I recently purchased a 1964 LeBaron that was about an hour away in the Sonoma Valley, in California's wine country. The car had been outside for awhile but was still in pretty good shape, all things considered. I drove up and bought it on the spot. The guy was really nice but not very mechanically inclined, and I got it to run well just by fiddling around with a screwdriver. That clinched it for him and he was happy that the car was going to a good home. I returned several days later and availed myself of my girlfriend's AAA gold tow package that gives a free tow up to 100 miles. The best kind of tow service to have? Someone Else's! We called the AAA folks and they dispatched a wrecker. The guy showed up and was really nice to talk to. He immediately started looking the car over and was really interested in it. Most tow guys are pretty jaded and just want to hook and run, but he took the time to really look the car over and asked intelligent questions. We got the car up on the flatbed, and somone in our group wanted coffee, so I offered to buy him lunch or a drink or whatever if we could stop on the way out of this tinly little town (Glen Ellen). He agreed, and I figured the drink money was well spent - what with him carrying the car and all. So anyway, the stop took longer than expected, and he told us more about himself. This was his next to last day, and his boss was such a jerk that he had resigned to work somewhere else that was a 25 minute longer commute just to get out from under the bad boss. He was so fed up with the boss that he had gotten an old trophy and redone it for the boss. He was a sculptor and had fashioned a representation of male genitalia and put it on top of the old trophy, and had driven wood screws through the center-part of the two winged angels on either side of the trophy, making them "stand at attention" and had painted it some garish color. He was really looking forward to walking in on his last day and presenting his boss with this trophy in front of everyone and really letting it all hang out now that he didn't have to take the guy's baloney any more. He was articulate and really funny in how he described all of this, and seemed particularly pleased that he was hauling such a nice car, that it would take all day (depriving the boss of some tow revenue), and that he'd be occupied doing this pretty much until quitting time. I came out of the conversation thinking that this guy was really a nice person and was happy that he was the one doing the tow that day. So he followed us back to my place, and dropped the car in front of my house, where it is sitting as I write this. I already have a nice 1964, and this one isn't a keeper. I told him to hang on, and opened up the side gate where that one is. He went over and we all went into the side yard and looked over the imperials that I have there. He was really impressed and again asked intelligent questions and seemed to really be getting a kick out of talking about Imperials and learning about them and all. About 5 minutes in, he glanced over at the wood fence that is on one side of the carport where I have a bunch of emblems pressed into the wood. He pointed to the double-arrow Forward Look emblem that came off a Dodge or something and started to get really excited. He didn't know what it was called but sort-of stuttered and said that he KNEW that logo. Being that he didn't seem much the Mopar person based on questions asked, I was a little surprised. Then he rolled up his shirt-sleeve and proudly displayed the same Forward Look flightsweep emblem tattoed on his bicep. I'm not easliy impressed, but that was a real surprise - him being from out in the sitcks and not even really knowing what it meant and all. His stock went up about 200% right then and there as far as I was concerned. He wanted to know all about the logo and what was behind it. I probably would have done my homework before getting a tattoo like that myself, but to each his own... I gave him a brief history on it, told him about Virgil and his Fins. I gave him the emblem and a nice Forward Look ad out of my collection and he just about fainted on the spot out of happiness. I gave him my card and asked him to keep an eye open for Imperials in the Wine Country, and I somehow think that I'll be hearing from my new friend again. Interesting who you meet when you are into Imperials. ===== Kenyon Wills ----------------- http://www.imperialclub.com ----------------- This message was sent to you by the Imperial Mailing List. Please reply to mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and your response will be shared with everyone. Private messages (and attachments) for the Administrators should be sent to webmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To UN-SUBSCRIBE, go to http://imperialclub.com/unsubscribe.htm