Salad Days Part 1

My 67 VW Beetle

It was the summer of 1984, and I was travelling with my crazy uncle Frank, working construction with the world reknowned ZVI Contractors Rolling Thunder Revue. We were currently remodelling a Young Women's Clothing Store and staying in Bethesda Maryland, south of DC. Frank was the Job Super and I was his favorite'Niece', as he so fondly referred to me, so we di have a bit of 'flexibility', shall we say, about how much work we were expected to asccomplish on any given day. Frequently, after hours, or just as frequently during work hours, we were wont to take the company van and road trip down the shores of the Delaware Bay and check out the boat marinas, looking for a Vintage 1955 Criscraft 40" with teakwood deck and twin engines, or, you know, something like that we couldn't afford .

On this particularly fine afternoon (made even finer by the fact that everyone else was hard at work, we were not, and we had ice-cold swill in the styrofoam cooler between the seats), we happened to pass a Catholic Church in Falls Church Va. Out in the front parking lot, was a 'MINT' 1967 Volkswagon Beetle for sale. The owner of said buggy was Father Augustine O'Reilly, of the church, who I think wanted $300 for it. We 'jewed' him down, so to speak, to a most reasonable 250 bucks. The facts that it was mostly rusted out and ,technically, didn't run, were academic in our decision to buy. The way Frank figured it, if you couldn't trust a Father Augustine O'Reilly, who could you trust (after all, he only took it to work once a week) . And, as usual, Frank was right.

So, we dragged it back to the job-site, and the VW, became our after hours project. As the ZVI crew used to say about their work, "a little putty, a little paint, make 'er look like what she ain't"(actually they used to also say that about most of their dates, too) . And they were right. With a little free sheet metal from the Tin-knockers and a few cans of roof pitch, the rusted out bottom was a s good as it was in the 'Summer of Love'. After another $50 or so worth of tech screws, Black Label and duct tape, we had ourselves a fine example of German engineering. It was most enjoable to drive, easy peasy on gas, and a bonafide' CHICK-MO-BILE!

Thanks Frank. To think I could have been working.