As usual, great reading and insight from Unca Joel.

Harold
___
Harold & Faye Teer
1991 Westy (Vangaux)
Harrisonburg, VA

On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 9:46 AM, joel walker <uncajoel@bellsouth.net> wrote:

> it was a dark and stormy night ... the winds of Change howled
> as they tried incessantly to find a way into the hearts and minds of
> volkswagen bus owners throughout the land.
>
> and the land itself was dark. there were shadows upon the land
> and its peoples ... lingering, hovering shadows, creating
> FEAR (Fright, Ecchymosis, Anxiety, Rage) in all that hove to
> the Olde Wayes, and even in those that did not.
>
> and those shadows were called Dealers. and, lo, they were vile
> and unscrupulous creatures, bent upon  the destruction of wallets
> and wills whenever someone foolhardy enough to venture near their
> snares was entrapped. and like the spiders, spinning their webs
> and trapping their victims by sticky paperwork covered with
> legal phrases of no escape, they sucked the vital life forces
> from anyone foolish enough to leave their vehicles for 'service'.
>
> and the times were sad. and sadder still was the plight of the
> people ... for no one heard their cries and lamentations, though
> loud and constant they were.
>
> and a voice cried out in the wilderness ...
> "can anybody help me fix my 84 vanagon??"
>
> and another voice answered across the internet, saying
> "ya know, that same thing happened to me on my 80 vanagon ...
> here's what you do: ...".
>
> and, lo, a list was born!!! and a small ray of sunshine
> and sparkling light pierced the gloomy clouds, and shone upon
> a small piece of firmament, and caused thereupon a flower to
> grow and send out tendrils, seeking more and more voices,
> offering succor and solace to the downtrodded and oppressed.
>
> and the great volkswagen gods looked down from their celestial
> junkyard, and smirked, and said amongst themselves,
> "this ought to be good!". and thus ended the third
> month.
>
>
> well ... that's how i remember it anyway. :) i had a job that
> didn't require any real work of me, just sitting around doing
> nothng like a lot of other state government workers. so i had
> time to kill every day, and the fools, the mad stupid fools,
> had left me with a pc connected to the .net whatever-it-was
> thingie. and i found rec.autos.vw.
> and noticed a message asking for help on a problem with an
> 84 vanagon. first time i'd seen another vanagon mentioned
> among the golfs, rabbits, beetles, karmann ghias, and so on.
> so i replied. the asker was gerry skerbitz, and my answer
> seemed to help him. so we started emailing back and forth.
> and it was decided that a mailing list would be better, since
> we wouldn't have to wade through all that mess with the golfs,
> rabbits, beetles, etc.
> and since i had no access to any servers (the folks with little
> to actually do weren't trusted with such things), and he did
> and he seemed enthusiastic to find more folks ourselves, with
> vanagons, he asked his boss, and got permission (he was a state
> worker, too, and apparently didn't have an awful lot to do. but
> he did have access to the servers!), and set up the mailing
> list. and here we are:
>
> one guy, standing at the back of his van, hunched over his engine,
> tools in hand ...
> with eighthundred-some people with beer bottles, standing around,
> telling him what to do.
> (courtesy of G. Jannini) :)
>
> and what a long strange journey it has been ...
> in Foreman's basement. :)
>
> unca joel
>