NICK WOLOCHATIUK
There are collector’s items T-shirts and bumper stickers that proudly proclaim, “I SURVIVED THE ICE STORM OF ’98”. Few of today’s Generation X Millennials can comprehend what it was like to be without electrical power for over two weeks, to have sparkling tree limbs snap due to their burden of ice, then tinkle as they sped downward, then give off an earth-shaking thud as they hit the ground. That storm was the penultimate winter experience of our region. I’m proud to say I was a survivor. However, I can boast of a far greater survival story. I survived four winters of driving a 1962 VW ‘Bug’, a.k.a. ‘Beetle’. Just try to imagine these features. A heating system that produced less warmth than yesterday’s slice of toast, circulated by a blower system that could not manage to extinguish a birthday candle. A windshield defroster system that kept the inside surface opaque, requiring the driver to scrape a peek-a-boo slit into it. In comparison, Sherman tanks and submarines had viewing ports in their hulls that were like patio doors. Unlike today’s sophisticated cars, there were no rear window de-icer wires. The designer Elves of the Black Forest believed that a six-volt electrical system would also be quite adequate for winter starts when Celsius and Fahrenheit numbers were the same. The Kübelwagen was the 1940 to 1945 military version of the Bug. A hearing aid battery has more reserve energy than the puny one in that car. There wasn’t even a radio or CD-player available, not even as an option. Heated steering wheel or warm seats or? No way! Those features were a dream to be realized in the next century. A Volkswagen dealer of the Korean War era would be a clever entrepreneur if his service department customer waiting room featured a display of snowmobile suits, mitts and boots. However, despite all those slanderous and libelous truths having been shared, I must say this: I loved that car. It was my first. Its oversize tires, generous road clearance and flat underpan prevented it from being hung up on snowdrifts. If it did get stuck, its weight was less than half of the behemoth cars of the sixties and even most of today’s. With the help of my petite girlfriend, we could extricate the Bug from just about any snowdrift.
I remember those days, and that quirky little car, with fondness.
