again!?? :)  ok, i'm Unca Joel Walker, often mistaken for Kris Kringle,
that fatass fellow in the red suit, running around Everytown near
Christmas each year. i live down south, where the cotton blooms and
blows, and the honeysuckle smells so sweet in summer that you just want
to jump up and dance ... probably cause them fireants are crawling up
your pants leg!!!! the region is South, the state is Alabama, the town
is Tuscaloosa ... or as i like to refer to it: Tookalooka, Amabala, home
of the largest mental institution in the state, and the largest
university in the state. you figure which is which. :)

why "Unca Joel"?? oh,i don't know. my nieces and nephews started calling
me that years and years ago, and i liked it better than their other
nickname: Stinky. :) then they shortened it to just UJ (pronounced as
one word: Udge). i prefer Unca Joel.

i have had a few buses: started out with a brand new 1971 blue/white
bus, right after i got out of the army. i'd seen some Aussies riding
around in a 69 bus and actually got to liking it (i'd planned on getting
a split-window in 68, but vw changed the looks!!). so i got the 71.
loved it. years later, got a used 73 ... my first introduction to
Dreaded Previous Owners. traded it for a new 1980 Vanagon ... and have
been stuck on Vanagons ever since. :) got an 86 with airconditioning ...
my first a/c car ... in 86, then my present 88 bus (Gus-Gus the Bus-Bus)
a while later. last year, i got a 1987 camper (Herman the German Hermit
Crab). somewhere in all those years were a 1968 Double-cab pickup (now
owned by Dave Easterwood, he-of-too-many-buses), and a 1991 automatic GL
model with all the power stuff (still wish i had that one). lots of
other cars of other brands ... Porsche, Mercedes, Honda. lots of
beetles, and a squareback. first beetle i ever drove had the semiphore
turn-signals. and no gas gauge. and a manual choke. that was a loooong
time ago (it was almost new).

anyway, that's who i am/was/will be ... for all you new folks on the
list. :)

Unca Joel