Okay, from (somewhat) the other end of the spectrum, I came home from the
hospital on the middle seat of my folks' '73 Transporter during the last
year of Ford's administration, making me only 25 or so. Dad traded the bus
in on a spanking-new '77 Rabbit just before my little brother was born. He
tells me he almost immediately had the factory cloth upholstery replaced
with heavy-duty black German vinyl in an effort to "kid-proof" the inside. I
still remember riding around in that car, no a/c, in the summertime here in
Oklahoma. After that came an '81 Vanagon (sometime in '83, as I recall). It
got a bad load of gas at some point, and dad never could get it to run right
after that, and I recall him working on it every weekend for some time. He
traded it off for an Astro(!) in '85 or '86, and that was the last VW he
owned until last year. I didn't catch the bug until March of 2000, when I
picked up an immaculate '87 Fox  for $1700. I drove that for a few months
and ended up selling it to my dad for my younger sister to drive, and also
because I fell in love with a certain tornado red Scirocco 16V (now my
up-and-coming autocrosser). Since then there's also been a '70 Westy that
never ran while I had it, a brand-new 2001 Jetta GLS VR6 (wife's, go
figure), and my newest addition, the '81 Vanagon. So that makes, what, five
VWs in less than two years? And I still have three of them! I guess I've
passed the point of no return... and there's no point in looking back! I do
look forward to lots of adventures in the Vanagon, though...

JJ

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