Post by Volktales on Oct 18, 2014 12:48:19 GMT -8
Recently over the Christmas holidays, we were doing the family thing and reminiscing over the photo album. Mom remembered there was a box of old school slides in the basement that once belonged to my long deceased auntie. I knew she toured Europe in the '60's and figured there might be some VW's in the pictures... It took a while to set up the ancient projector and screen, but it was worth it as there was pure VW gold in there!!! Thanks to Don for figuring out how to transfer these to the computer.... Now sit back and imagine your back in the "60s...
First up, it is May 1965 and we are in Rome. This was labeled the "Perpetual Tomb of the Unknown Soldier". And despite being in Italy, there are at least three Beetles in the parking area, as well as a bunch of Fiats, (no surprise there), and a Renault or two. Looks like a Mini parked next to the blue Beetle.
Still in Rome, this is entitled St. Peters Square. It is a festival of Fiats in the foreground, but look what is in the back.. Yes it is a splitty with a fair number of windows. I am sure Don will comment on exactly what model, year, and colour combo it is...
Still in St. Peters Square, and it could be a period advertisement for VW! A couple of early 60's Ruby red Beetles battle it out, the dirty one sporting a roof rack, while the shiny one has some accessory gravel guards. The somber Mercedes in the foreground looks on while another Fiat or two is in the background as well as the back end of a Renault Dauphine, a car once imported strongly into the US for a very short while. The three wheeled truck thingy is likely a Lambro, made by Lambretta better known for their scooters. I saw tons of those little trucks in Vietnam when I was there years ago... More to come...
Ok it is still the 1960's, but we are now in Belgium. These series of pictures were unlabeled, but with those distinctive buildings in the background it wasn't hard to find them on a google search. This is the Grand Square in Brussels, and although auntie was focusing on the buildings, check out the car park! Centre stage is a 1964 Beetle, which despite being almost new has a nicely bent bumper. A 1957 Chevrolet Bel-Air sits to the left, while a Valiant is parked on the right. Lots of other countries represented including Fiat, Renault, Citroen DS (right foreground), and something I can't identify to the left ( thought it might be like Don's Saab, but it ain't...)
This next picture is from the same trip, but unsure of the location. The sign writing seems to be French, so it could still be Belgium. That early blue Type 3 notchback in the middle is appealing, but look at the Beetle parked to the right. The snowflakes indicate a '58-'61, it looks like it might be Beryl Green, and a ragtop too! Yum! It almost looks a bit lower in the front end, although in those days it meant the luggage compartment was full! If you look carefully you will see at least three other Beetles, as well as some nice posh Mercedes Fintails.
This picture is a bit of a mystery. Most of the cars are American, but then many look kinda like taxis, so maybe this still is Europe. This slide had fallen off by itself, but the markings on the slide casing show it likely goes with the Belgium photos. From what I understand, large American cars where favoured as Taxis in some European countries in the '60's. In this shot, only one lone early '60's Beetle pokes it's nose in. Note that later it was pointed out to me this building is actually located in Mexico City!
Now it is April 1966, in Downtown Vancouver where my Auntie lived for years. She was into the artsy fartsy thing and took these pictures of wall art on construction site boarding. Don't care about the art much, but I know CrazyBrit will appreciate that Austin-Healey 3000 parked as just another daily driver. Wonder if it survived? The other car is a dark grey early Volvo P1800 which is now very rare. These were considered by many to be Volvo's "Karmann Ghia". And just so you know, the world's highest mileage car owned and used privately just happens to be one of those Volvos...
And here is the final batch...
This picture was unlabeled, but with a building like that, you know it has to be Vegas! The Mint was easy to find by googling vintage Vegas casinos. This was from October 1963, and that Beetle looks like a near new '62 ragtop to me. Quite a contrast to the 1960 Chrysler New Yorker in front of it, which is probably more at home in these surroundings. A big Oldsmobile is passing out of the picture.
