Total 201 vehicles, total cost $48,817; average $242.87
per vehicle.
Note: "SSI" means Salt Spring Island, BC
1928 Model A $0. Owned in 1960, Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan. This was my first car, sort of. It was known as The Skunk, since it was black with a white stripe down the middle. Clinton Weese and I dragged it home from Tanners' yard and tried to make it run. It wouldn't, so we towed it back. End of that car.
46 Chev $40. Owned in 1962, Saskatoon. Saskatchewan. I bought this one from Graham Mitchell while I was in High School. It lasted a total of two weeks, which leads me to the thought that you learn more from the first car you drive than you will ever learn from any other. From this one I learned that oil in the motor is important. The last day I drove this car, I had a load of kids in it. Whenever I turned on the lights, the car would stall, and we'd all jump out to push-start it. I finally sold it to a wrecker, who offered me $15 for it, or $20 if I left the Moon Disks on the wheels. Since a friend had stolen them for me anyway, I let them go.
51 Chev $75. Owned in 1962, Saskatoon. Saskatchewan. I bought this car with Dave Swann, and we each chipped in half of the $150 purchase price. We each got to drive it whenever we wanted, basically. There was no set week on and week off. We understood each other, and it worked out well. This was the first car I had in which the brakes failed while I was driving it. In attempting to stop at a Stop sign, I was amazed to find myself sailing right through. Heart in mouth! Unfortunately, I managed to smash this car. I was turning a corner and hit another car. I paid a fine of $10 for Turning Into The Wrong Lane. The car was a write-off.
Party time!
54 Austin A40 $60 Owned in 1964, Saskatoon. Saskatchewan. This was the first car I ever financed. I had $50, and paid the remaining $10 the next time I got paid. Eventually I painted a devil on the trunk, polka dots on the right side, and a checkerboard on the left. The brakes failed here too. I was speeding to a red light, with a car load of people, and hit the pedal. Nothing. Luckily, I swerved around the cars waiting for the light and slalomed through the cars going through the intersection. I don't need for that to happen again. English cars of that era (or any era!) were hard to work on. For example, I decided to do the rings and wanted to buy the parts ahead of time. There was no way of knowing how many rings each piston had, short of taking the engine apart. It could have had three, four or five rings on each. As a result of working on this car, I realized that if one wanted to work on an English car, one had to have fingers eleven inches long with three knuckles on each finger.
Before the paint job.
51 Dodge $90. Owned in 1965, Saskatoon. Saskatchewan. I bought this car from Ron Curniski. It was known as the Car That Fixed Itself. If anything went wrong, I just waited, and it would eventually fix itself. For example, the lights would dim every time I came to a stop. I just let it happen, and eventually things came right. Good car. I killed this car by driving it 90 miles per hour. Not a good thing to do with an old car. When I traded it in, the salesman asked me to start it up. He noticed the noise of the knocking rod, and I told him that the hood rattled a bit. "I don't think that's the hood," he said. He was right.
61 Fiat 600 $125. Owned in 1965, Saskatoon. Saskatchewan. I traded the Dodge with the knocking hood for this car, at a car lot. This was a great little car. It had suicide doors and a 28 HP engine. It took 4 of those HP to run the rad fan. I got 70 miles per gallon with this little beauty. The last time I saw this car, the new owner was pouring oil into the carb to increase the compression enough to start the engine.
The Italian Job.
58 Karmann Ghia $20. Owned in 1962, Saskatoon. Saskatchewan. I bought this one as a pile of ice on the side of the street, from Don Cayo. I did a lot of work on it to make it run, and did a ton of body work on it. Someone had covered it with Bondo, and I burned out my father's 3/8 inch drill trying to grind it down to some reasonable shape. I was using Number 000 sandpaper, which looked like flypaper with a handful of gravel thrown at it. Rough. I finally sold it for $150, and took a loss of $20 overall. Good car, though. I drove it with bald tires the whole winter. It had a gas heater, so it was nice and warm. The tail light lenses were both gone, so I colored the bulbs with a red felt marker. It worked.
