The Vintage Volkswagen Beetle Crowd
When my son was a teen, we thought we would buy him a car as a surprise. My husband felt that owning a classic car would be just the thing for our son and promptly found him an old Chevy Camaro. Okay, that鈥檚 cool I thought. My son will love it and of course, he did. Soon after receiving it he joined a group of young men that also had some cool looking muscle cars. Before long he was hanging around with a bunch of wild and crazy people. I for one was not enthused about his new friendships, they did not seem to be the best sort of people for my teenage son to be spending time with. The car itself was nice but needed work. The mechanics we used were scoundrels and did things to create new problems for the car and after a few expensive repair fiascos I will not go into here, we decided to get rid of it. Before it was even sold we began the hunt to replace the Camaro. My husband and I had owned a couple Volkswagen (VW) Beetles in the past and thought my son might enjoy owning one as well.
We found a very nice 1974 red Beetle online for a good price and showed it to our son. He got very excited after noting the condition and could not wait to talk to the seller. Unfortunately, the owner was not home so my son left a message - and then over the span of one evening, he left seven more. He is nothing if not persistent. This brings me to my first encounter with someone in the vintage Beetle crowd. Because, while we were standing there looking at the car he got a cash phone offer for triple the money he was originally asking, sight unseen. He told us later he also received many other calls for the car, but he stood by his promise to sell my son the car at the original price. That鈥檚 a stand-up kind of guy. The car needed a bit of work due to sitting in storage but was in overall great condition.
We did what needed to be done to get it running and by then my son had found a monthly car show at a shopping center not far from us and was off. While there he met other 鈥渂ug鈥?lovers and started building relationships with them. He found that VW Beetle lovers came from all walks of life and from every age group. Old and young alike would form bonds over their cars and would often gather just to spend time together. Some stuck to the classic look while others souped up their cars to more modern standards. He also found that they were a giving group of people. Someone was always willing to trade or donate needed parts to other fellow bug owners. They would offer advice and work together trying to repair or modify each other鈥檚 bugs. My son was building relationships with some very decent folks and learning a lot along the way. There is also a hip culture that develops around classic cars.
They love to meet locally, they click when meeting another no matter where they are, they go to car shows near and far, caravan together, and there are even special events surrounding the car. One such event near us for VWs is called Bugorama, which has had events since 1978. Bugorama keeps expanding and they now have events in four or more different cities in California and Arizona. It鈥檚 a family event with drag racing, display areas, and swap meet spaces. Some areas even allow camping. What is especially fun is seeing all the classic cars in the parking lot, it鈥檚 a show by itself. There are other events across the country we hope to visit sometime in the future. Such as the Madera Spring Fling in California, the Bug-In in Fontana, California, the Bug-a-Paluza in East Ridge, Tennessee (which gives spectator proceeds to the Ronald McDonald House), and the Florida Bug Jam in Dade City.
