My Dad's Cooler Than Yours

I’d like to start by saving my Dad is a dreamer. He’s the type that if he can dream it, he can do it. I have been privy to a lot of dreams over the years. A lot of them never happened. But a lot of them did. My Dad flew. My dad dreamed of flying, and I dreamed of flying too. I fly now. My parents owned Volkswagens when I was very young. The last one went when I was in middle school. My sister crashed it and it was never the same. It was relegated to the yard of lost dreams. Eventually I took it apart and learned enough about cars to swap engines twice after high school (both times successfully).

But I was in my 30’s before I had myself a regular driving VW. I found a THING, the VW type 181. It’s a great little 4 door convertible that lets you take off doors and fold down windshields like they did in the war. For a kid that grew up with cars that were ‘that German staff car’ the 181 is the ultimate fun machine. It lets you think REALLY outside the box. Well within a month of me getting mine, my Dad got his. He drove his home almost twice as far as I did in secret and then let the cat out of the bag. I was thrilled to no end. I was being like Dad and Dad was being like me. How could it get any better? Well that was some 4 years ago. I still am trying to be like Dad, and now Dad’s being like Papa (his dad) was. When I was 17-18, Papa gave me his ’68 Chevy Nova. Last week, with Rebecca at 15, he passed the torch. He gave her is orange ’73 VW Thing. I hope someday I’m able to do something similar for my grandchild. The torch is being passed. Rebecca went with me to get my THING and she had a fair amount of input on ‘Friday’ our Vanagon. We ride and talk in the VW’s a fair bit. They’re a part of who we are. They’re in our blood and now My father’s VW is my daughter’s.

And right now, that’s why my Dad is cooler than yours.