Hah! Apparently you aren't the only one who had a VW hunting car. One of my squirrel hunting mentors had one he used for years. Had a skid plate on the bottom, an extension on the exhaust, the whole deal. His reasoning for using it was that it was so light he could slap a come along on it and pull it out of any mudhole all by his lonesome as long as there was a handy tree to hook it to. That thing would go anywhere, it was amazing.

DLH

Back around '68 a friend had a VW Bug that he put the complete engine and transaxle assembly from a VW Bus into. The bus had more horsepower and reduction gears out by the wheels. That little machine would just about go anywhere without getting stuck.

The Germans used VDubs as jeeps in WWII. Ernie Pyle go one and drove it all through the North African desert. He said it'd make a great little car for Americans. Of course they eventually did.

No Germans got a VW during the War. Hitler did have a hand in the design. He and Porche developed the little "people's car". I owned several and liked them. The VDub was easy to love. While driving a new one I was nearly killed when hit head on by a drunk driving a Ford Fairlane 500.

With the fuel tank up front a lot of people were killed in VW bugs.
It was in Reading, Ma and I think it was '67 or '68... a classmate of mine home from the horrors of Viet Nam left his homecoming party in his mother's full size Pontiac and at something close to 100 mph crossed lanes and took out an entire family from Wakefield travelling in their VW bug. It was horrific and left a very deep scar on a lot of people... myself included. Richie was killed too. I think he would have preferred it that way rather than surviving only to know what he had done. Richie was a good kid. He and I worked together at the Shell station during high-school and we had good times together.

Memories like this make me think of the movie "Stand By Me" and the tune and words flood back...

I swear I read somewhere in this thread where somebody mentioned they collected old west photos. I've skimmed the responses and can't find it but there are so many that's not surprising. I just picked up a dandy one, would rather make it available to somebody on the forum rather than put it on eBay.

Destry

Destry: That be me. I'm heavy into pictures of people who were involved in the Lincoln County War, this includes photos of Billy the Kid, the Regulators, the House Ring and the Chisum family. I only deal in originals.

While I know this will sound like I'm blowing my own horn "toot, toot", I have the largest collection of authentic photos (tintypes) of Billy the Kid and his bunch. I discovered, in a corner of a little antique store, Sallie Lucy Chisum's personal collection of tintypes related to her family, herself and Billy the Kid and his buddies as well as a few of the men who were on the winning side in the LCW. Billy's side lost. The collection is large and very complete, many unknown photos of the people who knew Sallie Chisum. I've researched the collection for years now and have met many of the Chisum relatives, some recall when the collection that I found was sold. The identities of the people depicted had been stored in an attic for a few generations and forgotten.

The kid, aka Billy Bonney, aka William Henry McCarty was a nice looking young man and disarmingly youthful looking. The pictures that I have of him are astoundly clear and close up. If anyone wants to see one of these just ask and I'll respond accordingly.

I do not have everyone who was involved in the LCW. I'm missing Pat Garrett, L.G. Murphy, John Reilly, Emil Fritz, J.W. Bell and Fred Waite. I am missing Pitzer Miller Chisum. I have photos of everyone else. None are known and I own most of the originals. Here is a picture of Sallie Lucy Chisum Robert. She knew Billy the Kid.http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...lection073.jpg

A very close family friend who is in her mid-nineties and whose maiden name is Bonney reluctantly claims to have been told when she was younger to be ashamed of her relationship with William Bonney.

A true collector never worries about where he is going to put it.

Steve, what was the price of the William Bonney tintype that sold recently at auction? As I recall, it was very expensive.

No one knows why Billy called himself "Bonney" and many folks, including myself would like to know why he did so. Was your family friend from Missouri or Indiana? Billy was probably born in Indiana, Missouri or Kentucky. I doubt he was ever in New York as many folks believe.