[Vwdiesel] Archive search- How old is everyone? Can you admit it?

[William J Toensing]

I am 76 years old, grandfather of 2 & step grandfather of 4. Although still healthy for my age & still able to work on my cars, I frequently wonder how much longer my luck will hold up. 
I have been a car buff as long as long as I can remember. Why, I don't know but can guess. I was told that age 3 I could identify the make & year of most of the newer cars on the road. But in the '30s, each make had a distinct look which changed from year to year. My guess is that amazed my elders which only encouraged my interest. I remember as a kid before WW2, looking thru the Saturday Evening Post & National Geographic for car adds when ever a new issue arrived. When I was a little older, I would start saving car sales literature when I could get it, but then my mother would throw it away. She managed to throw away all of my pre-war literature & much of my early post war literature although I managed to save some which I still have. I still have not out grown that childhood desire to collect car literature & now have tons of it.
I grew up in Eden Prairie, Minnesota when it was just farm land but now it is an upscale SW suburb of Minneapolis.
In 1948 for my 15th birthday I was given drivers training thru the AAA of Minneapolis. The car I received my training in was a 1946 Pontiac. My first car was a then 10 year old 1939 Ford "60". That car was the gutless wonder of all time & by fall, the rebuilt engine was using oil like mad. My dad had an in with Lambin Motors, A Lincoln-Mercury dealer in Minneapolis which was where I got the Ford "60" which caused me to hate Ford for many years. I was able to trade that Ford "60" in on a 1940 Chevrolet Master 85 business coupe with jump seats built in the rear. I drove that Chevy thru my high school years & in the summer of 1951, after H.S graduation, I was able to earn enough to buy a 1946 Hudson Commodore 6 sedan.
I then went on to attend & graduate from the University of Minnesota & was able to stay out of the Korean was with a student deferment. When the engine on my Hudson went bad, instead of rebuilding it, I found a mechanic in Minneapolis who could easily install a flathead Ford V-8 into the Hudson. Surprisingly, it was an easy transplant. The donor car was a 1938 Ford. The front motor mounts matched exactly as did the drive shaft. All that was necessary was obtain a Ford column shift transmission, modify the rear of the transmission with an open driveshaft fitting from a Ford truck, fabricate a rear mount for the transmission & carburetor linkage. I later wished I had never had this done, but can be story for a later time.
After the 1946 Hudson I had a succession of cars: 1941 Pontiac, 1940 Willys, 1937 Studebaker Dictator, 1950 Nash Ambassador, & the in 1955, a 1951 Hudson Hornet, 1950 Rambler convertible which while on active duty in the Navy in Norfolk, VA, took in trade plus cash for the Hornet. In those days you had to get on a waiting list for a new VW & since the Nash didn't run well, I sold it & bought a 1939 Plymouth business coupe which I then sold when in 1957, my new VW arrived, $1595 plus $20 for white side wall tires.
Well enough for tonight. If you want more of my car experiences, let me know.
Bill Toensing, Nevada City, CA