1963 Volkswagen Microbus
Bill Alexander…that was his name. He was the VW salesman at Storm Lake Motors who sold Dad the Microbus. Dad must have been on a mission. It was the closest dealer, sixty miles away. Our Microbus was a standard Combi, red and white with three bench seats, 40 hp, and a South Wind heater that never worked right. I remember the exhaust for the heater being bigger than the exhaust for the engine. It didn’t have the power to get out of its own way, but I liked that bus. It was the family car, but also the car that Mary and I drove to town for socialization purposes. ~ David
Never mind that my friends thought the Microbus was cute. I didn’t like it. Besides being difficult to handle in bad weather, I was embarrassed to be seen in it. Everywhere we went, people gawked at the oversized oddity. ~ Mary
It was the worst thing ever. The only warm place was up front by the dash. I can’t remember who was in that bus when we got stranded in a snowstorm, but David walked out and got help. It was so cold. ~ Joan
What a dog! We couldn’t begin to keep up with the semis. If it had a Porsche engine, it would’ve been alright. ~ Richard
Mom took me along to Storm Lake to have the VW Microbus serviced. The service people came out and told her that it needed a new transmission and a bunch of other work. Based on the repair estimate, she decided to buy a new car rather than have it repaired and traded the microbus for a green Karman Ghia (better known to us as The Frog). She didn’t even ask Dad.
All the way home Mom kept saying, Elmer is going to be very surprised. I bet he’ll be upset with me. She was practicing on me the pitch she planned to use with Dad: How the repairs were so high, the at-home family was so much smaller now, etc. While I remember thinking how good the arguments were, I still couldn’t help but think that Dad was going to go ballistic.
When we got home, Dad was up on a ladder in front of the big corn-crib. As soon as we came down the driveway, he looked at us, did a double-take and just stared in amazement. Mom did her best to act confident. She drove right to the base of the ladder and stopped. Dad had a quizzical, suspicious and almost stunned look on his face as he slowly came down the ladder. He asked what happened. Mom confidently laid out exactly what happened and why she bought the car. He kept saying “You bought the car? You really bought the car?” Dad was so stunned he couldn’t even react. ~ Dennis
The whole family was loaded in the ’63 Volkswagen Microbus, headed west on Hwy 3 to Naef’s in Le Mars for a family picture. David was driving, and a strong Northwest wind was blasting at us. That Microbus was as aerodynamic as a billboard going face-first down the road, and we struggled to hit a top speed of 45 MPH. I remember David jokingly expressing concern that we may be pushed backward as each successive wind-gust alarmingly slowed us down.
Despite the struggle, we made it, and the resulting family picture was one of the finest we have.
BTW, we found it much faster going home (with the wind). ~ Dennis
