Taking the Plunge!

My father's sister came back from serving in Europe as a WWII Army nurse and promptly pulled up stakes and moved to Los Angeles.

It was the late 1940's and she looked the part. She bleached her hair blonde, wore red lipstick, and squeezed herself into sweaters too tight for New England sensibilities. Not only that, she gave up nursing to become a professional Latin ballroom dancer and moved in with a Hungarian man named Bruno who sported one of those pencil thin mustaches. It was all a bit.....much.

But to her niece, she was just my kooky aunt Avis. 

One summer my brother and I went to California for a visit. We hopped into her car and Bruno drove like a madman through the side streets of Los Angeles until a final swerve set us onto a dock jutting out into one of the local lakes. Without warning he gunned the engine and off the pier we went.

The Amphicar 770 was a German car produced in the early 1960's, the same model in whose backseat we were then strapped. It functioned both on land and in water. But most importantly, it convinced me beyond a shadow of a doubt, that my aunt was the coolest person ever. 

A review of the Amphicar summed it up this way..... 

"It's not a good boat, nor is it a good car."