ML: After 44 years, the engine could have been complete...

["Larry Noska" <lnoska@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Wow what a find

Dads 82

Lawrence R Noska
lnoska@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Hauser, ID 83854

-----Original Message-----
From: mailing-list-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:mailing-list-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of PNKMoore@xxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, April 19, 2004 8:58 PM
To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: IML: ML: After 44 years, the engine could have been complete...

This past weekend I took a trip to Hazlehurst, Mississippi to assess an
estate property for work.  This is the same estate from which I recently 
purchased
my Imperial: a '58 Southampton 4 door.  The car left Hazelhurst in 1960 when
the gentleman who had purchased it new died.  His daughter inherited it and the
car was transported by her son, then about 23, to Shreveport where it
remained until two weeks ago.  Today he's 66 and my client.

The Hazlehurst property was originally a "city farm," meaning it was in town
with the house facing a main residential street.  To the rear there was an 8
acre field with support buildings, garden, paddock, etc.  The house was closed
in 1960 and has suffered innumerable violations over the years.  I went to
take a survey of the risk/value of the place to the estate and determine if the
buildings were best slated for demolition, etc.  I went on Sunday morning
because it was my first chance, and I wanted to get up there as soon as possible
after getting the case.  Once the Mississippi heat sets in the critters and
snakes get feisty in old places like that, and I didn't want to have to make any
new "friends."

While it was a somewhat sad errand to see a once grand old house fallen to
ruin, I did enjoy climbing through the house itself and lurking around the
outbuildings, wondering what it was like 44 years ago when the Imperial lived
there.  I had another attorney with me, and both of us enjoyed the opportunity 
to
do something
"legal" that really just felt like fun. 

The barns, servants' quarters and carriage house were either collapsed or
completely gone but a more modern garage, built on a slab and covered in tin
instead of wooden siding, was still standing. ("Is" still standing.  I was there
only yesterday!) The garage was completely hidden in the trees and brush, and
being so hard to see it escaped some of the theft that was so apparent in the
main house.  Some cans and bottles and miscellaneous junk were still on the
shelves and strewn on the floor.  The pedestal and guts of an ancient TV were in
there, the "carved" Bakelite knobs being the only remotely intact portion.

I looked around among the wreckage to see if there was anything to walk away
with. 

I found something: Standing in a bucket, next to a collapsed workbench, was
the sparkplug wire cover for the passenger side of my 392 Hemi.  Alas, it had
obviously been sitting in water for a long time, at least until the bucket
sprang a leak, and it was hopelessly rusted.  Still I was amazed to find it,
knowing that it must had stood there for 44 years after being removed from the 
car.

I continue to look for a replacement wire cover, having missed a chance to
bid on a pair on Ebay last week. Darnit!  Nonetheless, at least I know where the
original one went!

I also found a twisted, nearly unrecognizable piece of thin chrome under the
leaves in front of the garage.  I'm wondering if it's the trim piece off of
the right rear windshield molding over the deck of the Imperial.  I haven't had
a chance to hold it up to the remaining chrome to check, but I have my
suspicions.

I walked away with some poison ivy, some very minor architectural knick
knacks, dirty clothes and a bruised ankle of my own making. (I stepped through 
the
floor in the kitchen, though I should have known better.  Termites, I guess.)
I also have one more little chapter to the story of my old car, a chapter that
no one but us IML folks will appreciate!

Patrick Moore
1958 4 door Southampton
Southeast Louisiana