Beetled…again!

This is a love story, and like all love stories, it has a beginning.  It most likely began in 1950, round about the time when the poor little immigrant boy found himself sitting on the running board of a late 1930’s sedan.  It might have been a Dodge.

In the years that followed that first love, many cars have come and gone from my life.  First the toys, of course, a collection of matchbox cars, trucks and hot rods.  And at age 16 my first real car, a 1950 Oldsmobile Rocket 88.  The first official American Muscle Car!

Before we were old enough to drive my brother and I would play a game when riding in the car with my parents. Each of us faces hanging out of the back window would try to guess the make, model and year of the cars coming toward us.

The first to shout it out wins!  It was easier than you think, because, first, most cars on the road at that time were made in the United States and the brands were distinctly different from one another.  Also, every new model of the year for all the cars was radically different.  So much so that we would wait with anticipation to see what the new model year would look like.

Those were exciting days alright.

Many of us believe that the 50’s and 60’s were the Golden Years for American Iron that built the great city of Detroit.  The Motor city as it was known.  No doubt the automobile was also a major factor in creating the Middle Class in America which is still, though all but disappearing, the one great hope of a society of honest work, equality and equal opportunity.

Sadly, the gap between the richest among us and the rest of us is growing too rapidly to sustain what once was America.  There is no doubt that our love of guns and violence, as well as systemic racism and poverty, are results of this inequality.  And here is where the unlikely hero of the American Middle-Class story enters my love story.  The Beetle.

The Beetle was “conceived” in 1934 with the first one “delivered” in Germany in 1938.  Then the war and all production stopped.  The Europeans got their first Beetles in 1947 as the land of my birth bounced back from the devastation of WWII.  But the first Beetle came to the United States a year before I arrived here. 1949.  Delivered to Ben Pon Sr., a Dutch businessman, and the world’s first official Volkswagen Importer.

Actually, not one, but two Beetles arrived and were sold in 1949.  From that humble beginning, the Beetles took off like a rocket selling so fast that in 1955 a U.S. sales arm was established in Englewood Cliffs, N.J.

By the 60’s Beetles were selling by the hundreds of thousands and were for thousands of Americans the car they first learned to drive. Basic, affordable, durable and fun, the Beetles just kept coming.  College kids, people on a budget, just about anyone could afford a Beetle.  By 1970 VW hit its peak with sales topping 570,000 Beetles sold!

I was happily one of those owners when I bought my first Beetle.  It was a 1962 light green bug.  It was used, but with very low mileage, like new.  It had been traded in for a sport’s car by Dr. Andrews of Kalamazoo, Michigan. I fell in love instantly.  Eventually, I became somewhat of a VW mechanic, no expert of course, but learned my way around the air-cooled engine phenomenon.

And now, 55 years later I’m in love again!  As I drive around Cedarburg virtually everyone who sees my Beetle wants to tell me how their father, mother, uncle or aunt also had a Beetle.  They were, like their namesakes “everywhere.”

On February 29, 2017, my Beetle arrives in Cedarburg from Silver Creek Classics in Maple Grove, Minnesota.  If you like cars, especially classics, check out their website.  The owner, Bob Gruys is really nice, knowledgeable and honest!  We had the best experience there!  Just Google Silver Creek Classics and take a look.  Looks like there are three Beetles available at Silver Creek right now!

Just Janis, Beetled again.