63 MG Midget $975. Owned in 1965, Saskatoon. Saskatchewan. The newest car I ever owned, it was just two years old. I was working for the Rambler dealership as a partsman, and they had taken it in trade. This car I owned until 1968. When I left to see the world, I sold all my cars. As it was a British car, it was hard to work on. I swear, the British build cars and then let the public test-drive them. Not my favorites. Anyhow, one time I was working underneath the thing, and swearing and busting knuckles because nothing wanted to go right. My friend Terry Beck came along, heard the swearing, and immediately understood what was going on. He grabbed my ankles, dragged me out from under the car, and went in and did the work. I have had the utmost respect for this person ever since. He knew what a hard time I was having, and he went in and had the hard time himself, just to help a friend. Thanks, Terry.
In Saskatoon, it's not a good thing to leave the top down on your car in March. I came back from my morning class at university to find it full of snow.
Not a common sight. Weeny tows teeny.
53 Triumph TR2 $150. Owned in 1968, Saskatoon. Saskatchewan. I bought this one from Rich Tobin, who had hauled it out of a field. The story I got is that a guy named Fred Kernan had bought it as the first of its kind brought to Canada. It had a Serial Number of 112. This was a solid auto. After driving it for some time at top speeds of 100 mph, the engine was dismantled for some maintenance, and the top ring on each piston was found to be broken.
Will Keith, the eighth owner of TS 112 LO, has owned the TR2 since 1990 and is in the process of restoring the car to original.
54 Austin Healey 100-4 $125. Owned in 1968, Saskatoon. Saskatchewan. I bought this as a wreck from Saskatchewan Government Insurance. Tom Howard had owned it, and had just rebuilt the engine. He was driving up Spadina Av, and turned to look at a lovely young lady on the sidewalk. He didn't see the truck that was stopped at a Stop sign ahead of him. Boom. I had intended to make something out of this car, but finally sold it just before I left Canada, to a fellow who wanted to build a racer.
58 Skoda $100. Owned in 1969, Melbourne, Australia. I bought this one from a car lot. Very solid auto. The ignition key was a slim cylinder of metal that was inserted into a hole in the steering column, and then a switch operated the starter.
38 Morris 8 Convertible $325. Bought in 1969, Melbourne, Australia. I happened by a car lot and saw this car, which from a distance looked like an MG TD, one of my ultimate autos. I ran in and traded the Skoda for it. I loved this car, and wish I could have brought it home with me. It had a windscreen that folded flat, so that when you sat in it, you felt like you were in a bath tub. Cool! When I left Aus in 1971, I left the car with Cheryl Eagles, who finally sold it to a fellow who was going to rebuild it. I felt good about that part, but I still wish I had the car.
54 Holden Hearse $60. Owned in 1970, Melbourne, Australia. I bought this car from a friend. Holden is the Australian equivalent of GM. The car was originally a panel van or station wagon which had been extended. This car was a great long thing, and the funny part is that there was an ashtray right near the back, where the casket rode. Maybe Aussies smoke even when they're dead. Anyhow, just before I left Melbourne on a round-Aus trip, I had my art students at Swinburne Technical School paint the car for me. They did a bang-up job. Eventually, I sank the car in the ocean off Broome, Western Australia. I was travelling with a few other guys, and we camped near Broome, close to Eighty Mile Beach. We were beach combing, and we did it with the car. One guy would start walking down the beach and the other guy would drive a mile or so ahead, leave the car, and then carry on walking. The first guy would come up to the car and drive it past the second guy, and we leapfrogged like that all day. The system worked really well. The second day, we did it with a guy who I guess didn't really understand the system. I was walking, and after going a long way, I wondered why the car hadn't come along. Suddenly, my mate came puffing up the beach, hollering, "The tide's got the car!" I'm not sure what happened, but I guess he just walked past the car, and was on his way back to the camp when he saw that the sea was coming up around the car. He started it up, and instead of driving out of the sea, he reversed onto a high point farther out. Error! Then he stalled the car and ran to get me. By the time I got there, all I could do was empty our gear out of the car and watch the waves roll it about. The tide never got high enough to cover the car or take it away, so we were stuck with the problem of getting it out of there. Next morning we drove in the other blokes' car to town and woke up the driver of the only Land Rover we could find. He was a policeman who had been on a party the night before, and his Rover wasn't running 100%, but he came and towed us out anyway. That was nice of him. We spent the next couple of days draining all the sea water out of everything and got it to run okay. We were almost to Broome when the engine gave out. Next day we towed it into town to sell to the auto wrecker. I was in the towing car with the driver, and all the others were in the hearse, having a party. The driver and I were involved in some kind of a big philosophical discussion, and when we got to the wrecker, I jumped out and asked him how much he would give me for the hearse. He said, "What hearse?" And there it wasn't! The rope had come untied six miles back, and my driver hadn't even looked in the mirror. We went back to get the hearse, and the guys in it said they were having such a good party that they hardly noticed anything was wrong.
