A Bus Will Take You There

At that cosmic convergence where Volkswagen and "ford" connect.

Yup, they adapted to any situation, from hauling a ton of vegetable, animal, or mineral cargo, to carrying 9 passengers to simply being driven along for the pure freaked fun of it. The VW Bus was the original minivan, the original camper, and is still widely known as the iconic "Hippie Van."

Even though this little Bus has been out of production for decades, it's still instantly recognized as an Object of Great Cultural Impact. Kids give it the peace sign. Grownups nod and smile in its presence. Latter day hippies hump the tailpipe while their dogs anoint the sacred tires.

Kidding aside, the image was more durable than the vehicle that spawned it. Today, VW Busses are seldom seen and rarely driven. An exception is the Bus pictured above. It's a '62, bought used in '66 and driven for over fifty years by the same driver all over the US and through every province in Canada in all four seasons on ice, dirt, gravel, and pavement. Also through mud, dust, snow, high and low grass and weeds and occasionally into lakes, streams, and ditches---as well as getting smacked by other drivers and itself smacking more than once into walls, poles, snakes, and trees, while subject to being totaled twice, on fire three times, and dropped through lake ice once.

But that's only the small half of the story. What's the big half? To find out, look between the covers of the two books: "A Bus Will Take You There" and "A Bus Will Bring You Back." Click onto lunchbreakpress.com for details.