Date:         Wed, 08 Nov 95 21:02 CST
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         EF0JPB1@mvs.cso.niu.edu
Subject:      I love a parade

If anyone is out there who still wants to read about VW
busses, I can keep writing.  And no, Steve, it is not Friday
yet.

Any NEATO members out there have had the dubious honor of
nine chapters on the restoration of my 1967 Deluxe.  A long
and arduous journey.  The story has a happy ending.  Potluck
has had the official *coming out*.

Northern Illinois University (where I work) is celebrating
its centennial this year.  As such, the centennial
Homecoming parade was scheduled with much hoopla and all.
One theme of the parade was a vehicle to represent each
decade and guess which decade Potluck got to represent?

Restoration is a relative term, there is still no heater
tube between the two cross members.  Parade day was in the
40s, overcast and drizzly.  My spot in the parade ended up,
somehow appropriately, behind five clowns.

Stop and go. Stop and go.  You try maintaining 2mph with a
clutch!  I was crawling along, trying to exude some school
spirit, wondering just how ludicrous I looked behind these
clowns.

Then it dawned on me...those people chanting Jerry, Jerry,
Jerry were reacting to Potluck.  I flashed a few weak peace
signs and smiled.  Someone in the croud actually knew enough
to shout *21 window!* as I drove by, so the day was not a
total loss.

Two miles and two hours later I chugged home in the cold,
grateful I was following clowns and not horses.

Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

-Jim Bryant