My art students did a fine job.
49 Holden FX $10. Owned in 1970, Melbourne, Australia. I bought this car for parts from Joe Bugelli, who had a garage in Toorak. He was building it as a race car, but went on to something else. I took the rebuilt front end out of it to put in the hearse and sold the rest.
50 Austin Pickup $5. Owned in 1970, Melbourne, Australia. I bought this from a student at Lakeside in Reservoir, where I was teaching. It was just something for the kids to work on in their spare time.
54 Holden FJ $50. Owned in 1971, Tom Price, Australia. I bought this car from Roger Withell, a fellow I worked with. I drove it from Tom Price to Perth, where I spent some time. One night I lent it to a friend, who came back walking, saying that the car had quit. The differential, also known in Canada as the rear end, had gone, he thought. The next day I was at Laurie Collins' 21st birthday party, which is a big event in Aus. The birthday child is given a key in some form or another to signify his entry into adulthood. At the party, since it was a major event, all the "olds" were there - the parents, grandparents, other relatives, and everyone was dressed to the nines. At some point in the festivities, someone asked me how my old car was going. You know how it is when there is a lot of conversation, and all of a sudden there's a big silence? That's what happened here. In answer to the question, just when the lull in conversation occurred, I said, "Oh, Bruce blew up my rear end." Think about it.
58 VW Van $260. Owned in 1972, Auckland, New Zealand. I bought this car from a fellow member of the MG Sports Car Club (Safety Fast). I drove it for a few months, and then sold it just before I left NZ.
66 Ford Comet Wagon $350. Bought in 1972, Ottawa, Ontario. This was an old government car, and was well-maintained mechanically. Unfortunately, it suffered from rot. The tailgate was held together with MacTac. I had this car until it rotted completely. I needed seat belts for another car, and I just went into the Comet and pulled on the belts, and they came away in my hands. End of car.
59 Chev Wagon $75. Owned in 1973, Whitehorse, Yukon. I wanted a car to drive, and a friend said he would lend me his 1957 Pontiac, but I needed a battery. I found a battery for $75, but it came with a 1959 Chevy Wagon. Okay. It also came with some buckets of used #60 oil from the motor vessel MV Shwatka, which ran on the lake nearby. I got 30 miles per quart of oil. I finally gave up on the car when I slammed the door and a headlight fell out.
61 MGA $195. Owned in 1973, Ross River, Yukon. This car was towed up the gravel Alaska Highway with no protection. As a result, the whole front of the car was sandblasted. I once picked up a hitchhiker who amused himself by catching the drips of rain that came through the crack in the windscreen. One time a fellow forest-fire-fighter and I were going somewhere at high speed, and we smelled a fire. To us a forest fire meant overtime, so we got kind of excited. It turned out to be the plywood floorboards of my car that were set alight by the exhaust pipe, which was too close to the floor.
60 MGA $50. Owned in 1973, Ross River, Yukon. Parts car. The body was great, and I figured to meld it with the 61 MGA. Of course, it never happened, and all my MGAs were left with Mike Duff when I left the Yukon area.
59 MGA $10. Owned in 1973, Ross River, Yukon. Parts car, salvaged off the side of the road.
63 VW Van $400. Bought in 1973, Vancouver, BC. I bought this van for the trip to Panama. It went very well until I managed to burn a piston in Oregon, driving into a big headwind. I finally had the piston replaced in Mexico City. This van also did another trip to Belize in 1975. On that trip, the rusted frame broke, but evenly, so we still drove it home to BC.
