Is this a good idea?

["Hugh & Therese" <hugtrees@xxxxxxxx>]

I am keen to get some feedback about an idea I have already begun working
on.  I am sending this because I think it is absolutely Imperial related,
and something at least a few list members might be interested to know about
but unless you can be sure to keep it Imperial related, you'd be best served
to e-mail any reply to me directly at

hugtrees@xxxxxxxx

I have had a preliminary discussion with my local PBS station about doing a
show, maybe a series, that would feature Mrs. Blueberry, "my" 1958, as its
star.  I say "my" because the car actually belongs to the transportation
museum which I now run, though I was a volunteer for over ten years before
this fortunate development.

The idea is that Mrs. Blueberry would travel around San Antonio and
surrounding towns and find out about local history as she travels.  I am
writing a railroad history book right now and have had a discussion about
more books to follow.  It's a trick, using the Imperial, to make looking at
local history more interesting to children, who happen to find the 1958 old,
weird and cool, certainly a far remove from everyday cars.

There are lots of photo opportunities to pose the car in front of court
houses, missions, etc, and going over historic bridges.  There is a place at
the airport that services Boeing 707s.  As this aircraft entered service in
1958, it would be so cool to have the 58 Imperial and a 707 posed together.
The car will soon be fifty years old, so it would be good way of mixing old
and new, with pictures of horses in the same place in pictures now over a
hundred years old.  I think the car has enough character to sustain the
idea.  Someone, maybe me, would be styled as her chauffeur.  The back seat,
the place of honor, would be reserved for the viewers, although this may be
stretching the idea a little too thin.

What would, I think, be fun although it would stray somewhat from the
history angle, would be for
Mrs. Blueberry to meet other Imperials in different places.  There is a 66
and a 56 in San Antonio that I know of.  There are more in Austin and
another in Marble Falls.  I just think it would be so cool to use this
device.  So few people even know what an Imperial is, so it would be
intriguing to have them congregate.  It would reinforce the idea that there
is all this interesting stuff going on all around you that you won't see if
you don't take the time to notice.

Some of you may think this is a "brain dead" idea.  That's OK.  Maybe it is.
Maybe all my ideas are.  But even from a strictly Imperial obsessive stand
point, it would be good to see the cars becoming part of the larger cultural
perspective.

Hugh Hemphill
San Antonio
hugtrees@xxxxxxxx