And now for a very important picture from April of 1964... That is my Grandma's first car, a Ruby red 1962 Beetle that her husband bought brand new. That's another of my Aunts, and one of my cousins who seems unhappy with washing the shiny Beetle. ( he and his rotten brother ended up trashing MANY beetles in the seventies when they were growing up!) Looking carefully at the car reveals it to have my favourite whitewalls of course, and less obvious is the passenger side mirror! If you look really carefully, you will see a fuzzy white steering wheel cover. When Granny traded her beautiful Ruby Red '62 in for a boring Savannah Beige '70 Beetle, that steering wheel cover was transferred over. When my Auntie later owned the '70, the cover was still there and I remembered it well from my trips in that car in the 1970's! Although it is hard to tell, the other VW in the picture, was owned by my Uncle and it was a brown 1957. If you look close you will see it was a Standard model, and there was a roof-rack too! They owned it for many years and my Uncle loved it even though I never remember him driving anything except Ford pickup trucks.
And finally.... Please disregard the ghost washing the cars... My kid almost fell down with laughter when he saw the shorts I was wearing at the time! This picture was taken about 1986, and I am washing my freshly painted '70. More importantly is my Aunt's Mars Red 1979 Canadian spec GTI in the background! I have many memories of that car, and before my Aunt traded it in she offered it to me cheaply. I said "No, I like my Beetle better". Duuuuuh! She later traded it in, and kept her next car until she died only a few years later. I was surprised to learn upon her death, I inherited her car which was in mint condition and only had 25,000 km. I only drove it two weeks before realizing I could never keep it for obvious reasons.... Well would you keep a 1988 Chevrolet Cavalier Z-24??? My sister ended up with it and her and her husband drove it for years... I kept driving the Beetle... With regards to that nasty silver car in the background, it was my Dad's. Dad never drove boring cars, but he bought this Celebrity because it was near new and dirt cheap because of high km and a filthy interior. He bought it from someone he knew who had it as a company car. We ripped out the interior, steam cleaned everything, tuned it, gave it a quicky two-tone paint job on the bottom, slapped Canadian tire cheezy fake wire wheel hubcaps on it and sold it. He more than doubled his investment which gave him car money to restore his first T-bird. This was important because it was our first restoration together which led to many more including my various VW projects...
First up, it is May 1965 and we are in Rome. This was labeled the "Perpetual Tomb of the Unknown Soldier". And despite being in Italy, there are at least three Beetles in the parking area, as well as a bunch of Fiats, (no surprise there), and a Renault or two. Looks like a Mini parked next to the blue Beetle.
Still in Rome, this is entitled St. Peters Square. It is a festival of Fiats in the foreground, but look what is in the back.. Yes it is a splitty with a fair number of windows. I am sure Don will comment on exactly what model, year, and colour combo it is...
Still in St. Peters Square, and it could be a period advertisement for VW! A couple of early 60's Ruby red Beetles battle it out, the dirty one sporting a roof rack, while the shiny one has some accessory gravel guards. The somber Mercedes in the foreground looks on while another Fiat or two is in the background as well as the back end of a Renault Dauphine, a car once imported strongly into the US for a very short while. The three wheeled truck thingy is likely a Lambro, made by Lambretta better known for their scooters. I saw tons of those little trucks in Vietnam when I was there years ago... More to come...
Ok it is still the 1960's, but we are now in Belgium. These series of pictures were unlabeled, but with those distinctive buildings in the background it wasn't hard to find them on a google search. This is the Grand Square in Brussels, and although auntie was focusing on the buildings, check out the car park! Centre stage is a 1964 Beetle, which despite being almost new has a nicely bent bumper. A 1957 Chevrolet Bel-Air sits to the left, while a Valiant is parked on the right. Lots of other countries represented including Fiat, Renault, Citroen DS (right foreground), and something I can't identify to the left ( thought it might be like Don's Saab, but it ain't...)