54 GMC Pickup $350. Owned in 1975, Beaver Creek, Yukon. Bought from Roger Bushee and driven Outside. (Anywhere but the Yukon was known as Outside.) I wanted to put a poptop on the camper, so I got quotes from several canvas companies. The cheapest was $250. I went to the dump, found an old tent, and spent $7 on SpeedSew. The steering wheel broke, so I replaced it with one from a 64 Rambler. Pretty exciting, eh? I sold it on Salt Spring Island to a fellow who was going to rebuild it.
Photo taken at Beaver Creek, Yukon
62 VW Beetle $250. This Beetle was known as Timky Sox, because the license plate was TMK 606. We drove it to Newfoundland and back to Salt Spring Island in 1976. On the way home, the brakes failed, in Calgary. Instead of stopping long enough to replace the master cylinder, we just kept going, using the gears and the hand brake. Over the Hope-Princeton Highway in a blizzard, semis spinning out with their chains on, we just sailed through. The only problem on the whole trip was the next morning after we got home, and I woke up to find a tire flat.
Timky Sox.
65 VW Van $350. Owned in 1976, Williams Lake, BC. I bought this one from an auction, and never did drive it, although a few other people did. The registration never did come through, and the other owners had phony rego numbers. In about 1988 or 89 I left it with Don Hyder to put into roadworthy condition. I'm still waiting for it, as of 2011. Thanks a lot, Don.
65 VW Pickup $50. Owned in 1976, Williams Lake, BC. This was bought as a parts car, as it was being used as a chicken coop. It turned out to be in better shape that the vehicle the parts were for, so I drove it instead. It was known as the Lego Truck, because it looked like it was made of Lego. This was a real workhorse. It even moved most of a church that was being dismantled. Eventually sold on Salt Spring Island.
57 VW Van $20. Owned in 1976, Williams Lake, BC. Parts car.
Jim with the hose is applying brake coolant to a seized wheel.
59 VW Beetle $25. Owned in 1976, Williams Lake, BC. Parts car.
60 VW Beetle $100. Bought in 1976, Salt Spring Island, BC. I bought this car from Don Shatford. It was his mom's car, and was in pretty good shape. I drove it for years, and even made a couple of movies featuring the car. Sometimes people would drag their wrecks to my yard on Salt Spring just to get rid of them. One afternoon I watched a tow truck bring in ten more cars, without a word. Good thing we had ten acres. At one stage I had 30 VWs in the yard, and others of all makes, for a total of 70 cars. That was quite a few.
To make a VW lover weep. Pickup, van, Beetles, Karmann Ghias, the lot.
I used to move the cars around with a tractor with a front-end loader. I would sell or use parts from them, and when they were totalled, I would load the carcass onto a truck, using the tractor and a couple of oil drums, and cart them off to the scrap dealer in Vancouver or Victoria. Sometimes I got away with filling the cars with rocks to make them heavier, but not very often.
A number of cars were either donated by people who wanted to get them out of their yards, or bought cheap by me under circumstances which I have forgotten, from 1975 to 1991 Salt Spring Island, BC. They were my Parts Cars.
The kind of a back yard no woman could ever love
Parts Cars SSI: 59 VW Beetle$20, 57 Karmann Ghia $30, 65 Karmann Ghia $50, 62 VW Beetle $12, 64 Van $20, 64 VW Beetle $0, 6? VW Beetle $0, 68 VW Beetle $20, 66 VW 1500 $50, 59 VW Van $20, 59 VW Beetle $100, 68 VW Type 3 $100, 68 VW Type 3 $20, 66 VW Type 3 $80, 70 VW Beetle $0, 66 VW Beetle $0, 66 VW Van $20, 66 VW Beetle $0, 68 VW Beetle $0,.
67 Fargo Van $150, 67 Fargo Van $700. Bought in 1980, Vancouver, BC. These were vans used for delivery, for the Salt Spring Market Co-op, which was a freight co-op I organized. I actually owned the vehicles and sort of loaned them to the co-op.
69 Volvo 1800S $1000. Owned in 1976, Salt Spring Island, BC. Former ladyfriend Jean had traded her car in for this one in Whitehorse. This has always been one of my ultimate vehicles. When we parted, she traded me the car for Timky Sox. I appreciated that.
Mom and me, Christmas in Alberta.
64 Chev 2-ton $0. Owned in 1979, Salt Spring Island, BC. My buddy Steve Davidson died in December 1979, and his sister gave me his old truck.
