As I’ve mentioned before, recent events have given me cause to dive into the vaults of old family photos. This one was a bit of a surprise for me, perhaps I’ve always been destined to own a blue 1963 Volkswagen.
These are from my Dad’s Kodachrome slides of our 1971 trip to Nova Scotia, Canada. To recap, my two adventurous aunts were living in Sheet Harbour, NS and our family took the train out to Halifax for a visit. Because we brought no vehicle of our own the four of us were shuttled around in my aunts’ little cars.
And here I am with them. There’s the blue beetle of course, the red car was an Isuzu Bellett, an extremely rare import in Canada. I remember this scene well, I was washing the Bellett (or what part that I could reach, anyway) and it looked so nice and shiny when the paint was wet but it dried dull. I kept wetting the car again and again, trying to keep it shiny.
At this age I was obsessed with Volkswagens. Even before I could talk I would point excitedly at them.
My little blue VW dinky toy got lots of play time as well. After bedtime my parents would know that I’d fallen asleep when my hand relaxed and the toy beetle would slide out and hit the floor.
Here I am with the two cars again. This is definitely taken at the Halifax Citadel with downtown in the background. This was the surprising photo for me, the VW has the 1959-1963 T-handle decklid with small license light housing. Just like my 1963 VW should have (but doesn’t).
I would sometimes ride around in this car jammed into the luggage compartment behind the rear seat. Memory is a funny thing, I’m not sure if I actually remember it or I just think I do because I’ve been told that.
After some searching I was able to place this shot. The VW is on East River Road in front of Ruth Falls Hydro Station. This scene is exactly the same in 2019 as it was in 1971, maybe in two years I should trailer my VW out to Nova Scotia and recreate the photo 50 years later.
This is my sister and I with our aunt Susanne, who owned the VW and was 31 years old at the time. We were very close to her, although our grandparent experience was not ideal growing up, we did make up for that by having several special aunts and uncles.
I’m not sure what happened to that VW, there is a story that my Aunt got hit from behind, and found herself in the rear compartment because the seat back collapsed. At any rate in the 70’s she had a VW Rabbit. It must have been a very early model because it was Rallye Green and did not have fuel injection. The last time I saw that car was when I visited my uncle Peter in Calgary during 1989; he had been driving his sister’s old Rabbit and it had recently expired.
Sadly my aunt did not outlive her last VW by very long, she died of cancer in 1990. I’m older now than she was then, which feels awfully strange.
What doesn’t feel strange is being behind the wheel of my VW. I finally graduated from the rear storage compartment to the drivers seat in 2006. I’ve got 40-ish horsepower to propel me and memories of dear aunts to bring along.
My daughter is 16, and recently got her learners permit. She has expressed interest in learning how to drive standard, so I think we can continue the tradition of adventurous young ladies driving blue beetles in our family.
I remember a family from my childhood that had four daughters. Their father taught all of them to drive in a early fifties GMC pickup truck, in the theory that if they could drive that they would be able to drive nearly anything. I went through a long period (15+ years) where every car I owned had a manual transmission. I could probably still drive one if I had to but have no real desire to find out; driving in stop and go traffic cured me from the “three pedal fever”.
I started letting my youngest brother drive around our neighborhood when he was 12. It was 2008 or so and was in my ‘64 VW Bus. I told him that if he learned to drive it and our dad’s worn out ‘70 Ford F-100 with with heavy and too highly mounted clutch pedal and sloppy steering, there’s nothing he couldn’t drive.
He’s since told me I was right. 😂
Oh and one of his friends got a 5-speed Jetta when she turned 16 and my brother, a year younger with only a learners permit, taught her how to drive her own car
Great stories!
I too remember “washing” the family car when I was a little kid and wetting the car again and again to keep it shiny. No amount of explanation from Dad would suffice… I just had to keep that car shiny.
Re-creating the Ruth Falls shot with your Beetle would certainly be easier than re-creating the Citadel shot with an Isuzu Bellett.
I hope you keep us updated on your daughter’s driving experience! One of my kids (still abt. 5 years away from driving) has already asked me to teach her how to drive a manual transmission, which is a bit challenging because I don’t own one. The only manual transmission in the family is their grandparents’ Jeep Wrangler, so hopefully they’ll still have it in a few years.
Great story.
I may not be an expert on this, but in my mind a teenager with a ’63 Beetle in the high school parking would have quite a status symbol. I mean, everyone knows [kind of] what it is, but who else has one.
And how many high school students (male or female) would know how to drive it.
I’m teach high school students (mostly seniors) and I can verify very few know how to drive a stick. It’s a generation gap thing… my dad always had a car with a manual transmission as they were cheaper to buy and more economical to run. Of course this was during the 60s through 80s. I still drive a stick and this never fails to be a conversation starter with the relatively few gear head boys in my classes.
