Classic Christmas

I've always liked the old VW Beetles. Just about everybody likes them. They are kind of cartoon-like. Even the two generations of kids behind me know what they are and like them. The "Herbie" movie keeps getting updated as in Lindsey Lohan a few years back. I've been wanting one for a long time. It seems to me to be the perfect car for a retired guy like me to have to just play around with and maybe take to the drive in diner like sonic or tastee freeze. Not as a daily driver. Just an extra car. Fun to drive. Easy to maintain. Inexpensive, yet eye-catching. I already have a hobby car. A little British Triumph, but it is a work in progress. In the last few years I have really been considering a "bug".

A couple months ago I saw a VW for sale at the curb in the little town near me. I passed it every day. Of course I took note. But it wasn't really the kind I wanted. There is a classic "look" that fades away after about 1967. The look of the old "faired in" headlights. They looked like Porsche headlights. "Herbie the lovebug" of course has this look. I always figured I didn't want the big seats, the newer bumpers, newer headlights. I wanted a Herbie. So I ignored this bug for sale because it lacked the classic look. The car went away and reappeared after a few weeks on the other side of the road with the same for sale sign and a lowered price. So I stopped and looked at it and took down the guy's number. We used to have to find pencil and paper to write the guys number. Of course now I just typed it into my cell phone. The car looked OK to me. The style wasn't exactly right, but it was a stock 1970 VW and just might suit me if it runs. My wife was out of town so there was no voice of reason to prevent an impulse buy. I pulled up VW's on the computer and they were going for a lot more than they were the last time I had checked. It turned out the guy had this car in his family for 30 years. We drove it around the block and I bought it. I told my wife it could be my Christmas and birthday present from her for the next couple years.

With historic tags and no Maryland inspection needed, I started driving this goofy poorly repainted metallic blue bug every day. I would just go to Federalsburg. Only five miles away. And get a hamburger. I had to open the door to order at the McDonalds drive in because the driver's window wouldn't roll down. Each day I drove it the car worked better. It was literally coming back alive from sitting. I was spending happy hours in my shed with a portable heater and Christmas carols on the radio just cleaning the 42 year old car. Just puttering by myself. It was to me exactly what a retired guy should do. I ordered about $100 worth of little parts it needed. When they came UPS in a cardboard box it was like a Christmas present, and I was a child with toys. This little car has grown on me and now I like it's style fine. It seems to have a personality.

I'm not the kind of guy who would "name" his car. But this car has done things like fix itself. And it collects baseball caps in the back seat. Not tools or jackets. Just baseball caps. And a wheel came flying off and it was my fault and it could have really damaged the car, but somehow it didn't. And the low beams didn't work. So I put in brand new sealed bulbs. They still would not work. Then they just started working. I replaced all ten fuses in it's little fuse box. The flashers never worked but I would cycle the switch every day just for the heck of it. One day the flashers started working perfectly and it made me laugh.

My buddy Dempsey found a hundred things wrong with the engine. A seriously long laundry list. So I asked him if it was still OK to drive the car. He just said "yea".

I don't have a name for the car yet. I was thinking "Bluey". The movie car "Herbie" had a nickname "ocho" which means eight in Spanish. Because Herbie's racing number "53" added up to eight. Some of my VW parts were made in Mexico where the Beetles got manufactured after Germany stopped making them in the seventies. The box would say on it Heche en Mexico. So I was thinking of the name "Hecho". Pronounced H.O. like the cute little model trains.

So if you had any doubts as to whether LloydLou has time on his hands, well....

See you this Spring at the Dairy Queen.

LLITTY :::::+:::::