Wednesday, June 2, 2010

BloggeRhythms 6/2/2010

Politics and sportswise, readers should be very happy because, as far as I know, there’s nothing worth my blogging their eyes out about in either case. So, that brings me back again to simply reminiscing. Except, today it’s not about me, but a couple of others.

Somewhere during my teens Volkswagen's became available in the U.S. I myself have never been in one, for no particular reason, and don’t remember really knowing any VW owners, but I do remember clearly a story about one.

There were a set of twins in my neighborhood when most of us reached driving age, and these two boys resided on 93rd Street and Park Avenue in Manhattan. These boys were extremely bright, adventurous and possessed great senses of humor. Let’s call them Tom and Tim.

Tom and Tim had a close friend who lived nearby, was a very nice guy, but was of the gullible sort. T & T good-naturedly teased him about all kinds of things all the time. And it was T & T’s good friend who went out and acquired a brand new VW Coupe.

As T & T told the story to me they said that the one thing their friend, the new VW owner, talked about all the time was that the car was supposed to have the best fuel performance on the road. And, above all else, spending the least he possibly could for gas was more important than anything else concerning cars, and that’s why he’d wanted it in the first place.

At that time T & T were both driving cars and far more experienced in the how to’s of owning vehicles in the city than their friend was, and continually gave their friend advice. They especially drilled into him the importance of always parking the car in a safe place. Because, although our neighborhood was among the most secure imaginable, a few blocks away north or east could land you in a whole different world, even way back then.

What they finally told the new VW owner was, that to be absolutely sure that his car was parked appropriately; he was to call them each and every evening without fail and tell them precisely where he’d parked. After all, his car was potentially at stake. And that’s exactly what the new VW owner did, from day one of possessing the car.

Now knowing where the VW was parked each night, T & T went to the spot with a can of gasoline and filled the tank to the top. And every day when their friend drove around, hardly a dent was made in the fuel consumption, because VW’s did indeed get very good gas mileage. But this one in particular, being secretly filled each night never needed a refueling at all.

This phenomenon went on for some time and their friend was overwhelmed because he’d made an incredibly good choice of vehicle. With no noticeable fuel consumption, operating this auto was literally free. He was overjoyed.

T & T let this game go on for some time, with their friend’s pleasure of vehicle choice continually reaching new heights. And then, one night they reversed the procedure. They’d go to the VW, put a tube in the gas tank, and siphon out all but a small amount.

Then, in no time, their friend’s reports to them about remarkable gas mileage stopped, and the reverse took place. He couldn’t imagine, he told them, how on Earth something like this could happen. After all, he’d driven for months on one tank of gas and now couldn’t make it more that a few blocks without running out of fuel. This was insane, he said, and he didn’t know what to do.

Why, you’ve got to take the car back to the dealership T & T told their friend, and explain this phenomenon to them. Tell them about how you drove for weeks and weeks and never needed a drop of fuel, and now this. They sold that car to you, and they’ve got to fix it.

T & T told me that their friend did, indeed, go back to the dealership and related his tale. Apparently, whoever he spoke to listened to the story quite skeptically, certain that it could never have happened that a vehicle, no matter what kind, had traveled all those miles on a single tank of gas. Both sides then became adamant, insisting that their side of the issue was the truth and things started getting out of hand.

The last they’d heard, they told me, was that their friend’s parents became involved in the matter, insisting that their offspring was as honest as they came and as for the dealership, they insisted the whole thing was some kind of incredible story, impossible to believe. From there it mushroomed into a case involving attorneys, legal briefs, courts and things like that.

But, one of the reasons I related this story is that it goes to show what you can do with a fertile mind, some time on your hands, a piece of flexible tubing and an empty gas can.

That’s it for today folks.

Adios

1 comment:

  1. Wow!!! You've made a writer wordless. Thanks a zillion.

    Mike Berke

    ReplyDelete