HaulingAssThroughTheWindsorTunnelVille
I know a guy that grew up in Windsor Ontario in the '60's.
One of the great stories he owns is the time he loaded his freak friends into a tie-dyed, burned-out 1957 Pontiac station wagon for a trip to Detroit to see the MC5.
In the beginning they made a run for it over the Ambassador Bridge but were sent back when one of the Customs officers figured that one of the denizens in the back, back seat was just too stoned to enter the US of A.
Fair enough.
Being a polite Canucklehead my friend turned around and headed back to the northside of the bridge where he dropped off the super-stoner and promptly high-tailed it for the The Tunnel where they had better luck and made it to the gig just before the opening act went on. He thinks it might have been an early Ted Nugent vehicle, but he just can't quite remember through the Fog of Lore.
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Anyway, looks like we're getting ready to start sending vehicles through the Tunnel again.
This time it's a whole mess of Minivans to, get this, replace those super-heavy, super-expensive, super-macho Humvees that, armoured are not, are just not making it.
WINDSOR, Canada — The U.S. Armed Forces have ordered 19,000 minivans and 5,000 Pacificas from the Chrysler Group for use as light-duty vehicles in Iraq and elsewhere around the world, displacing less fuel-efficient Humvees, according to the Windsor Star.
The switch to the gas-powered school-carpool mainstays is designed to reduce fuel consumption and improve passenger-carrying ability. The U.S. military has complained it is inefficient to use Humvees to carry a few soldiers at a time, especially in noncombat situations.
The minivans — all gold-colored — will be built at Chrysler's St. Louis, Missouri, and Windsor assembly plants.
"The U.S. government has put their down payment on the vehicles and we're building them already," a plant source told the Star. "They're supposed to be going to Iraq as taxis and stuff."
Sure, sure. I can hear the jokes about the need to start recruiting (or drafting?) Soccer Moms already.
Still, can't help but wonder if there is not a little bit of historical Karma at work here.
After all, in our time of need during the early years of WWII it was FDR that came to our aid when we needed American flying machines the most. The difference was, instead of tunnels and bridges, back then we just used teams of horses to haul the goods across the Prairie.
"To comply with neutality laws which stated military aircraft could not be flown to warring parties...in this case to Canada which was at war with Germany... the various aircraft acquired from the US were flown and taxied to within a few feet of the border. This was usually in the midwest such as North Dakota/Manitoba borders. The aircraft were then dragged across as you see in the picture, started and flown away."
Strange days indeed.
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Original Link from sukabi at the AllSpinZone.
Update: Matt The Hot Dog Man has his own great Windsor/Detroit crossing story here.
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