{"id":537,"date":"2025-07-26T06:09:40","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T11:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/howellgibbens.com\/blog\/?p=537"},"modified":"2025-08-09T23:32:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T04:32:22","slug":"the-peoples-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/howellgibbens.com\/blog\/the-peoples-car\/","title":{"rendered":"The people’s car"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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“I couldn’t find the car of my dreams, so I built it myself.”<\/em> Ferdinand Porsche<\/sub><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A couple of Saturdays ago I confessed my shameless pandering to the backyard chicken<\/a> lobby, and now I’ve decided to make my groveling for votes a weekly feature. Therefore, now I turn, hat in hand, to humbly ask for the support of Fairhope’s VW Beetle owners. If elected, I promise (within my first 100 days) to introduce an ordinance raising the downtown speed limit to 18 mph for all air-cooled vehicles manufactured in Wolfsburg, Germany. The Lower Alabama Volkswagen Association (LAVA<\/a>) has not yet heard my plea for an endorsement, but they will soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can’t recall a time when there wasn’t a Volkswagen in our family. I’ve been behind the wheel (and under the engine) of so many of these cars that I’ve lost track. I’ve had sedans…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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…convertibles…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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…and driven back and forth across the country in a ’63 that had a broken starter solenoid…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*** I want to send a big, 1300cc thank you to Matt Harrison<\/a>, who found me after more than 20 years, and Dave Bartlett<\/a>, who shot that great footage. John Ford<\/a> smiles. ***<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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I can’t recall a time when there wasn’t a Volkswagen in our family. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t