74 Ford LTD $1000. Bought in 1981, Victoria, BC. I was trying to trade off one of the old Co-op vans, and this seemed to be the best way. I got a good deal for the old van at a car lot, and then sold the car for the difference.
49 IHC Panel $0. Owned on Salt Spring Island, BC, 1982. A friend needed to clear the vehicles out of her yard, and she gave them to me, since I had a big yard. This vehicle apparently once belonged to Valdy. This vehicle was so heavy that when I hired a Caterpillar to move some vehicles around the yard, Dale put the bucket under the front of the van and lifted. The back of the Cat went up instead.
More parts cars, Salt Spring Island: 68 VW Type 3 $0, 70 VW Van $0, 60 VW Van $0, 55 VW Van $0.
70 VW Van $100. SSI. I put an old 36 horse Beetle engine in the hulk, using water pipes, complete with down-turned elbows, for exhaust pipes. I cut off the sides and used it for a wood-hauling wagon. It carried tons of firewood around our yard. It even won first priae for Most Original Entry in the Salt Spring Sea Capers Parade.
Original or what!
67 Mini Electric $1000. Bought in 1982, Salt Spring Island, BC. I wanted an electric car, but the technology in this one was not quite what I wanted, so I later converted it back to normal and sold the electric stuff separately. The electrics consisted of an old aircraft starter/generator, and the batteries were four huge Cat batteries that filled the back seat. The motor was in the back, and ran a chain to a Toyota rear end that was welded right to the frame. You can imagine how bouncy that thing was, even on a smooth road.
70 Toyota Pickup $1000. Bought and sold fairly quickly, Salt Spring Island.
71 Mazda 1200 Pickup $1200. Bought through another one of those let's-get-rid-of-the-old-Co-op-van deals. This turns out to be one of only 50 such vehicles sold in Western Canada. I eventually ended up with two of them. Nice truck - 47 mpg.
What is it with me and parades, anyway?
70 Datsun Pickup $1200. Came and went. Salt Spring.
24 Model T Depot Hack $1200, Salt Spring Island, 1983. This was a great vehicle. Named Henrietta, she was put together on Vancouver Island, from a pile of parts by Phil Barnard, who later lived on Salt Spring, and who helped me put her in running order.
More parades. Just behind is a wipeout on a big-wheel bike.
Yet even more parts cars, SSI: 64 VW Beetle $50, 72 Mazda 616 $150, 73 Datsun 510 $300, 70 Datsun Pickup $300.
?? Hino Humbi $500, Salt Spring Island, BC, 1983. This was an odd little enclosed motorcycle with a homemade wooden body. I was going to make it into an electric vehicle, but that never happened. So what's new, right? It eventually went back to John Akehurst, from whom I got it in the first place.
More parts cars, SSI: 73 VW Beetle $50, 65 VW Beetle $300, 68 Mini $0.
72 Datsun 1200 $150. Bought from a friend, Salt Spring Island, BC, 1983. I stuck a 1400 engine into it, drove it for a while, and sold it, sort of. The buyer never paid me.
Parts cars, SSI: ?? Renault 10 $0, 56 Dodge Wagon $0, 65 VW Beetle $150, 68 VW Beetle $100, 69 VW Beetle $150.
77 Honda Wagon $1600. Bought and sold, SSI.
68 MG Midget $500. Bought and sold, SSI.
74 Toyota Pickup $250. Bought and sold, SSI. I was going to have a Model T-looking body built for this vehicle, but it never happened. Boy, there's a lot of that going around!
73 Mazda 1800 Wagon $100. Bought and sold, SSI.
Put your best foot forward.
72 Datsun 1200 $100. Bought and sold, SSI.
Parts cars, SSI: 72 Datsun 1300 $0, 71 Mazda RX2 $0, 71 Mazda 616 $0, 71 Mazda 616 $0.
68 Dodge Polara $75. Bought and sold, SSI.
Parts cars, SSI: 70 Datsun Pickup $0, 56 Austin A50 $0, 56 Austin A50 $35, 58 Austin A55 $0, 59 VW Van $0.
