Marchelle

Is this the same VW I rearended at the stop light at the Y just north of St Marys Hospital?

NO, DON'T REMEMBER BEING REARENDED THERE. I WAS HIT(WHEN PARKED AT A STOP LIGHT) OUTSIDE A BAR WHILE DRAGGING MAIN. SURE GOT IN TROUBLE FOR BEING THERE TOO.

Wonderful memories of dragging Main with our carpool (Elaine Wiggins, Kathy Blauw, Karen Bradley, myself & sometimes Diane Coats & Cheryl Kornegay).  The most fun was had in Elaine's 1938 Buick with a hole in the floorboard of the passenger side.  You had to be very careful not to drop anything or it was gone.  Kathy drove a variety of cars---the most interesting was a HUGE convertible of her dad's which we rode in once with the top straight up in the air.  We couldn't get it to go up or down.  My carpool was very understanding of the fact that I was forbidden to take my car to Greer's---my Dad thought it was the most dangerous place in the world.  On my night to drive, we just had to turn around on Main without entering Greer's.  Pals & Chums honking---seeing everyone on Main Street---such a simple time.  Roswell was a great place to grow up!!!  I often wished when my children were growing up that it could have been like that for them.

Seems to me, I recall something going around school about that particular accident.

Well, my "dragging main" urges went "South" after getting married and then, some time later, paying $5+ a gallon (in about 1991) for gas.

I remember Kathy Blauw.  I trust she is doing well.

Joe, I had a VW with a Porsche engine in it but that was after HS.  I had a 57 VW, green that I put an early 912 engine and trans axle in.  That was why I put Chevy 14inch rims on it.  I dont think mine was the one you remember.  However you might have seen it.  I built it when I was living and going to school in Las Cruces.  Then moved back to Roswell when my dad died. 

Most of the cars I drug Main in had slicks but it was because the tires were bald.  I remember one time when we were dragging Main and a carload of girls from out of town pulled up next to us.  Tommy Cooper was driving his Granny's Chevy and we were very uncool.  I told him to say something cool and strike up a conversation with them.  He gave them the signal to roll down the window, which she did, and he asked her" Say, what are your school colors?"  I nearly died of laughter and he said, " That is all I could think of."  We still laugh about it to this day.  He was a great running buddy.

I remember Kathy's mom painting her Volvo gray with a spray can and we put a tail and whiskers on it because it looked like a mouse.  ....

Ball-o-Jack Drive-in----South Main across from the cemetary-sort of!

Don't forget the old Jingle Bob drive in. I think it was off the Base Hwy..out south at any rate. I think there was a Spanish drive in as well out that way. The Chavez?

Downtown movies: Plains, Yucca, Chief (the last movie I saw there was Song Of The South with my Mom). I think there was one more movie house..can't think of it.

Steve,

Let's see, you about trippled you horse power with the 912 as I beleive they put out about 90hp and you could twist them 800 to 1000 rpm's higher.

There was a few, and a rare few at that, with a 5 speed tranny in them. I knew a guy in CA who put one of the 5 speeds in a Class 9 desert car and got away with it for at least 2 years before someone figuredit out. Slightly illegal at the time.

Joe Flinn wrote:

*************

  Yeah, from 30hp to almost 90... woohoo.  I traded it in on a new El Camino... moved from hippie to  Kicker.   Went thru a couple of Caminos and then ... Back to a VW and then a real Porsche.   Just couldnt get into mountain turns in an American made car. 

Tommy and Margaret,

 Did the Jungle Bob and Ball o Jack show movies ?    ????  I heard they were a technical training institute in the study of .... Well ya know what I mean.

  I miss drive-ins...

  I remember that most of the time spent at drive-ins was either having very indepth conversations or (if it was a group of guys together) bothering your friends who were trying to have that conversation. 

The "jungle Bob"? You're a hoot. I never heard it called that before. Add's truth to the saying "it's a jungle out there".

I can't believe you guys are talking about cars and drive-ins (the food type) - Doesn't anyone remember the drive-in movie - I think it was called The Starlight!!!! Now that was fun! A carload of us could get in for very little and we would always have a more people in the trunk. Then we would play jokes on everyone in their cars, trying to watch the movie or something else (!!!!!!) Then we would send the information into the high school paper but I don't think they ever printed any of it.   Wonder why?

