Beetle Mania

By Jackie Lambert

I have had a love of VWs since I was a child. I was brought up in the RAF and lived abroad for most of my young life. My dad always had old cars and I’ve always loved them. My dad bought my mum a VW Beetle as her first car when she passed her test and when I married we moved to Zambia and my husband turned up one day with a Beetle as MY first car. I hadn’t even passed my test so had to teach myself to drive. I was told to “just get on with it” which I did! Sadly we had to leave it behind when we came home.

My son knew I always wanted another one so when he started work he bought me on off Ebay for £100. It was a complete wreck. It had to be towed home from Huddersfield to Darlington and one of the wheels came off going round a roundabout! Eventually we got it home and parked up on the drive. It then went under a comprehensive restoration.

On my first trip out to visit my mum I managed to hit a car in front of me and completely crushed the front. I was mortified! Telling my husband was scary! We had to have a new bonnet and have it resprayed.

We then decided to go to our first festival which was Bug Jam and asked the advice of our mechanic. He said to stop every 100 miles and let it cool down…but it decided to stop itself every 90-100 miles, but we eventually got there in one piece!

Since then we have enjoyed many festivals and made many good friends. I even used it as my daily runner for a while. I loved driving it around town. It made people smile, they always waved especially the kids.

Sadly we no longer have the Beetle but we have upgraded to a 1978 Bay Window campervan in which we have had many happy holidays with friends and been to many festivals. Hopefully this will carry on for many more years to come.