76 VW Rabbit $350. Bought and parted out, SSI. Sold the blown motor for $350. What a deal!
Parts Cars, SSI: 59 VW Beetle $50, 62 VW Beetle $0, 67 Ford Falcon $0.
75 Plymouth $500. Bought and sold, SSI.
59 Austin A55 $100. Bought and sold, SSI. At one time I had three Austins, named Poppy, Lilly and Daisy. They came to me with those names.
53 Ford Tractor $1750. Bought 1985 and used for years, eventually sold 1991, SSI. It had a front-end loader and an old Cat blade for a grader on the back. I fixed our road a lot of times when it needed fixing.
Tractor hard at work, with 71 Mazda PU, 58 Austin and 27 Model T in background
Parts cars, SSI: 71 Toyota Corolla $0, 71 Mazda 1200 $0.
71 Mazda 1200 Pickup $350. This is the second of these I have owned. See above.
76 Chev Cube Van $2500. This was bought to rent to the Co-op. John Lomas and I shared it. We converted it to run on propane, which is one of the best things you can do for a vehicle. With the difference in the price of fuel, we recovered the conversion cost in ten months.
Parts cars, SSI: 68 Volvo $0, 66 Austin 1800 $0, 73 VW 412 $0, 65 VW Van $0, 65 VW Type 3 $0, 62 VW Beetle $0, 69 Austin 100 $0, 72 Austin 1800 $0, ?? Sunbeam Minx $0, ?? Volvo 122 $0, ?? Volvo 122 $0, 65 Austin $0, 65 Chev Pickup $0, 6? Volvo $0.
77 Subaru Wagon $300. Bought and sold, SSI. I drove this 4X4 for a couple of years. It used to belong to the Valdy's wife, Penny Christie.
77 Subaru 2-Door $500. Bought and sold, SSI.
77 Subaru $400. Bought and sold, SSI. I got to like Subarus. They seem to have been modelled after the Volkswagens, which made them okay by me! This one used to belong to Valdy, the recording star, who lives on SSI.
Subaru is the Japanese word for the constellation Pleiades, which explains the stars in the logo.
Parts, SSI: 59 VW Beetle $0, 64 VW Beetle $0, ?? VW 411 $0, 70 Datsun 510 $0, ?? Volvo 122 $0, ?? Volvo 122 $0, 71 Dodge $0, 73 Dodge $0, 64 Rambler $0, 64 Chev Van $0, ?? Austin 1800 $0, 70 VW Beetle $0, 70 Volvo 145 $0.
Then there were the bikes on SSI:
77 Honda XL75 $250, 72 Honda 350 $350, 78 Honda 185 $50, ?? Honda 125 $40.
74 Honda Moped $200. SSI. Bought, fixed, driven for years. Eventually sold to a fellow affectionately known as The Blind Carpenter. True story!
I love a parade!
Parts, SSI: ?? Volvo 145 $0, ?? Volvo 145$0, ?? Mini $380, ?? VW Beetle $0, ?? Datsun 610 $0, 70 Datsun Pickup $50, 75 VW Rabbit $0, 73 VW Super Beetle $0, ?? Ford Pinto $0, 71 VW Van $0, ?? Ford Van $0, ?? Datsun Pickup $0, 69 VW Beetle $200.
80 Subaru $1500 Bought and sold, SSI.
Parts, SSI: 66 VW Beetle $0, 68 VW Crew Cab $0, 77 Subaru $400, 61 Morris Minor $0, 67 VW Pickup $0, 69 Volvo 144S $0, 72 Dodge Colt $0, 75 Ford Van F150 $0, 70 Peugeot 504 $0, 72 Dodge Valiant $0, 67 Buick $0, 70 VW Crew Cab $0, 6? Ford Van $0, 68 VW Crew Cab $0, ?? Valiant Wagon $0, 70 Sunbeam Alpine $0, 69 Ford Cortina $0.
62 Studebaker GT Hawk $1000. SSI. One of my all-time ultimate autos. This was bought with a flock of Studes. I started to rebuild it, but eventually ran into problems and sold it for about one-third of my investment.
I sigh every time I see one of these.
The flock in the dark.
Parts, SSI: 55 Studebaker $100, 55 Studebaker $100, 56 Studebaker $100, 78 Subaru $100, 77 Toyota Pickup $0, 68 Chev $0, 81 Subaru $0, 75 Honda $0, 79 Subaru Wagon $0, 78 Subaru Wagon $0, 75 Toyota Wagon $0, 74 Chev $0.
