My 1966 Bug
This week at MATS, I saw a driver come up to one of our executives and start railing on about how he liked his
FLA , and he did not like these new trucks. There was an expletive or two mixed in. Our executive was talking with an executive from another company. They looked a little bit surprised at the encounter. I work a lot of small shows. It was old hat to me. The driver and I ended up having a nice conversation. The Cascadia Evolution is decidedly different than his old FLA. We agreed.
That conversation made me think of my old Bug. It was a great car. The starter did not work. So, I would push start it. Yes, I could even push start it in reverse. I put a piece of plywood under the battery so that the battery would not fall through the floor, under the back seat. My defroster was an ice scraper, that I carried with me to remove ice from the inside of the windshield as I was driving down the road. I had a job about 50 miles away from home. About 30 miles into the commute the car would lose compression. On the way to work, I would stop and buy a doughnut and a cup of coffee to go and the car would be fine. On the way home, one beer at a local tavern and the car was rested enough to make it the rest of the way home.
Every once in a while I see an old 6 volt VW. They always make me smile. I'd like to drive one again. I think 
that when I drive it, at least for a while my dad would be next to me. I could come home and hug my mom. My brother would still be alive. When I had that old bug they were all here for me. Those afternoons when my fellow VW fans and I could share a case of Old Style beer and swap out an engine, are wonderful memories. Almost 40 years later I can still remember those afternoons. They were great. My new Buick can not compete with the memories of that 66 VW.
Those old trucks carry memories with them too. Some of these antique trucks have been passed down for generations. They are great. For a little bit they make memories come alive. Seeing them at the shows and visiting with their owners is a terrific thing. What makes them great now, isn't the engineering. It is the memories
that they represent.
We get children into our trucks at truck shows and that's fun. To me, it is not as rewarding as showing off the inside of the Evolution to old retired drivers. Their eyes just light up just like the children's. I show them the new technology and they incredibly impressed. They probably look at my generation and the one behind me and wonder why we hang onto the past. Maybe, I wish that they were my dad or grandpa. That just once, I could take them for a ride in my EVO.