The "new generation"

[Guest]

It just dawned on me this current crop of kids will never know or realize that "a Volkswagen" is not only transportation but a unit of measure.

 

[AN5Sprite]

Here's a lost experience:

Middle-school boy wants to take girl to school dance or on a date, but first he has to call girl's home and her father answers the phone... (and then the entire family can't help but hear the rest of the awkward conversation) Today they just text each other and inform the parents of their transportation requirements.

 

[SaxMan]

I had our bandleader's son in our band van a few years ago. It was kind of warm, so I told him to roll down the window. He just stared at the door panel trying to find the switch. He had never been in a vehicle that had manual windows!

 

[glemon]

It just dawned on me this current crop of kids will never know or realize that "a Volkswagen" is not only transportation but a unit of measure.

Sorry, I am not young by any means, learned to drive on a "bug" as did about half my generation I think, but I don't know what you mean. Maybe I am reading it too literally.

 

[PAUL161]

I had a superbug for about 5 years and loved it! Only one thing that always amazed me was the heater/defroster! It was the only vehicle I ever owned that I had to keep an ice scraper inside the car for the inside of the windshield! :highly_amused: PJ

 

[Bayless]

Just one winter teaches this to all VW owners. Speaking of manual windows. My little dog loved to ride in the car. In both the Explorer and Olds, he learned to step on the window button on the arm rest to open it and hang his head out. One time I took him in the VW. He stomped on that arm rest several times with no effect. Finally he turned and looked at me with a WTF look and a little whimper or whine.

 

[sail]

"a Volkswagen" is not only transportation but a unit of measure.

There are VW size moguls for skiers and

How many people fit in a beetle for those with no hobby

 

[LarryK]

They will never realize nothing but radio for news or media. Dial party line telephones or cold winters running to the outhouse.

 

[Mickey Richaud]

Cut my teeth on VW's. Built an engine for my first, a '63 sunroof. Then sold it to get a '64 Ghia convertible, for which I built another engine.

Found this pic of Janet and me in the '63 stashed away a while back. This was taken a few months before we got married.

 

[mikephillips]

Drove a 73 Super Bug for awhile in the early 80s. The heater channels were rusted away and in the rain the humidity would condense on the inside roof and rain inside the car. Ended up with holes drilled in the floorboards to let the water out. Not one of my favorites..

 

[DrEntropy]

Never had one of my own but ministered to a number of friends' bugs. Many stories of adventures in the things. Once sniped a bottle of Jim Beam from a friend's dad's liquor cabinet to make a fifty mile journey in a blizzard... used it in the windshield washer, had to see-saw the wipers with strings running from the wiper arms thru the vent windows to inside the cab with the passenger working 'em.
The four of us should be dead due to some of the idiocy...

 

[SaxMan]

As far as VW being a unit of measurement, the most common one I heard was describing a 16" shell from one of the Iowa-class Battleships as "being able to hurl a shell that weighs as much as a Volkswagen for 23 miles".

Or "It punched a hole the size of a VW in the side of the building".

My father owned a 1961 Bug when I was born. I have only the sketchiest memories of it, as it was gone by the time I was 3. It was my favorite car to ride in as I liked to prop myself up on the backseat and look out the windows, something I couldn't do in our 1966 Buick Special, since the Buick had seat belts and my parents were insistent that we used them.

 

[Guest]

As far as VW being a unit of measurement, the most common one I heard was describing a 16" shell from one of the Iowa-class Battleships as "being able to hurl a shell that weighs as much as a Volkswagen for 23 miles".

Or "It punched a hole the size of a VW in the side of the building".

.

Correct, that's one of the more common ones I was talking about. A VW was commonly used a unit of size, weight, speed, horsepower, volume, simplicity and durability in conversation years ago; at least around here around here it was.