Go to his house, visit him, tell him you appreciated the years of attention
and then ask him if he was thinking of getting one for himself for his
travels.
Zoltan

----- Original Message -----
From: "B Feddish" <uprightbassghost@HOTMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, March 16, 2012 5:27 AM
Subject: Fun question for Friday

OK, here’s one.  Let me give a little background first.  South Eastern,  PA,
has always had a heavy German population so there is no surprise that have
always been allot of VW’s around here. If cars didn’t rust the roads would
look like CA.  Anyway, up to about 15 years ago, there were 4, count' ‘em 4,
places that specialized in VW’s within a short bike distance from where I
live.   There is a shop down the street that was owned by an AMAZING German
mechanic who owned a small shop next to his house.  The shop is still open
and run by his son. The dad has since retired. Before he retired they worked
together for a little while.  To show the difference between the son and
father, my wife brought here ‘92 Jetta there about 12 years ago with a
bumper piece that was falling off and the son said he’ have to order a $100
part to fix it and the dad walked out and said “why don’t you drill a hole
here and stick a 39 cent bolt through it?”. There is still one old timer
that can still work on my van when I occasionally bring it there but it is
way $$$$.  They basically charge by the half day or full day.

Last summer I was driving by the house/shop in the early morning.  The dad
was out there getting the newspaper.  He glanced up and saw my Vanagon then,
realizing what vehicle he had just caught a glimpse of, he turned and looked
at it again for a few seconds and then turned to go back in the house.

Here’s the question.  What was going through his head when he saw my van? I’d
like to think it was some underlying passion for old VW’s that he missed but
I fear his thoughts may have been “Glad I don’t have to work on that piece
of crap  anymore.”

Thoughts?

Bryan