I have never really been a car guy. The first car that I owned was a 1956 Chevrolet not a Bel-Air, the other one. Two tone white over blue. I bought it from my grandfather for $100 in 1968 or so. Mom insisted I pay grandpa for it. I am pretty sure he would have given it to me. I gave him $100 of my hard earned cash in cash from random jobs.

I loved that car. It had a steering wheel like you see in buses today. It was huge. A friend of mine and I rebuilt the engine. Replaced several of the valves. It was a good experience many kids today have not had. Spending your own money. Fixing something that you can use for yourself, some work that you can be proud of and show off. I was seventeen then. Life was good. I was living on Dad’s dime and gave my cash to grandpa.

When we got married, my wife had purchased a 1969 light blue VW beetle as her first and for many years of our marriage, our only car. I do not have a picture. I wish I did. I loved that car too. In its later years you had to lift your feet up if your went through a puddle. The floor pan was famous for rusting through on those neat old cars. We owned it until about 1985 or so. It is the only car other than the ’56 Chevrolet – not the Bel-Air, the other one – that I ever personally worked on.

This is the wrong color but it brought back memories. And it has been jazzed up more than ours was. A few weeks back I visited California to attend my nephew’s wedding and visit with my sister. Good memories of the trip and this picture of an old VW made it worthwhile.