Brother, Can You Spare an Engine
After suffering through a couple of breakdowns while traveling with their Volkswagen van, our friends in Texas began carrying a spare engine around in the back of their vehicle. I’m not kidding. It’s one of my fondest memories of our life back in the 1970’s, this family with not only a spare tire but a spare engine everywhere they went. Back in the day, we had a Volkswagen van too — in fact, at one point we had two at the same time. It made it possible for us to continue to ferry our family around with one van while the other was in the shop, which happened frequently. Eventually, financial practicality overcame our idealism and we became Volkswagen van-less. What is it with the magic those old Volkswagen vans hold for me?! I wax philosophically about our trips in them. I continue to love them and I get nostalgic when I see one. If Volkswagen still made them, I might very well own one now.
Mary, My brother in law is in a volkswagon club. They restore old volkswagons mostly van. Every summer they all go to my sister and brother in laws beach for a weekend campout. I’ve been there when this occurs. It’s really something to see all these vans lined up beside each other all shiny and spiffy looking. Dan and Sue still have a vanagon(?) the one with the pop up top. I also have a very strrong picture in my head of you and your little bug taking my little David for a ride and how his little head was an exact match of the curve of the bug and his white hair matched the car. Nice memory.