Day Forty Five - Cars, Pt.1

This photo is of my friend Darin and I checking out some classic cars at Back to the Fifties. I guess that you would say that Darin is the one really checking them out in this photo. He's a stickler for details. Anyways, it has given me the idea to write about all the cars that I have had. I know, that is way I am telling you this; as a warning. Maybe you aren't interested in cars, that's ok, I'll still like you.

Car number #1: 1969 VW Squareback

This car was my first, and will perhaps be my last. My Grandmother bought her (yes, my Grandmother named the car DOLLY, so it is a female for that reason) brand new on July 25. 1969. I believe that she traded in a little blue VW bug as a downpayment. While Dolly was getting a check-up, shortly after she was bought, some thugs stole her off the VW lot. She was found a few miles away, where the same thugs had dislodged the transmission by attempting to ride over a concrete parking stop. The dealer tried to get my Grandmother to take another car, but she still wanted Dolly. She drove Dolly for over 12 years, always bragging that Dolly still smelled like a new car, and would start right up in the coldest of winter days.


My Grandmother replaced Dolly with a 1984 Subaru in 1984, which allowed me to have my first car. I was in high school and loved to drive a car that I was always around as a child. I must admit that I knew very little about working on cars at that point, and most likely didn't take as much care with her as I should have. In fact, I remember using Dolly to push my friend William's (see earlier post) Hearse up a big hill because it has stalled out. That alone probably put the nail in the coffin to Doll's engine troubles.

Early in my Blog there is a picture of me and Dolly in NYC. Check under the title "Ouch, again!" in April. Here is a more recent photo, before I added the ragtop.


I'll add more to this later! Bye.


Update: My uncle wrote to me to clarify some details: "Actually, she 'gave' me that VW (a blue 1960 bug) and I made a pretty good size down payment on Dolly. I had that bug through college and for many years after (I and some friends rebuilt it around 1970). I sold it with 312K.

My recollection of Dolly being stolen was that they never offered another car and
my mother actually had to fight Heischmann (the Dealer) to have them pay to fix it. They claimed they had no responsibility in it being stolen."

Thanks John!


Here is an 8x10 photo that I took of Carolyn and I, with Dolly, around our wedding day.