Pop Wilson

2009-09-24T14:50:00.000-07:00

Harold Wilson, Jr. or “Pop” as I and most others knew him is gone. Cancer took this friend from us on September 17, 2009.

I first saw Pop and his blue VW Baja Bug during a cruise at the 5-NDiner in Central Park, VA in 2005. Since I had raced VW’s in SoCal in the ‘60s and had specialized in their repair when I owned my Signal gas station I always felt drawn to VW’s when I saw them. Pop easilly shared his passion for VW's with anyone that would listen. Pop was at all the functions of the club he was in, Fredericksburg Classic & Muscle Car Club, and we saw each other many times over the years but I never established a deep friendship with him, it was more like an acquaintance. That’s my fault as I don’t like to have deep relationships with many people; it’s one of my many character flaws.

Pop worked at Fleet Services for Stafford County (central vehicle garage), and Linda would talk with him whenever she was in the garage for service on her school bus. Pop and Linda would have a “friendly” confrontation every Friday night at the cruise when he was selling the 50/50 tickets for local charities. Pop would walk up to her and say “just give me all your money” Linda would laugh and say she didn’t have any money but could use Charles’s money and they would both laugh. My wallet would always be lighter after Friday night but I knew it was going to be used to help people in need. Pop worked tirelessly at the functions that FC&MCC was involved with and he will be sorely missed. He had a saying on his VW,” Till Death Do We Part”, that now has special meaning. Sue, his wife of 30 years, was always with Pop. They were a team and as such represented a positive role model of how an interpersonal relationship should work.

Today at the Service for Pop, Sue got to see how many other people will miss him. The burial for Pop was at Quantico National Cemetery and we had a parade of “special” cars from Fredericksburg to Quantico, about 27 VW’s, Muscle cars and hot rods. After the service and while traveling from Quantico to the reception in Stafford we traveled on I95. There were three of us in our special cars traveling about 65 mph and I noticed a dot in my rear view mirror. The dot kept getting bigger.. ..it was Pop’s blue VW! Chasing me again! Chills ran down my back, I had to do a double take! Someone else was driving but it was a spirited driver, like Pop. I felt weird but then I thought Pop would want it that way....keep on driving.. ..life keeps going on. Rock on Pop!

.................A Friend Remembered

Pop Wilson