Dad's 1962 Volkswagen Beetle

My dad owned a 1962 VW Beetle.  He bought it from a guy in Monterey Park, who lived on or near Bradshawe.

I post these pictures because the previous owner of the car lived right around the block from this famous waterfall landmark in Monterey Park.  The city calls it the Monterey Park Cascades Waterfall, what the LA Times called "a waterfall-like terrace of pools."  Okay.  

Here is a black and white photo of the cascade dated 1945.  Note the conspicuous absence of homes around the cascades.

The following are found on Yelp, and a few of these photos are quite good, stunning, in fact.  

When he drove it home, he told his sons not to sit in the back portion or luggage section of the interior.  Fine.  We didn't.  Not for a while.  But we were small enough to fit and so ultimately one of them tested it to my dad's annoyance.  But he got over it.  He loved his Volkswagen bug.  He called it his paramour. 

In retrospect, he loved that car.  He drove it to work every morning from the 210 Freeway west to Orange Grove and then wind his way behind the hills in El Sereno on the Pasadena Freeway, getting off Hill Street and into Downtown.   Here is what his '62 Bug looked like.  The pictures come from here.

I loved the narrow running board.

But perhaps more distinctive were the turn signal lights above the door.  The Beetle also had the turn signal lights above the headlights as well.  It's just that the ones above the door made it distinctive.  

And initially at least I loved the simple design of the interior. My dad loved cars and had a good sense of their design.  Check out the door pockets below the handles.  Pretty cool.  He kept a map there. And note how the dashboard is flat, vertically flat.  On it he pinned a crucifix, a medallion of the Virgin Mary, and the Holy Family and turned the dashboard of his "salon," as Volkswagen calls it, into a private chapel.  perhaps more distinctive were the turn signal lights above the door.  The Beetle also had the turn signal lights above the headlights as well.  It's just that the ones above the door made it distinctive.  Dad's Beetle was a hard-top and not a convertible.  And the color?  A baby blue.