Date: Sat, 17 Jun 1995 13:04:13 -0400
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: dlm202@psu.edu (David Mancuso)
Subject: That cig lighter socket in the wheel well
I had a talk with my friend Kevin who has one of these sockets ('85
Weekender), and the mystery was solved. The transcript follows, in a
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern style dialog:
Dave: You know, I've been reading on the Vanagon list about this socket, and
how no one seems to know what it's for.
Kevin: Really? That's for the refrigerator.
Dave: But you don't have a refrigerator.
Kevin: I know.
Dave: But you don't have a Wesfalia. You don't have a cabinet for a
refrigerator.
Kevin: That's right.
Dave: So this socket's for something else.
Kevin: No, it's for the refrigerator.
Dave: OK, I'll bite. What refrigerator?
Kevin: The one that used to be there.
Dave: Can I have some of what you're drinking (smoking? Ingesting?)
Kevin: There was a refrigerator behind the passenger seat, and it plugged
into the socket. That's how it ran.
Dave: I've never seen yours.
Kevin: I don't have one.
Dave: Huh? I mean, what?
Kevin: It disappeared before I ever bought the van.
Dave: How do you know all this?
Kevin: It's in the manual. I still _have_ that.
(Dave rummages around for about a year in the voluminous glove compartment,
pulls out the "camper" (weekender) manual for 1985. Sure enough, it's all
there. Gee, it actually pays to read the manual, barring the Westy pictures
mistakenly interspersed with the Weekender illustrations.)
Dave: Oh. So, why not wire it in permanently? Why have a socket?
Kevin: For convenience. So you can remove it for extra space.
Dave: Oh.
Kevin: Hence, mine's gone.
Dave: Oh.
(There's a moment of silence in memorial of missing camper equipment like
refrigerators and swivel tables, curtains and window screens)
==================================================
Dave Mancuso
dlm202@psu.edu
Mancuso@aol.com
'87 Wesfalia (The Great White Appliance), 11th in a series of VWs
'89 Jetta
(I still miss my first VW, the great '73 VW 412--the ignored offspring of
the VW family)
| 
