As a kid, our family didn't have much money. Much of the time we didn't even have a running car. One summer, my father (who was, ironically, a bus driver) was getting some choice vacation time and wanted to at least be able to take us to beaches and on other modest outings. So he came home with the most decrepit little early '60s VW Bus. I think he found it for sale at a gas station. It was well-worn, rusty and the color of mud, but it ran. We piled about ten people into that little Bus and went all over that summer. I don't think it ever got much over 40 mph, but it always got us there and back. I think it died of exhaustion shortly after, but it left us all with fond memories.

Fast forward about 50 years. I play around a lot with old cars and am constantly monitoring classified ads for vehicles of interest. I spotted a Bus for sale on Craigslist. It was about 100 miles away and listed as a project, but my nostalgia was aroused so I went to see it. The motor was blown and in pieces, stashed in the interior along with the transmission and other parts. It had been sitting outside, on dirt and under a tree, for a year and became a mouse habitat. The owner had placed bags of moth balls inside to thwart the mice. Those, along with a bumper crop of mold and mildew, yielded quite a scent when this tomb was opened. The Bus had all the usual rot, but I spent a lot of time underneath, poking floors and frame rails with an ice pick to make sure the structure wasn't too compromised. I determined it was salvageable, but if this Bus sat here much longer, it was heading for the scrap yard. Then a look through the paperwork sealed the deal for me.

I went with my older sister when she bought her first car, a new '74 VW Bug, from a dealer near where I grew up, about 150 miles from where this Bus sat. Yet, the original sales receipt for the Bus showed it had originally been sold through that same dealership! That was it; kismet. I had to save this Bus from the wrecker. With all the mechanicals re-done, and most of the worst rot addressed, the Bus is back in action. It's still a little crusty around the edges, but I like it that way. Some call it "patina;" I call it "character lines." I have more fun with this vehicle than all my others put together. Old hippies, little kids, dogs — they're all magnetically drawn to the Bus and the stories I hear are always happy ones — sometimes crazy, but always happy. It puts a smile on people's faces. There's nothing better than that.