IML: The first Imperial I ever saw

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

As a newcomer to the USA, I saw my first ever Imperial in 1992.  Actually I 
saw it often without noticing it at a museum in which I had just become a 
member.  I was new to Texas and did not know many people and I hated the 
idea of joining some ex-patriot club or something like that and I am not a 
church goer, so the offer to join the museum seemed good to me, even though 
I was not that interested in trains, which make up an even bigger proportion 
of the museum now than they did before.

The Imperial was introduced to me, not by other museum members, but by 
visitors who were excited to see it.  Unlike any other car, they always 
wanted to pop the hood.  They also wanted me start it up to hear the hemi 
roar but that hadn't happened in years and they always seemed so 
disappointed.

The car grew on me and the museum was going through a period of transition 
and I wasn't the most popular guy with the old guard and me and a very 
disturbed Vietnam veteran decided to h*ll with them all and let's fire up 
the most useless car in the joint and we'd show 'em.  The car could not be 
rented out or run in parades and it was a gas hog and nobody else liked it 
and that was good enough for us.

We use negative criticism as fuel and get more things done than all those 
smart alecks who know everything and achieve nothing and we put a battery in 
it and water in the radiator and it turned over on the first attempt and 
filled the one hundred foot long building with smoke and I can remember it 
like it was yesterday and, oh my goodness, that hemi roar was worth it.

And the real work started and I was left alone to do it and I didn't know a 
darn thing and I kept going and the water pump drove me crazy but not as 
much as the brakes and I love the car to this day and it lives at my house 
now and everyone thinks its mine and it was year's before I ever saw another 
Imperial and even longer before I saw one that was outside of a junk yard 
and that was almost as cool as being able to drive mine on the highway and 
if you haven't driven an Imperial with a 392 hemi I'm not sure why you even 
like Imperials except the styling was always pretty good except for one or 
two years but I won't go into that.

The car changed my life and I became chairman of the museum board and now 
manager and of all things I am writing a book about trains because I had to 
find something to do while my car is still in the shop minus its engine and 
transmission and its driving me nuts not being able to drive it but the book 
is being published in the fall but I'd rather be on the highway listening to 
that hemi sing its song of love to the universe and this is how an Imperial 
should make you feel and it's OK to be a little crazy about these cars 
because you never know where they will take you if you just let them.

Hugh
58 Imperial, Mrs. Blueberry to you, and I hope to get it back on the road 
soon. 




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