Old Car Guys

I had a fun experience yesterday. I took the Bug for a drive. I had some timing issues, so I brought a small ratchet with an extender and a 10 mm socket to adjust the timing along the drive. I stopped at Bucees to fill up the tank, which only took a few dollars, then drove down the feeder road to Sam’s Club. Before I left Bucees, I retarded the timing a little, but as I drove to Sam’s, I knew the timing was further off.

I pulled into Sam’s parking lot and loosened the distributor to advance the timing a little. I locked it down, shut down the engine, and closed up the car to go inside Sam’s Club. As I started to walk away from the Bug, an older Black Gentleman walked up and asked if he could look inside the Bug. I said “sure”, so I walked back, unlocked the car, and opened the passenger side door. Now the Bug is a rolling project, so the only seat is the driver’s seat. I told him that I still have a lot of work left to do on it. He was grinning from ear to ear, looking around. I could tell he was a car guy by the way he reacted when he looked around the Bug. I opened the engine bay and showed him the engine. He said, “I love it! Old School! They don’t make cars like this anymore!!” We talked a little about cars while I locked up the Bug.

As he started to walk away, he turned back to say, “You know, when you get to be 60 to 65 years old, it really warms the heart to see an old car like this on the road.” I replied, “I know just what you mean, I’m 58.” He smiled and said, “You are an old man like me!” He turned to walk away. As I walked towards the store, I thought, " That just made my day!