My VWs

My parents said that my first word was 'wheels' and it was just the start to my life-long love of automobiles. My childhood was filled of fond memories around cars. In my family, those cars happened to include a lot of Volkswagens. My parents had two VWs: my '69 Bug and a '73 Bus. Other family members had VWs, including Bugs, Busses, Type 3s, a Type 4, and a few watercooled models. 

As I approached driving age and knowing that my parents' '69 Bug would be the car I would drive, I started learning all I could about cars and VWs specifically. I bought books and every month got the latest issues of HotVWs and VW Trends magazines. After high school, I ended up getting a job working at a nearby VW parts shop. It was there where I immersed myself in the community and was always willing to listen to customers and local mechanics. It made a lot of friends during those 5.5 years behind the parts counter. 

In the following years and the advent of the Internet, I expanded my knowledge through the World Wide Web (WWW) and email. I made friends across our country and even in Europe. It was in collaboration with a friend from Denmark that I took my knowledge and his knowledge about the VW Type 4 engine and I designed, wrote, and published a web site dedicated to the VW/Porsche Type 4 engine. This web site formed the basis for a subcommunity and it even landed up with a one page review in a British VW magazine (TotalVW). Once again I made a lot of friendships, people who I still talk to this day!

I took a sort of hiatus from the VW scene for a while, thanks to some personal issues that I had to deal with. I knew the absence was only temporary until I got things sorted out. I'm happy to be back in the VW community in a new area: Wisconsin!