So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[2jakes]

One good thing about my beetle is no matter what kind of weather, the engine always starts.
I usually give her a few minutes before I take off.

About the only time it gets spooky is on the rare occasions I have to go on the monster freeway.
A strong gust of side wind or fast speeding vehicle & the buggy will swerve a few inches.

 

[LizzieMaine]

My Beetle always started, even when the starter didn't work. I just had to remember to park it on a hill.

 

[2jakes]

I call my beetle the frankenwagenstein which I’m sure it was created by this doctor.

It’s a ’52 split window, ’57 fenders & signal lights, 60s bumper guards with a ’63 engine modified to 12 volts.
Not shown are the mirrors on each side which I was working on when this photo was
taken.

 

[William G.]

This is probably weird, but I put my towels & clothes in the dryer. It feels great to put on the warm
toasty clothes after a morning shower.
I would rather take a hot bath in the morning but I find it very difficult to get out & my mind starts to
think of reasons to call in sick or ways to justify that I can’t come in today for work.

My VW beetle takes a bit to warm up .
But I’m ok, because the last thing I take out of the dryer is my jacket, gloves
& blanket.

Not weird at all. Val does that, particularly in the fall when the cold weather first hits.

 

[JimWagner]

My Beetle always started, even when the starter didn't work. I just had to remember to park it on a hill.

For some reason you've called up a memory of the movie "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming" where the Russian submarine crew hijacks an old VW to get into town. I know that was supposed to be set on Gloucester Island, Mass. but the locals always seemed more like Mainers to me. One of my all time favorite movies.

 

[Bamaboots]

When the FBI first started doing profiling of suspected serial killers, one of the earliest common denominators they found was the personal vehicle used by so many, the VW Beetle. Just saying. Of course, my 77 Super Beetle was one of my all time favorite cars.

 

[ChiTownScion]

My favorite Beetle story took place early 1960's.

My late great bachelor uncle was a winter ski bum who'd work his building trade all spring, summer, and fall... then head out to Aspen (back before it got too corporate and overpriced) and spend 4 weeks to 2 months on the slopes.

One night his best pals, another Irish bachelor, got deathly ill. There was no hospital in Aspen itself at that time that could adequately treat him, and the Eisenhower Tunnel on what is now Interstate 70 had not yet been built. So, the nearest hospital that could provide needed care was to the east over Loveland Pass, a 12,000 foot (3,655m) summit.. and the night offered blizzard driving conditions.

Now, I've hit snow on that pass in August and coming down from the summit in it was sheer terror, but I was told that this was really a blinding blizzard. His little '62 Beetle made it through at about 10 MPH, in time to save his pal's life from what turned out to be a rupturing appendix.

Thus, I have always admired those vehicles. They can get through just about anything.

 

[Stearmen]

I've never seen anyone eat in any way other than the "proper" way with both utensils. If Americans have a reputation for cutting their food, putting down their knife and then moving their fork to the other hand, I don't know where it comes from. I've never seen it.

That's interesting, out here, in the Old west, we always put the knife down after cutting our meat, one bite at a time. Manners are fairly impotent out here, so that may account for it, we get tired of Easterners turning their noses up at us!

 

[Zombie_61]

...I've already seen it, both here in London and Beijing. Typically it sends the order direct to the kitchens. Can be great, all depending on how well laid out it is...

I was thinking strictly about a "tablet" type device for customers to read, and hadn't considered wireless connectivity to place the customers' orders. With the thought that such a device might someday replace a human wait staff, I'm even more against the idea.

One good thing about my beetle is no matter what kind of weather, the engine always starts.
I usually give her a few minutes before I take off..

In John Muir's book "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot", he suggests warming up the engine for the same amount of time it would take to roll a cigarette and get it drawing well. I've known a few people who could do that rather quickly, so I always allowed my Beetles to warm up for about five minutes instead.

...About the only time it gets spooky is on the rare occasions I have to go on the monster freeway.
A strong gust of side wind or fast speeding vehicle & the buggy will swerve a few inches.

When I had my first Beetle, one day a friend and I were in a very rural area on a highway with two lanes in either direction and soft dirt shoulders. One gust of wind hit us so hard that it blew us right off of the tarmac; in the blink of an eye we found ourselves driving through the desert parallel to the highway.

My favorite Beetle story took place early 1960's...Thus, I have always admired those vehicles. They can get through just about anything.

I've owned three Beetles--a 1961, 1966, and 1963, in that order--and if there was one thing I learned it was that they'll run almost forever and take you just about anywhere you want to go as long as you maintain them properly, and leave them alone and let them be a Volkswagen (i.e., don't try to turn them into a race car or a circus wagon). And don't be in a hurry to get anywhere.

