This Bus

 I think one of the most important skills one could have in life is to know how to drive a stick shift. My sister taught me. I remember her teaching me in three different vehicles.

Me and my red hair, jacket and bus sometime around 1993.

There was a Pontiac Fiero. I think I was about 14 or 15. We were driving in hamlet north of my town, looping around between the Bull 'n' Bun and Martha's Donuts. Thinking I was in first gear, when actually being in 3rd the whole time, I just couldn't get it. These two hesher dudes, late teens driving a beat up Trans Am yelled out their window "smells like clutch." The driver of the Trans Am lived in the neighborhood. I knew his brother, but I knew this guy only by reputation. It was rumored that he wrote poetry so scary that if you read it, evil would befall you.  

The next two cars belonged to my sister's boyfriend at the time. This time was a year older and had my license. We would take these cars out to the parking lot by the Crocker Bank. There was a BMW and a VW Bus. I don't remember anything about the BMW other than I felt fancy driving it. The Bus, however, I loved. I loved sitting up higher. I loved being super close to the windshield. I loved the long gear shift. I loved the rumble of the VW. 

I loved it so much that 6 years later I bought myself one. It was a 1972 VW Bus. It had a camper,  a pull out bed, a closet, and a sink with a sticker on its cabinet that said something about the 2nd Amendment and arming bears. I bought it for $500 sometime around 1993. I had this boyfriend at the time who lived just off Haight St. It was a super noisy neighborhood and I never got a good night's sleep when I spent the night there. Many times I got to my car in the morning and found that someone had spent the night inside.  Since it was so easy to break into, I figured it would be easy to steal. So, to "lock" my car, I would remove the distributor wire, pop it in my backpack, and then reinstall it when I was ready to go leave. I drove it until it almost died, then I sold it to some hippie chick for $500 who wanted to follow Phish around. My guess is that the Bus gave up the ghost before she made it to Red Rocks. 

I had some good memories around that vehicle. I hope that wherever it broke down, because it totally broke down somewhere, someone took it and restored it. It was a good one.