Remember, the spaghetti and pizza food fights at Carmels!  Maybe I was the only bad one of the group and nobody else did any of this stuff but...... I seem to remember you all did!!!!  I still have napkins and paper placemats with notes on them written by secret admirers! I think it was a joke cause I never met any of them!

Also, what about the great dances we had at the armory after the football games!!! We had some great bands and had so much fun dancing and just having a good time!

Remember the California surfer dudes that dragged Main with their surf boards on top of the car.  Well, I married one of them and went to SOCAL.

The Starlight Drive In...do you remember "Buck a Car" night, and the idiot who stuffed his dads trunk with people and then paid a buck to get in, yes, on buc k a car night. He got caught and was asked to leave, however he was alowed to re-enter with no one in the trunk, all bodies were in the passenger seats and he had to pay another buck. So there was the first and only "Two buck a car" night for him.

Seems I heard that story before!!!!! He He!! A friend of mine had a 40's something Caddy or maybe it was a Packard that had a split back seat that had a center fold down panel that gave access to the trunk. Great car for stuffing the trunk and not having to pop the lid and let people (or booze) out!!!!

Joe - I don't know what engine my VW had.  My father helped me buy it, he paid and I worked for him in summer and had the paper route to pay him back.

Until i got the thing i had never even been inside a VW.  But i noticed mine had four pipes with no baffles while all the others i saw had two small pipes with baffles, so i went the VW house on Main street and asked about it.  Well my car had two carbs and you had to work very hard to replace the spark plugs without droping the engine (fire wall very tight against the heads. 

Anyway i found out that the thing had been bought in Germany by an Air Force pilot.  It was a '57 with lots of extras i.e. tach, oil pressure guage, am fm radio, quadruple horns with switch under the dash to change tones, extra battery for cold starts, turn signals and fog lights on door frame, extra chrome rails on bumpers (like off road pickups have now), and crome air loovers. If you remember the VW's in US at the time only had a speedometer and a gas guage and nobody had a FM radio, hell i don't even remember if there was a FM station in Roswell then.The original owner had another one a "61 model and had traded the older one to Valley Chev. for a 'Vette in 1962.  That is when I got it. 

Sure used to suprise some Corvairs with it.

Ken,

A stock 57 VW would labor to get up Comanche Hill. I feel certain the previous owner did an engine swap on it. Steve Stevens knows more about what may have been in it, as my expertise comes from tearing them down and replacing most of the VW stock parts with goodies for running them in the desert. 

I had a 57 sitting on 64 pan. Full roll cage, 3" extended front end and 2" wider, 2" longer front trailing arms, Porsche 356 spindles with modifications to make them stronger, Porsche 356 steering box, Carrera seats, VW Bus 091 transaxle with straight cut 3rd and 4th aftermarket gears, shift tube sat on top of the tunnel, stock rear torsion bar housing was cut off and replace with an aftermarket chromemoly unit with torsion adjusters in the mid section, 2" wider X 3" longer rear trailing arms, Porsche 911 CV joints, 3 Bilstein shocks on each rear corner. The motor was a 2000CC 89mm stroke X 90mm bore, with an early Porsche 911 Zenith Carb. I did all the fabricating and motor work, which is extensive in order to get the stroked crank to clear the case. Spent endless hours working on the stock dual port heads rather than buying someones off the shelf. I don't remember what size valves I used but they were huge compared to stock valves, and the camshaft was quite mild.  I do not do tranny work, had all the desert mods done by a guy who worked for me.

I got a pair of Recaro bucket seats from a Datsun dealer when it became a Nissan dealer. I knew the parts manager and he sold them to me for a case of Coors beer. The rear seat was removed and I eventually put a fuel cell in it which came out of an old race car. It held 20 gallons of gas and sat very nicely behind the seats inside of an aluminum housing.

At one time, while living in Colorado, I installed a gas heater in it, a VW gas heater. You want to talk about something rare, the local VW dealer, at that time, didn't even know they existed. It turned out to be a real pain to keep it working so I removed it and wore more clothes if I took it anywhere during the winter.

This was a nice beater, but the one my son had was even nicer. Tell you aobut it at the reunion if you wish.

See you at the reunion, until then take care.

Yes Joe your correct the standard bug would need a back wind to go up Comanche Hill.  The USAF guy that bought in Germany said the factory did all the modifications.  And it was a Porsche engine, the VW dealership told me that, I am all thumbs under a car hood, I learned carpenter trade from my father, so an internal combution engine works by majic as far as I know.

The Jingle Bob was on the North end of town not too far from present day Goddard high School.