That’s largely due to their parents never owning them. I graduated high school in 2003 and I had friends who had never had a manual car in their family in their memory.
I hate how that’s used by older people as an example of how lazy my generation is when it was the older generations who stopped buying manuals so much.
What a great story. I have not thought about Dinky toys in a long, long time – I sure played with them a lot when I was a kid. I may have had that VW too, or maybe mine was a Corgi – I no longer recall.
I too remember being mystified why some cars would not shine unless they were wet.
Could you be the source of every non-Japanese photo online of an Isuzu Bellett? I see it has the Japanese-style placement of the rear view mirror!
There is a small collection of VW toys on a top shelf in my den.
And one PT Cruiser for obvious reasons.
The origami bird was made by my son Will many years ago.
Did you say “trailer my VW to Novia Scotia”? Why not drive it?
In the summer of 1973 I drove my ’63 Beetle from Baltimore to Maine, where I met my family who was vacationing at Bar Harbor. Climbed Mt. Katahdin, among other things.
Then I drove it through the heart of Maine on what in part was a private logging road, and up into Quebec. Stayed in Quebec City for a few fun days; met some kids doing theater there. Drove west across the Trans Canadian highway to Sault St. Marie, where I crossed the border back into the US. I had every worldly possession in and on top of the the Beetle. The Border Patrol made (long haired) me pull over to an inspection station, and completely unpack everything in my VW, and lay it out on the pavement for them to inspect. Welcome back to the US! 🙂
The drive back to Iowa via the upper peninsula was beautiful.
Great stories and photos!
I have fairly recently taught my two older boys standard and it went quite well. They prefer the clutch on the Toyota Tercel over the Acura TSX (so do I actually). The VW should be decent one for learning on.
On T-handle hood – I wonder if she had a Canadian Standard Beetle. They used some of the “older” features longer. I had a ’62 Canadian Standard.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-european/my-ex-curbside-classic-1962-volkswagen-beetle-canadian-standard-another-canadian-market-oddball/
We had family friends in the early sixties who had a Beetle and a ‘54-ish Plymouth wagon. The story was that when they moved to California from Ohio, one parent and the kids came in the Beetle, and the other parent drove the Plymouth crammed with household belongings. Oddly, I remember their Plymouth better than the VW. In general, though Beetles were everywhere when I was growing up, I don’t remember having much interest in them. However, our daughter became obsessed with them, and between the two of us, we’ve kept almost all the toy Beetles, old and new style, she acquired over the years, perhaps 15, from 1/87th to about 1/10 scale. Now, she owns our old New Beetle … stick shift of course. Come to think of it, she too loved washing it when it was new.
Some cars are generic and blend in and provide basic transportation until they wear out. VWs have soul, which is why, I think, so many of us associate them with the people we have known who have owned them. It’s really cool to see the inter-generational shots of Doug D and family with the classic Bug. From Aunt Susanne to Daughter D, it’s clear these cars have played a big part in the coming of ages for this family.
Classic VWs call to me like no other brand of car. I’ve joked with my wife that they are like stray dogs at the pound and that I want to adopt and save them all.
I’ve been spending some summer free time on rehabilitating this ’81 Vanagon. It’s the same age that I am, so I feel a kinship with it. I wouldn’t put the effort in for any other vehicle, but this is one that reminds me of great friends and experiences I had in the past, and I am looking forward to making some great experiences in the future too.
Also learned to drive a 1966 Beetle, took it to university, then passed it along to my 2 younger sisters in sequence. They have modern vehicles now, but there’s a 5 speed Mazda Miata in the motor pool. Taught my now 26 year old daughter to drive stick when she was getting her license. She was initially not too thrilled about that, but had no choice, as both my and her mother’s car are stick shift. Turned out to be a good father daughter experience, and she recently bought herself a 2014 VW Jetta 5 speed. Ordered and gave her some “Millennial anti-theft device” decals with the shift pattern.
I learned how to drive a manual on my 1962 VW Beetle. We started out on a hill, facing upwards, so I learned the friction point first, the rest was easy.
My eldest has driven a manual (first an Escort, then a Civic, now a WRX) for about ten years now. He won’t admit to disliking multiple shifts when in heavy bumper to bumper traffic, but when I drive his car, I sure want to avoid that situation.
Great photos Doug!
Great story, Doug. At first, I thought it was going to turn out that your ‘63 Beetle was going to be a family heirloom like Vince’s Torino.
