What is your earliest memory of the VW?

[jgerock]

Feeling nostalgic and trying to get something different started here..

Please tell us about your earliest memory of the VW.  Either catching a glimpse, riding in, smelling or having someone tell you about their car and having it stick with you throughout the years.

For me, it was my dad telling me about his used '59 Beetle.  He was a high school "shop" teacher and was driving a stock 36hp Beetle in the mid '60's.  He has told me many times that I would crawl behind the back seat and sleep during the long drives down to Eastern NC.  Many miles took their toll on the engine and it was swapped for a 40HP Type II Bus engine.  I think the local high school even re-painted it at one point.  He eventually sold it to another teacher who discovered it was missing the two upper engine-to-trans bolts.  My Uncle also had an early Bug and he "raced" my dad to work up Interstate 95.  This was before the reduced speed limit!

Here is a roof-top shot of my dad's '59 in 1970.  That's my bike in the street next to it.

[kingsburgphil]

My folks and I, circa 1956.

[David Ward]

For me its riding in the rear package tray area of my Mom's Ruby Red '61 beetle on the way to the beach in Long Beach CA, probably around 1966-67.

[maui]

in about 1971 with my friends 63 surf bug with big block 1500 and DP heads and headers and holley bugspray and flared fenders and cragers and big tires. So cool.

[Fritter]

For me, it's riding around in my Dads 56 Beetle in 1973 or so, i would have been 2 or 3.  It had a big rust hole in the floor and i remember dropping a rag through it when driving around our neighborhood.  He swung back and picked it up off the street.  He built a bigger engine for it, painted it orange, and fabricated a new floor for it. He was a sheet metal worker so he could easily do that.

[The Inspector]

  I do not remember much back that far.......

[Timbo]

I remember I was about 7-9 years old and playing a bug and it had weird looking back window and these arms next to the door. It was a split window with semaphores. Was always around them at my dads shop.
Tim

[Ohio Tom (DdK)]

I used to sit on the bumper of my Dad's 66' beetle while he did tune-ups and oil changes 1971.
He loved that car.. My Mom hated it... It would always not want to start when "she" drove it.
My Dad sold the 66' when we moved to Germany for 3yrs (military) where I saw more beetles than you can shake a stick at.
Picked up Yellow Super when we got back to the states in 80'.
that was it for me.

[jgerock]

Neat comments.  Keep 'em coming folks!

A little bit later...
Driving home from high school in my 1st VW ('66 Bug), the accelerator cable snapped to the Solex about 1 mile from home.  My friend was riding with me so we pulled over, thought about it some, then he told me to drive home slowly.  I drove while he sat on the rear bumper with the decklid open manually operating the throttle on the carb.  We got some weird looks in my neighborhood.

[mwp]

My parents first car was a 1960 std. bug they bought new. They brought me home from the hospital after i was born in that car. It stayed in the family until my brother sold it to a collector a few years back. I am 50 now, and have always had a bug off and on. I am currently working on a 68 that i am going to build old school with all the parts used in that era. (bug spray carb, 88mm machine pistons, w/110, dual QP and brm type wheels). It reminds me of better days, and is a great way to spend my free time after working 50+ hours a week.

[Iowa Mark]

The Des Moines Register (Iowa newspaper) ran an article describing a game where points were given to players that were the first to spot bugs of different colors. It was based on production numbers of various colored VW's on the highways. My mother clipped the game from the paper and had us all playing on our many trips in the car. This was in the late 50's/early 60's. I can still pick that distinctive roof-line from a mile off to this day. I can remember arguments about random Renaults being counted. How could anybody think a Dauphine could pass for a Bug? (stupid younger brother)

[amchair67]

My Dad bought my Uncle Al's '68 VW which he used as a cop with the McHenry County Police Department. The PD bought it new as a patrol car, my uncle who was a cop, bought it from them in the 1970s (it was his fourth VW after new 63 Beetle, 68 and 73 Fastbacks). My dad got it in 1979 for my mom. I remember my dad driving it back in the winter of 79 and taking me for a ride the next day (I was just shy of five years old). It still had a spotlight, CB antenna, and black fenders. Needless to say my mom's dad was not thrilled about his daughter and grandkids riding around in an aging, ex cop car Beetle. A year later, he pushed my dad into getting a new car for us-an '80 Toyota Corona, but the VW stayed a daily driver until '86. And it started in weather the Toyota wouldn't, not to mention being much better in the snow. In '83 my dad added a second VW-a very clean 73 Bug, and I have memories of him taking me with him to work on a couple of 10 flats he owned in it. But it was that first, beat up 68 that got me hooked.

