|
Kenyon
What a fantastic story.
There should be a place on the site to store treasures like this. And I couldn't
think of a better person to be looking out for Imps either.
Larry
1960 LeBaron Sedan
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2005 10:52
AM
Subject: IML: flightsweep tattoos and the
1964 lebaron
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
|
Back to the Home of the Forward Look Network