More Cars, Automobiles and Pieces of Junk

The car that followed these first explorations into the world of automobiles was rather unique at the time. It was a pale green 1961 VW "Bug". Used it costs me 900 dollars, the year was 1964. Why did I pick this one? Well the rebel in me demanded something different and the stories at the time pointed out it's nearly ledgendary reliability which is something that was sorely missing in my last two vehicles. It had low mileage as I recall and a certain charm. My friends on base ridiculed me for this choice but my girlfriends seemed to like it. My parents, well they were not that enthused especially since I had borrowed the money from my mother for the purchase. She expected more. It was less.

I particularly liked the 20-25 mpg fuel mileage it got and the handling which was light and different than the front engine cars I had driven til then. I genuinely LIKED the car, small, easy to park and cheap on gas it allowed me to wander into the Sierra foothills in search of trout spots along the fire trails that line the foothills and mountains near Beale. Im kept a light trout spinning rig and tackle bix in the car so that I was ready to go on friday night after work. I spent many weekends wandering the outback of the mountains and fishing lakes and streams I knew not the name of. Such was life at the time. It had the famous auxilary tank, really just a sump in the main one that allowed a person an extra 20-25 miles after you ran out of gas as it had no actual gas guage. Top speed was about 70 mph and would lug along at 3 or 4 mph thru the muddy fire roads that I found myself in almost every week, seldom getting stuck. The engine being over the driving wheels really made it a wonder in bad weather.