My father in law introduced me to the reality of owning a bay , i finally met him in 1978 after dating his Daughter for two years in secret , why i hear you ask , because he was a blooming big Italian bloke with a quick temper and Lou said it would be wise to give him a wide berth . i eventually got invited home in great ceremony , i put on my best suit , best manners and with trepidation went with a bunch of flowers for Lou's mum in hand . Lou greeted me at the door and whispered something about taking no notice of his swearing ,he was busy , Busy , he was rebuilding a type 1 twin port on the coffee table , Ma was giving him grief and Lou was trying to introduce me , he nochelantly looked up , grunted a hello and went back to trying to get the tappet spring retainer back in ( he was using a old pair of pliers ) , i marvelled at his persistance as it had obviously beaten him and i smiled when he swore in broken English , when he was exasperated beyond reason i took hold of the pliers and held the spring down firm while he slipped on the retainer clip , Ta he grunted , picked up the tv remote switched on the tele and ignored me . within month's i owned his early Devon caravanette , he taught me loads , he had driven vws to southern italy for years , he started with splittys and finished with bays , he could fix em blindfold , he knew every little thing about them , he always bodged the jobs cos he had no patience for mechanics but he knew them inside out . He was also a master builder ,he renovated our first house for free and when i decided to switch from office bound building to running my own firm it was because of the encouragement and help i got from him , if there was a building job he could'nt do then he knew someone who could . He sadly died a few years back aged 75 , we flew his body back to Naples and lay him to rest in the family chapel . One of his many legacys was a celler filled with air cooled engines and gear boxes , his family cleared it all out for scrap unfortunately , i know he had two type fours complete down there , i bought em with him ages ago , its only now i remember what they were . As my van nears completion Ma has taken a keen interest in the final date , and today i went around to see her with Lou and she presented me with this -- On the condition i display it on the van in memory of Antonio , the man who introduced me to vw ownership and taught me to build properly , i was lost for words !! it can go alongside this -
I went out with a Maltese girl years ago who's dad was renowned for being the local hard nut gangster type. He had various businesses doing various "things". Everyone warned me to stay clear of his "princess" but I ignored them. We dated in secret for a few months and eventually I suggested I got to meet her dad. She made it clear this was NOT a good idea but eventually she arranged it. On the day I got to meet him he immediately took me aside and laid down the law regarding his "princess". I agreed to take care of her and that was that. We went out with each other for over a year and during that time me and her dad became great mates. Even when I split with his daughter eventually we remained good friends if I ever saw him down the pub. Only thing that peed me off was that he owned an e type Jag and assured me that one day it would be mine.......as a wedding gift when I married his daughter!
Great story - reading about that generation, and the ones before it, makes me think our generation is generally a bunch of wet farts.
