled>Gen</SPAN> <SPAN class=misspelled>Xers</SPAN> and <SPAN class=misspelled>Millennials</SPAN>. Still, I <SPAN class=misspelled>gotta</SPAN> say that it sounds a lot like "kids these days" kind of talk, with accusations (implied or outright) of stupidity, laziness, or lack of ingenuity. But let<SPAN class=misspelled>'s</SPAN> be honest: old men have been talking that way since, well, forever. And VW Buses and <SPAN class=misspelled>Vanagons</SPAN> will someday no longer be seen on roads not because the kids don't "get it" or because their Boomer champions have passed away. It'll be because there hasn't been one imported, let alone manufactured, in decades. To borrow a line from the Boomer <SPAN class=misspelled>playlist</SPAN>, all things must pass.<BR><BR>I was born in 1974, and a year later my parents drove a '70 VW panel van from Afghanistan (where I was born) to <SPAN class=misspelled>Luxembourg</SPAN>, where they caught a flight back to the States. Then they brought a brand new VW Bus. My dad and mom <SPAN class=misspelled>modded</SPAN> it (as kids these days call it) into a camper, and in it we <SPAN class=misspelled>travelled</SPAN> the American west. They sold it in the mid 80<SPAN class=misspelled>'s</SPAN>, and VW vans left my life until I was an adult. In 1998 I bought a '73 <SPAN class=misspelled>Westy</SPAN>. Sold it and bought an '89 <SPAN class=misspelled>Westy</SPAN> in 2006. That van is <SPAN class=misspelled>Olly</SPAN> and now has a <SPAN class=misspelled>Zetec</SPAN> engine which I put in with my own two hands a year ago.<BR><BR>Why did I choose a <SPAN class=misspelled>Vanagon</SPAN>? Some of it was <SPAN class=misspelled>nostalgia</SPAN>, but a big part of it was because of the openness and flexibility of the platform. It wasn't because I'm a <SPAN class=misspelled>luddite</SPAN> and hate computers. Love 'em, in fact, and carry my <SPAN class=misspelled>iPhone</SPAN> with me everywhere. It was because I, like many people of my generation and the next, like doing stuff with our minds and our hands just as much as my parents did. Doubt that? Look up the Maker Movement. Or note that the average age of sellers on <SPAN class=misspelled>Etsy</SPAN> is 41. People who are younger than you (and me) are making stuff and solving problems. Admittedly in many cases, those problems, tools, and even solutions look different than they did 20 or 30 years ago.<BR><BR>The thing is, we all work with what we have at hand. Sadly, there just aren't that many VW vans around anymore for people to work with. It<SPAN class=misspelled>'s</SPAN> not because people are dumber or don't have the skills.<BR><BR>I'm not trying to cause a <SPAN class=misspelled>generational</SPAN> debate here. In fact, I'd argue that we're all a lot more alike than different here on this list. There were never that many <SPAN class=misspelled>Vanagons</SPAN> on the road to begin with, and yet here we all are, a couple decades later, still tinkering with them. Still talking about them. Still driving them. <SPAN class=misspelled>Volks</SPAN> young and old are still building businesses around this single model of NLA automobile, which is a bit odd, really. What the van <SPAN class=misspelled>symbolizes</SPAN> to each driver may be different as we each pass through our various stages of life. But if you're on this list, that means you, regardless of your age, were drawn to a vehicle that the majority of our culture decided to forget. That makes us all collectively different from the rest of our respective generations.<BR><BR>-<SPAN class=misspelled>Jarrett</SPAN> <SPAN class=misspelled>Kupcinski</SPAN><BR>89 <SPAN class=misspelled>Bostig'd</SPAN> <SPAN class=misspelled>Westy</SPAN><BR></DIV></div>
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