Peter Behrens's Blog, page 99

He Made the Beetle Huge

"When he came to the United States as a young  Volkswagen executive, Carl Hahn inherited an undesirable office and a job that seemed impossible: make the Beetle huge.
He was an outsider with fresh eyes who saw that he couldn’t beat American companies with much bigger head counts and budgets. The only way to win was for the German car maker to play another game altogether.
It needed to be different. It needed to think small..." 
See Ben Cohen's piece in WSJ on Carl Hahn, the man who led Volkswagen America from 1959 to 1964 and figured out how to market a weird, noisy air-cooled German car in the US.Here at AL we posted this 1972 bus a while back; a VW repair shop in Belfast, Maine; a 1961 Transporter in Harvard Square; an oval window in Cambridge MA...and plenty others.


 

Guests of the Nation

Hogan's flying column, Third Tipperary Brigade 1919

AL presents: an astonishing reading of Frank O'Connor's story, Guests of the Nation, by the Iirish actor Terry McMahon.

1974 Ford F-250

 

Michael Moore caught the truck while dog-wrestling down First St., Benicia CA. You saw the F-250 we posted earlier this week from Marfa, Texas?

MGB. Trans-Pecos Texas

 

Basha Burwell photo.

Last one we posted was a 1974 MGB in New Hampshire. Wrote a short story about an MGB once.

c. 1975 Ford F-250 Marfa Texas

 

David Branch photos. We saw a slightly older edition in Maine a while back. And AL posted Jarrod McCabe's F-250 trip from Montana to Massachusetts.

White Noise: the movie (and the station wagons)

 

from Jenny Changnon's piece in netflixqueue.com

"Don DeLillo’s cult classic novel White Noise begins with a striking and familiar image: “The station wagons arrived at noon, a long shining line that coursed through the west campus.” The author continues to detail the mid-80s vehicles of choice and the lives that have been stuffed into them, as they ferry teenage passengers on college move-in day to the next stage of life.

"Director Noah Baumbach’s White Noise brings that vivid image to life, and as the peak suburban automobiles arrive at the College-on-the-Hill, professor Jack Gladney (Adam Driver) watches in awe. “It was a brilliant event,” he tells his wife, Babette (Greta Gerwig), who looks forward to the ritual every year. The cars dot the campus where Jack has become a prominent figure since he started at the university in 1968, and he’s followed the procession for the past sixteen years. To Jack, the car has become a symbol of the uncomplicated wealth and privilege of the college’s students. “Not that we don’t have a station wagon,” Babette reminds him.


"The vehicles play a key role in the film beyond its opening sequence. When an environmental catastrophe known as the Airborne Toxic Event looms over the midwestern suburb of Blacksmith, families up and down the tree-lined streets pile into their station wagons, bringing with them whatever items felt necessary in an emergency (binoculars, a can of green beans, an issue of Glamour, a potted plant). The Gladneys’ wagon protects the clan as they evacuate and make their way to shelter; it contains their chaos. It also becomes a getaway car once they escape from the campgrounds that serve as a refuge during the apocalyptic event. Jack and Babette even take their station wagons on individual, private missions they hope will make sense of their fears and anxieties.

"In Baumbach’s brilliant satire examining the state of the nuclear family unit in the face of rampant consumerism, a car is just as much a part of a household’s identity as a last name."

Saab Q5

In Harvard Square. Saabs were popular in New England, going back to the late 60s. Good snow cars. Here's a Saab wagon with tail fins we posted a while ago. A 1986 Saab in NJ. And a 1972 Saab 95 wagon for sale at Motorland last time we were there. Ask me, Saab as a brand was wrecked, ruined and ravaged by those clunksters at GM; the same way Ford made a hash of Volvo.


 

1961 Chevrolet Apache and a Deuce Coupe

 

From Michael Moore, in Benicia, CA "The second annual Christmas Light Cruise, organized by Gairrett Pirkig, went by outside, but I really didn’t get any good shots…it was dark and blurry, lights were blinking but didn’t show up.  Nonetheless a fun thing to see."

AL: remember this Deuce coupe, posted from snowy Nevada? Here's another Deuce from our favorite speed shop in the Flint Hills of Kansas. AL learned to drive standard aboard a '61 Chevrolet Apache 10 on the GH ranch in Sundre, Alberta... here's a '61 Apache we caught in Colorado Springs a while ago. Then there's Sean's Marfa-to-Brooklyn truck. This very clean machine was on the block at BaT a while back. Caught an Apache 20 in Colorado Springs.

Me again: PeterBehrensEditorial.com

Sabrina Reeves©2023  photo

 Autoliterati, a request

Here's a link to my www.PeterBehrensEditorial.com site. I have been doing this for a while–working with writers in every genre--memoir, screenplays, fiction--and with leaders & professionals in other fields who need to deliver speeches, share stories and communicate. I work with seasoned writers and others with the bare beginnings of a book, essay, Op-Ed piece, application essay, script, speech or story idea...but the www.PeterBehrensEditorial.com site is new, and I would be most grateful if you would consider forwarding the link to any who might be able to use my services.

Many thanks for considering...P.B. 

VW Karmann-Ghia needs home

       

From Reid Cunningham: "I needed to rent a van in November (after the demise of our beloved Econoline) and the U-Haul site was a repair place, with a small lot of cars for sale.  This Karmann was in the back, hopefully waiting its turn for restoration. While there a few Beetle summer drivers in the area, I haven't seen any Karmanns with their more stylish bodies on the same plebian underpinnings."

AL: speaking of restored Karmanns...check this 1970 Volkswagen Karmann-Ghia we posted a while back