[madoski]

My bro is 13 years older than me.  He was a Chevy guy, but for a while, he had a Manx (or Manx clone...I didn't know the difference back then).  He didn't have it for long, but I remember riding in it once or twice.  That was the last I ever really worried about VWs till my Dad bought me a Bug for my first car back in '87.

[Ovalnut]

Was when I was 16.  An older lady pulled up, didn't know her, and she offered me money to hang out with her son, said how lonely he was and how he had a tendency to overembellish stories so no one liked playing with him.  Could always use money back in the day so I agreed.  She told me to call her Mrs. B.  She was a real looker to.  Ended up driving around with her all day.  Her skirt seemed to scoot up higher and higher.  She asked if it was my first time.  I said in a VW, yes.  She smiled and said, No, with a woman.  What happened next was unreal.  She pulled over on coast highway hear Huntington.  She showed me how the back seat folded down and away we went.  What can I say, I'm a sucker for an older mom from the 80's.  I never took money from her but I have been hanging with her son Gavin ever since!

[NoBars]

WOW!!!!~

[scottsain]

same thing happened to me too matt but i took the bitches money!

[karl h]

this is me on the right playing in front of the family sedan on summer vacation, Lignano, Italy 1965. Still remember those 350 mile journelys with my parents my brother and me - no highway then. my dad used to carry us to tha car in the wee hours of the morning when it was still dark (even in July), we just about made it in one day. fond memories...
my own first bug was a peru green 1968 sedan in 1983, been hooked ever since

[gbaker770]

You better be careful, last time I joked around on here about Conklin I got scolded like a wet dog and almost got banned!
And I'll make sure to get my Mom on the phone for you this weekend when we see you.

[scottsain]

you need her number?

[Squirmn German]

My uncles 67

[Ohio Tom (DdK)]

Awsome Gene.. NIce car for sure...

[Squirmn German]

pretty tricked out for the time period.

[JVance]

I must've been 7 or 8...we were living in the Cal Bay Area and my aunt and uncle drove up to visit us from Los Angeles. My uncle had an old, beat bay window bus. Once here, my uncle, my dad and I hopped in the bus and drove from San Pablo (Richard Ramirez bought a gun from the gun store a block from us...which was also across the street from the post office. Dangerous place it was) to San Francisco. I remember nothing eventful about the trip there, but once into San Francisco proper, the bus began to stall out every time we'd stop at an intersection. This would require my uncle to hop out and run back to the engine bay to fiddle with something to restart the engine. And it was pouring rain off and on during this trip. I have no idea how they got back to Los Angeles in that bus...or if they even did, as they had a history of various vehicles breaking down hours outside of L.A., often requiring my grandfather (a denizen of the FIAT faith, another disease I've had in the past) to diagnose and direct the repairs over a pay phone.

Aside from a friend in highschool who had a Beetle and, shortly later, a split window bus, it was Bugnut68's '68 Beetle that left the impression that stuck. Stock, white '68...drove like a dream. Took my soon to be wife on a date in that car; thanks, Ryan...that's why I'm still playing with these cars!

[camch]

my dad asked me to help bleed he brakes on his 58, i was about 4 or 5 and i thought my leg was going to fall off from pumping the pedal ,i can remember him saying ok about 50 times lol

[rockerarm]

For me, my first memories were sitting atop the engine in my uncles carb'd squareback back in the mid '60's, and the hypnosis was set. Advance up to the early '70's in high school auto shop working on any of the teachers' VW's and from the day after high school, a job with VW. What's a V8? Hah!

[flat top]

Of all the cars on the street the 57 Bug next to us, was  the best to get gas out of for our go kart....would have been 1960 61.  I was bad then....


Wayne