Last evening as I entered mainstreet of The Dalles, Or...an old city with a
'historic district' downtown...4 stoplights along about a mile of brick
storefronts...I happened to coincide with a nice looking Bay window.  3rd St
is one way, so we were driving alongside for most of it...Blue lower, muted
yellow upper, spare tire cover on the front, those louvered windows in the
door...curtains hanging.  It had one of those extractor exhausts we all had
back in the day.  Couple of youngsters driving it....spitting and popping,
slipping the clutch to get going at the stoplights...They seemed to not care
much about that....just blissfully cruising alone in their Bus.....Going pas
the JC Penny store and the local jeweler/watch repair shop...a flash from
the past....

  I was struck by how much progress had been made between the bay window and
the vanagon.   Carbs as opposed to injection...sort of quiet as opposed to
tinny and noisy sounding...  With the further modifications and
modernization done to my own personal vanagon...Jetta gas inline motor and
good exhaust system mainly...the difference is fairly substantial.

  But they were enjoying themselves and so was I, so not really so different
after all.  They coulda been me, 25yrs ago.
  I don't miss having to take an aircooled motor out all the time to fix it,
but then if you weren't too picky, if you simply turned up your tape deck or
cassette a little louder and smoked another fattie, and you didn't notice
when it was not running properly....I bet those young folks were...probably
listening to an MP3 though, as they ignored and enjoyed....

  Don Hanson