Little Miss Sunshine, Old VDubs and the VW's in my life

My first ride in a Volkswagen (and my introduction to living with a Volkswagen in my Family) happened in 1958, while on a trip from Morro Bay to San Diego.

We had been driving down old PCH Highway 1 in a 1948 Willies Overland and had broken down in Santa Monica. My father had called his brother (Rex) up to borrow a vehicle (Rex lived in Whittier)

Rex brought us his 1956 Bug (and after we visited with him and we ate lunch) we started off on what was to be, our first Volkswagen adventure.

After learning the basics about the idiosyncrasies of the bug (how to turn the heater on and where to put the gas)we proceeded to try and find our way back to 101 to continue our trip.

We had gone no more than 5 miles and had stopped at a Dairy Queen to get an Cone, and had just pulled back out on to the street (in the right hand lane of the 2 lanes headed east) and were stopped at the corner reading a map. Traffic was virtually non existent back then, but there was an Arden Milk Tanker (a Dual Tank Tanker)slowly approaching us from behind in the left lane headed east.

The tanker was going to turn right and we were thinking there isn't enough room for him to clear us and make the turn, and as it turned out there wasn't.

As the tanker completed its turn the right rear wheel of the back tank rode up and over the left front fender, tire, and hood of the tiny Bug. Luckily the back Tank of the Tanker was empty.

Livid and pumped full of adrenalin, my Dad, jumped out grabbed the lip of the smashed down fender and yanked it back up off the tire and out of the way, so we could drive again, and He proceeded to chase after the Tanker, and we finally caught up and got the driver to pull over and take responsibility for the accident.

Owning an early VW was always interesting, most times an Adventure, and always a learning experience, because the Early VW's always required constant maintenance if you drove a lot. We took great joy in keeping them running right, and learned how to adjust the valves and set the gap on the points with a piece of matchbook cover.

Our small tool kit was kept in a small old army surplus canvas bag and had some well worn and polished wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers, and soon had a points file, .006 valve lash gage, and a 13mm box end wrench to adjust the valves.

I will be telling a few stories on some of the Auction pages, about some of the adventures we shared as Owners of many different Volkswagen Bugs, Volkswagen Pickups (a single cab 1960) and many, many early split window Volkswagen Camper Vans, and Microbus's

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