Why it's so easy to love a 1974 VW camper

The first vehicle I ever owned was a 1974 Volkswagen camper. 

It was bought new by my father, and handed over to me in the early 1980s as a Christmas gift.

As a teenager, a bright orange mini motorhome wouldn't be considered the coolest set of wheels, but I loved it. I could bus a bunch of people all at once.  

We could hang out in the back, with a fold up table. If a party went too late, the van had a built-in bed. 

When I pulled up for a first date in that VW camper, my future girlfriend wondered what she was getting into. It turned out to be a lengthy relationship. Three years later, I proposed to her while driving that van.

But when we moved to northern Saskatchewan as newlyweds the van had to go. The heat never worked properly and the winters in La Ronge were too cold. Whenever I see a VW camper on the road, I think fondly of my few years commuting to the University of Regina, camping in the summers, and scraping the inside of the windshield in the winter. 

This past week my fuzzy teenage memories were restored to high definition as I went for a spin in a 1974 VW camper for a story on CBC Sudbury's "Morning North."

It was part of series about interesting vehicles and the people who drive them. 

Ron Carscadden of Sudbury bought his 1974 VW camper 10 years ago from a couple who had used theirs to travel Europe, then had it transported home to Canada. 

The original orange had since been painted blue. And the sink has been replaced with an extra seat in the back.

But it was like stepping back into my childhood: the putt-putt of the engine, sitting high behind the big manual steering wheel with the four speed gear stick on the floor. 

Ron caught the VW "bug" when he bought his first VW Beetle from a friend back in the 80s, about the same time I was driving my camper. 

"It's a sickness we just can't get away from," he told me. 

Ron has since owned ten Volkswagens and he knows them by name: Rosie, Sally, Vanna, Jesse, Josie, Oscar Josee, Ozzy, Jerry and Anna.  

"I believe they have a spirit and you have to give them a proper name," he said. 

The licence plate on Josee reads VDUBLUV, and Ron gets plenty of love on the road.

As we drive through Sudbury, people smile and nod.

I asked him what he likes about the camper. 

"They're simple. They're fun. I think it's just the nostalgia," he told me.

And for me, it is the nostalgia: reliving a time when I was just starting to roll down the highway of life.