Good for you, teaching your daughter to drive a stick. It’s really a lost art with most of our young. Fortunately, both of my stepsons, who are in their 30(s) do drive a stick, and have stick-shift cars. The youngest has a Mazda 3 with a six speed manual, and it is a pleasure to drive that car. The oldest has a Fiat 500 Abarth that he bought to go back and forth to law school in Baltimore City. Parking was a consideration when he chose this car. Now he doesn’t need it, and his daughter, who is nearing that age, will end up with that car. She’s stoked about learning how to drive a stick. That may be a little difficult of a car for her to learn on, as the take-up point on its clutch is a little tricky. Of course the last time I drove it was when it was brand new. The clutch may’ve calmed down by now.
Sadly, her grandmother (my lovely wife) never learned how, and has no desire to learn how. And one of the cars she likes is the Miata. I told her if we ever get one of those, she’s gonna have to learn, as that’s what we’d be getting. Now she wants a truck or suv. Well, so much for that.
I’d love to have one again, but the traffic around here is a bear, being the Baltimore/Washington corridor. It is the main reason my Mustang and Civic are both automatics. I’ve driven in rush hour in an ‘88 Turbo Coupe, and rowing the gears in stop and go are no fun. And that was 25 years ago. Traffic is much worse now.
My 30-year-old brother-in-law, a mechanical engineer and probably the smartest person I know, who makes six figures already, has no idea how to drive a stick. I’ve tried to teach him, he just can’t do it.
I remind him of this often.
My Mrs is kind of the opposite of yours, but with the same result. Mrs JPC drove practically nothing but stick shift VWs until she was in her 20s and her first new car was an 83 Colt with the twin-stick 4 speed. Then she developed a problem with her right shoulder and her next car was an automatic. Now her shoulder has been fine for decades but she has no desire to go back to a stick. I tried and tried when we bought our Fit but No Sale. I think she drove the Miata exactly once.
Our family has never had a Beetle but has had more than its share of FWD water cooled VWs – Polos, Golfs, Jettas – I’ve lost count.
But a brilliant aunt with a car like that – lovely family stuff and clearly important photos for you. Thanks for sharing.
I don’t remember my earliest interaction with a Beetle, but I do remember my earliest Volkswagen toy.
Great story, and very neat to see you connecting the next generation to the Beetle. Both my sons learned to drive a manual in my New Beetle, as did my niece, after a bit of clutch training on my 1950 Ford 8N tractor.
I’ve about run out of room to add new toys to the shelves in my shop. I don’t have a Dinky or Corgi, but do have a couple German scale Beetles.
The other shelf…
I’ve never seen an Isuzu Bellett, but I saw an Isuzu Bellel in Vancouver in the early 1980s. I wouldn’t be the ranch that it’s still around.
My mother had a blue 1969 VW Beetle she bought brand new for $2200. I spent the first seven years of my life in the backseat of that Beetle. Wisconsin winters were not kind to that car and I still remember the rusty drivers door flying open more than once when going around a curve. It was replaced by a ‘78 Cougar XR-7 (white with a red vinyl half roof) in ‘82, when it was parked beside the garage. I remember in 1984 somebody from a town over 50 miles away bought the rusty carcass for $100, jump started it and drove it away. I don’t know if my mother misses it or buying a new car at age 22 more.
A great story. It also raises the question….what other brand of car inspires as much passion as VW?
If you teach Mrs. DougD Junior to drive on the VW she will have a far better understanding of the process than her peers.
My father in law rolled a Beetle in the mid 60’s on the way to proposing to my mother in law… fell asleep at the wheel after an overnight 450 mile journey. I’m so glad she accepted whilst at his hospital bedside, otherwise the beautiful result of their marriage would not now be my wife!
Funnily enough she has always loved air cooled VeeDubs and stoked my interest in them. The result is that my daily driver for the last few months has been a Karmann Ghia. I love driving and working on this ‘55 design based on ‘30s technology and totally understand DougD’s affection for his Bug. So driving old American cars in Germany I now have an old German car in the US of A…..
I certainly hope our 3 year old son will learn to enjoy my old stick shift cars…..
My dad owned 2-3 different VWs in the early 1960’s. I recall sitting in his lap steering one of them down the road (we live in rural Ohio) one night. I might have been 7 years old.
And my younger brothers and sisters would nap in the open area behind the rear seat.
Wow, that was wonderful, very nice and I hope to see your blue Bug again sometime!
So it wasn’t just me that remembers sleeping in what I thought was the “sleeping compartment” at about 5 years old, maybe even 4. I started noticing as I got older that none of those cars I was in ever had a compartment there, and I started wondering if I was just imagining it. But I don’t remember it being a Beetle. It may have been an early Corvair, or something else with that same design.
Women who can drive stick are 42% more interesting. Scientific studies prove it.
Good story Doug. It brought back memories from when I was about the same age and my dad had a ’62 Beetle in the same color (his first ever new car). I remember riding in the little well in back. The Beetles had a distinct smell inside that triggers olfactory memories too.