I
love Bugs. Beetles. V-Dubs. My dad had a 1967 green VW Bug when I was
growing up and I remember going to all our doctor’s appointments and
sports practices in the little back seat of that car. It had that
waffle pattern on the vinyl seats so on hot days with short shorts you
we would get the impressions all up our thighs. And it was super hot to
the touch when we got in. My dad would tell us it had 2-40 air
conditioning whenever we would whine about the heat: two windows down
at 40 mph. We weren’t amused.
But my very first car was a 1979
Super Beetle Convertible Triple White. God it was beautiful. It was so
cute and I thought I was hot stuff with my first foray into aftermarket
parts and accessories. I bought a Sony removable-face CASSETTE player.
People: Cassettes. AM. FM. That’s all we had. I drove (mostly I
stalled) that little car around the neighborhood and when I decided to
go to college in Ohio, the little ‘Vert had to go. So sad. I wish I
still had that little car. Especially since I moved back from the
frigid Midwest to live in sunny SoCal again.
I’ve had a soft spot for those little rear-engine cars
all my life. Besides hating that my dad’s didn’t have A/C when I was
little, I’ve really come to enjoy them. They are as much a part of
Americana as apple pie and The Beatles. It seems as though I can never
really get away from them either. Once I was out of college I was given
the opportunity to work on the magazine VWTrends, which is now defunct.
RIP dear magazine. However, they failed to get rid of our staff pages on the web from circa 2003-ish. Oh yeah. I’m rocking that V-Dub!
Actually what’s really neat about that photo is that it was one of the
last VWs from the Mexico factory, before they closed it down. Some guy
had bought it and brought it up from Mexico to San Diego and we drove
down there to get a photo of it. It was bizarre because it was the same
old Bug, yet it was brand new, fresh off the line. While working at the
magazine I got to write my very first published article. Nuts huh? It’s like we're using the Internet as a time machine. Neato!
I am now sufficiently nostalgic. Thank you ,readers. Until next story time, it’s Bree, signing off! Vrooom!
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Breanne Boyle
AskPatty.com Contributing Editor
1979 vw bug