 

[Trenchfriend]

"...und läuf und läuft und läuft".

 

[Edward]

I was thinking strictly about a "tablet" type device for customers to read, and hadn't considered wireless connectivity to place the customers' orders. With the thought that such a device might someday replace a human wait staff, I'm even more against the idea.

There's already a Mc Donalds in London where it has replaced staff for the stage of taking the order. Can't see it ever becoming a norm in manybplaces, though. They've had a chsin of vending machine fast food places in Holland for years and its never caught on beyond the novelty of that one, localised chain.

 

[GHT]

They've had a chain of vending machine fast food places in Holland for years and its never caught on beyond the novelty of that one, localised chain.

They probably had difficulty finding a programmer who could replicate a real waitress. Nothing like a human face for customer service.

 

[JimWagner]

The Red Robin chain, at least near us, is experimenting with tablets on the tables mounted on fairly heavy stands. You can order and pay for your meal without ever seeing wait staff if you want to. Other than getting your food delivered to the table and the occasional drink top off you are on your own. Just how much should you tip a tablet anyway?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Our local Applebees has some kind of gadget on the tables now, but I never see them being used for anything other than playing trivia games.

The Horn and Hardart Automat chain in New York and Philadelphia eliminated waitstaff over a hundred years ago, with a wall of coin-operated vending boxes. Although there were cooks in charge of reheating the food when it arrived from the central commissary, and busboys in charge of clearing the tables, it was possible, if you arrived with a pocket full of nickels, to eat your meal with no human interaction whatsoever.

Interestingly, H&H found that many customers complained that they missed the human interaction, and eventually some Automat locations replaced many of the vending machines with a regular cafeteria line where you'd go along with a tray and pick up hot food from actual servers.

 

[HudsonHawk]

That's interesting, out here, in the Old west, we always put the knife down after cutting our meat, one bite at a time. Manners are fairly impotent out here, so that may account for it, we get tired of Easterners turning their noses up at us!

We eat one bite at a time too, we just don't get fussy about which hand is holding the fork. It's stab, slice, down the hatch.

 

[GHT]

The Horn and Hardart Automat chain in New York and Philadelphia eliminated waitstaff over a hundred years ago.

The Nashville based: Shoneys franchises have no waiting staff, you pay before dining, then go to the food selection counter, take a plate and fill it with your choice. I haven't been there for a good few years, but when I was there last, the deal was that you could eat as much as you like, replenishing your plate over and over. Actually, they instruct you to select a clean plate every time you go back for more. I wonder if the deal is still the same or if the obesity police have forced a change?

 

[ChiTownScion]

Our local Applebees has some kind of gadget on the tables now, but I never see them being used for anything other than playing trivia games.

Chili's as well, for paying the bill with a card. A big time saver.

 

[HudsonHawk]

The Nashville based: Shoneys franchises have no waiting staff, you pay before dining, then go to the food selection counter, take a plate and fill it with your choice. I haven't been there for a good few years, but when I was there last, the deal was that you could eat as much as you like, replenishing your plate over and over. Actually, they instruct you to select a clean plate every time you go back for more. I wonder if the deal is still the same or if the obesity police have forced a change?

Buffets are still pretty common, especially with the family crowd. You just have to be careful about how many snot-nosed kids are running back and forth.

 

[swanson_eyes]

They probably had difficulty finding a programmer who could replicate a real waitress. Nothing like a human face for customer service.

I've been there. It's awesome, so funny. They really are very nice, but great at acting. They sing on the bar, too, if I remember correctly.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I spent two winters -- real Maine winters, as in below zero -- driving a '69 Beetle thirty-four miles to work at 4 AM. I kept a pair of heavy woolen hunting socks in the glove compartment as protection against frostbite, which was a very real danger on these trips.

I kept a long handled ice scraper in the back seat -- when it sleeted I'd often have to reach out the window and scrape the ice off the outside of the windshield so I'd have some idea of where I was going. I'd do this while the car was in motion, which was ever so much fun.

Oh yeah, the funny (german) massmarket-ice-scrapers.
I have got exactly one of this heavy "working-horses"-wedges http://w3.giffitsstatic.com/pics/c400/302630_1.jpg and I love them! You can take it in your hand perfectly and work real hart and efficient with it! A real "tool". Next to it, I think, the most other usual scarpers are real crap, because you can not apply with it, really good, because of their handles.

But heavy german frost on your car-windows needs a heavy wedge, like the above on, I tell you! It always worked for me, perfectly. Shaved the frost away, on 99% of the cases!
And I scrape, like I learned it from TV-car-education: From the window-edge straight horizontal to the inside/middle.