It all started on September 5th, 1968. I had just returned from Japan and was headed to my new duty station at Kelly AFB, San Antonio, Texas. My high school sweetheart and I were married that day and departed with all of our worldly possessions loaded into my newly purchased 1963 VW Bug. We had to be in San Antonio by Sunday as my wife was transferring from Madison College in Harrisonburg, Virginia to Trinity University and registration for classes would begin that Monday. We just fell in love with our VW and had a lot of fun driving down to Texas. This was the first clutch driven car my new wife had ever driven and she took to it like a natural. Since I had taken an ‘early-out’ and reenlisted our next duty station would be on the island of Crete, Greece. As I was an NCO I was allowed to take a vehicle with me. The ’63 was great but we did not know how we would have it repaired as Crete did not offer a lot of options in that area so we took my reenlistment bonus and bought a brand new 1969 VW Bug from Auto Haus, San Antonio that cost exactly $2000.05! I had about $200 left from my bonus. So, in the meantime, we added a son to our entourage, now headed to Iraklion, Crete, Greece. While in Greece we drove all over the island enjoying the beautiful scenery of olive groves, vineyards, mountains, beaches and small, but very friendly villages. We usually had a full car with our friends Mike and Nancy, who had come in from Turkey. We even tried to reach some snow that was up on Mount Olympus driving on a road designed for horse carts, we almost made it but the road disappeared and we had to turn around at the 3000’ foot mark as the peak was still about two miles away. So, we went to Saint Nicholas instead and had a great time! To make a fifty-six-year story short, we returned to the U.S. to finish college and embark on our lives back home. We also added our second son to the family! Purchasing a Square-back, gas Rabbit, then a diesel Rabbit, followed by a gas Jetta, diesel Jetta (accumulated over 300k miles on that one), another diesel Jetta and during that time we had sold our 1969 to a college-bound student. We found and bought a 1968 Bug for our youngest son who then went off to Embry-Riddell College to get his A & P following his pilot brother. We then stripped down the ’68, which had its’ own passport from Germany, as it had been brought back by an enlisted man, and proceeded to restore the rusted-out body. Then 9/11 hit and restoration was temporarily halted and resumed 20 years later. I am happy to say that the ’68 (which was our year of marriage) is now fully restored and running just great. I’ve attached photos of the restoration to this letter. That gives us over fifty-six years now of a love affair that will continue until I am either taken home to heaven or unable to physically drive, which I will really not like. And all that time we have always owned a VW in our family, even our sons!