When I left SSI in 1991, I had to clean out the yard. I took quite a few cars to the scrap dealers in Vancouver and Victoria, sold some, and gave away the rest. I only left a few Studebakers, since Dawn's father used to sell Studes. I left them just for old times' sake.
50 Studebaker $0. SSI. I got this one from Little Lloyd in exchange for moving him from one house to another. It had sat in Lloyd's yard for many years, and my friend Bill always wanted to do an "art" project whereby we would cover the car in tin foil and then take a picture of it. This never came to fruition.
The car was eventually sold to a movie company that needed it to put in a bush for a shot of rusticity. Or something.
80 VW Rabbit Diesel $300. Bought SSI, motor put in from 81 Rabbit.
Oh Lord, stuck in gravel again!
81 VW Rabbit Diesel $650 - parts car.
81 VW Pickup Diesel $2700. Bought in Kelowna, BC, 1991. Best car I ever had. Put 1986 Jetta Turbo Diesel motor in. Got a canopy for it in California. Goes fine. I drive it in the winter, and use the van in the summer, as it won't carry all the hundreds of books I take with me to sell. This vehicle has gone to Newfoundland once, Ontario a couple of times, Indianapolis once, and lots of places between. In 10 years I put about 200,000 km on it. This, the best vehicle I ever owned, has now been sold to a good home in Golden, BC. I hadn't used it for over a year, so rather than let it waste away, I made the hard decision and sold it. May it give many more years of good service!
Best vehicle I ever had
73 VW Van $2500. Bought in Summerland, BC for book business, 1995. Sold, Summerland. Since the Pickup can't carry enough weight, I bought the van to haul the books I have been writing, publishing and selling. Each year I have more books, so every couple of years I get a bigger van.
Not broken; just hitching a ride
72 Ford Van $1500. Bought in Okanagan Falls, BC for book business, 1996. Propane. Sold Summerland.
79 Chev Van $800. Bought in Summerland, BC for book business, 1998. Propane. Sold Summerland.
81 Dodge Van $400. Bought in Vancouver, BC for book business, 2001. Propane. When I bought this van, a friend bought a brand-new pickup truck for $30,000. I said to him, "My van goes and it stops. Your truck goes and it stops. What's the difference?" He thought for a moment and said, "Well, I have a CD player!" This was the longest vehicle I have ever owned; it was long long long stretch model. You could come in the gate on time for supper, but by the time the back end was and parked, you were late. I called it my Tube Van, because it looked like a tube of toothpaste. There was a sign on the back that said "I Grunt Up Hills." This van sold, Summerland, August 24, 2004.
87 Dodge Van, Camper conversion. Jean and I bought this van together for $7100. Since I am a part-owner, I will claim it as another in my stable. This van is as long as the 81 Dodge Van, but it is in much better shape. It has 93,000 original kilometers on the clock. We consider ourselves lucky to have found it.
2005 Valuride 500Z electric bicycle. I have always wanted an ebike, and this one was advertised in our local Bargain Hunter. It is for local commuting, but not a great deal else. Bike sold, Summerland.
2006 electric bicycle conversion. I bought a kit and converted my mountain bike into an electric bike. To most people, it looks like an ordinary bicycle, but it is sure a lot easier on the body on longer trips! Sold, Summerland, 2011.
2005 Vespa Aprilia Scarabeo Scooter. Bought, used for a whle, but it was too big, so I sold it. It weighed about 200 pounds. Nice, but just too big.
2009 Motorino XPh, bought 2010, $1260. This is the greatest ever! It even goes up hills! No licence of any kind needed, as it's classed as a bicycle. Cheap personal transportation at its best.
Yamaha Jog. Bought 2012, sold 2012. I bought this scooter because it was reasonably priced. I didn't need it, but a lady I work with needed it, so I traded it to her for two beautiful stained glass windows she made.
2011 Motorino XPh. Bought 2014. Traded the 2009 XPh plus $600. Better than the 2009.
Total number of vehicles I presently own: 2. This would be the 87 Dodge Van and the electric scooter. All the rest are long gone.