This next picture is from the same trip, but unsure of the location. The sign writing seems to be French, so it could still be Belgium. That early blue Type 3 notchback in the middle is appealing, but look at the Beetle parked to the right. The snowflakes indicate a '58-'61, it looks like it might be Beryl Green, and a ragtop too! Yum! It almost looks a bit lower in the front end, although in those days it meant the luggage compartment was full! If you look carefully you will see at least three other Beetles, as well as some nice posh Mercedes Fintails.
This picture is a bit of a mystery. Most of the cars are American, but then many look kinda like taxis, so maybe this still is Europe. This slide had fallen off by itself, but the markings on the slide casing show it likely goes with the Belgium photos. From what I understand, large American cars where favoured as Taxis in some European countries in the '60's. In this shot, only one lone early '60's Beetle pokes it's nose in. Note that later it was pointed out to me this building is actually located in Mexico City!
Now it is April 1966, in Downtown Vancouver where my Auntie lived for years. She was into the artsy fartsy thing and took these pictures of wall art on construction site boarding. Don't care about the art much, but I know CrazyBrit will appreciate that Austin-Healey 3000 parked as just another daily driver. Wonder if it survived? The other car is a dark grey early Volvo P1800 which is now very rare. These were considered by many to be Volvo's "Karmann Ghia". And just so you know, the world's highest mileage car owned and used privately just happens to be one of those Volvos...
And here is the final batch...
This picture was unlabeled, but with a building like that, you know it has to be Vegas! The Mint was easy to find by googling vintage Vegas casinos. This was from October 1963, and that Beetle looks like a near new '62 ragtop to me. Quite a contrast to the 1960 Chrysler New Yorker in front of it, which is probably more at home in these surroundings. A big Oldsmobile is passing out of the picture.
And now for a very important picture from April of 1964... That is my Grandma's first car, a Ruby red 1962 Beetle that her husband bought brand new. That's another of my Aunts, and one of my cousins who seems unhappy with washing the shiny Beetle. ( he and his rotten brother ended up trashing MANY beetles in the seventies when they were growing up!) Looking carefully at the car reveals it to have my favourite whitewalls of course, and less obvious is the passenger side mirror! If you look really carefully, you will see a fuzzy white steering wheel cover. When Granny traded her beautiful Ruby Red '62 in for a boring Savannah Beige '70 Beetle, that steering wheel cover was transferred over. When my Auntie later owned the '70, the cover was still there and I remembered it well from my trips in that car in the 1970's! Although it is hard to tell, the other VW in the picture, was owned by my Uncle and it was a brown 1957. If you look close you will see it was a Standard model, and there was a roof-rack too! They owned it for many years and my Uncle loved it even though I never remember him driving anything except Ford pickup trucks.
And finally.... Please disregard the ghost washing the cars... My kid almost fell down with laughter when he saw the shorts I was wearing at the time! This picture was taken about 1986, and I am washing my freshly painted '70. More importantly is my Aunt's Mars Red 1979 Canadian spec GTI in the background! I have many memories of that car, and before my Aunt traded it in she offered it to me cheaply. I said "No, I like my Beetle better". Duuuuuh! She later traded it in, and kept her next car until she died only a few years later. I was surprised to learn upon her death, I inherited her car which was in mint condition and only had 25,000 km. I only drove it two weeks before realizing I could never keep it for obvious reasons.... Well would you keep a 1988 Chevrolet Cavalier Z-24??? My sister ended up with it and her and her husband drove it for years... I kept driving the Beetle... With regards to that nasty silver car in the background, it was my Dad's. Dad never drove boring cars, but he bought this Celebrity because it was near new and dirt cheap because of high km and a filthy interior. He bought it from someone he knew who had it as a company car. We ripped out the interior, steam cleaned everything, tuned it, gave it a quicky two-tone paint job on the bottom, slapped Canadian tire cheezy fake wire wheel hubcaps on it and sold it. He more than doubled his investment which gave him car money to restore his first T-bird. This was important because it was our first restoration together which led to many more including my various VW projects...