Show The Herald Journal Logan Utah Monday October Valley-free-la- showcase nce By Warren Johnson "Why are we stopping here Dad?" My daughter looks at me impatiently as we brake to a stop beside a cow pasture "It’s that old Hudson over there” I reply looking off toward a familiarly shaped but badly rusted hulk "Haven't seen one around Cache Valley in years" "Hudson? Wasn’t he that old actor that died of something a while back?" “No no dear Not an actor! An automobile! " I’m already out of my pickup stepping carefully through the road ditch As we approach the old car I can see that it is even in worse condition than it appeared from the road The elements and passing years have not treated it kindly But I see through the rust the faded paint and cracked glass even through the weeds trying to reclaim the space of ground that it occupies Once again I see it as it looked the day it rolled from the showroom floor of Humphrey and Evans Motors at 335 North Main in Logan The blue streamlined finish is gleaming the chrome glittering the white walls are round once more the rear ones half covered by fender skirts I can hear the powerful engine silent these many years roar back to life The sleek car races off holds gracefully as it rounds a curve climbs a grade effortlessly then streaks away A Mazda passes by on the road jarring me back to the present The spell is broken "Rice burner!" I shout after the fast disappearing Mazda Back to the old and rusted relic I walk around and peer through a dirty and cracked window at the high dashboard I i Barely legible on the round speedometer is the car’s top speed of 120 miles per hour It was not put there by some overly optimistic designer The Hudson was a fait automobile The Montana Highway Patrol even used some of them for pursuit cars “What's so special about this old car Dad?" "A lot of things dear The Hudson Motor Company had been a respected American institution for over four decades when this car was built It pioneered features like the step down interior It’s time on the Pike’s Peak run wasn’t broken for years Now it’s all just a memory" "Might someone take this one and fix it up again?" “Oh there is a chapter of the HET club in Utah That stands for Hudson Essex and Terraplane The last two were less expensive models that the company tried for a time The club locates these old cars and restores them Resurrect might be a better term for this one should anyone ever be so ambitious ai to tnr to bring it back" My daughter tugs at my sleeve "Let’s go Dad" I see why she is so anxious to leave Passing motorists are slowing down to stare at us I know what they’re thinking Surely anyone who can be so fascinated with this old derelict must not be playing with a full deck! We turn and trudge back across the meadow toward my waiting pickup We stop at the wire fence and I help her as we pick our way between the barbed strands I steal a last glance at the CM car I wonder how it survived a time when it’s kind was in demand tor stock car races and demoliton derbies sort of an indirect compliment to it’s powerful engine and rugged construction Far better that it should have been torn up in such a contest than to meet an ignoble end like rusting Feels thinks believes Try this sentence for size: "The manager feels his second baseman needs more busting practice” A reader in Seattle wonders if the manager properly feels thinks or believes — or is there any difference in the verbs? The dictionaries are not much help Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate defines "feel" in part as "believe think to be conscious of an inward impresson" Webster's defines “believe" as "to hold an opinion think" It defines "think" as "to have an opinion regard as consider" American Heritage says about the same thing Example of "feel": “His answer was felt to be evasive" Example of “believe" in the sense of expect or suppose: "I believe he will come shortly" Example of "think" in the sense of believe: "I always thought he was right" We are dealing here with nuances with what the Supreme Court is fond of calling "penumbras” the little shadows that exist beyond the substance itself In casual speech there may not be a dime’s worth of difference in the choice of feel think or believe If a party is getting riotous "I feel (think believe) it’s time to get out of here” They all have the same meaning In careful writing the distinctions are worth The gradations if I am not preserving 13 1986 — away in a cow pasture! We climb back into my pickup buckle up and drive slowly off "If they were such great can Dad why aren’t they around any more?" "Well they had been a tough company Tough enough to survive the depression But a strike and a steel shortage back in the early 50s weakened them Then they were absorbed by the Company known now as American Motors A few more cars rolled out of the AMC factory with the Hudson name on them but they weren’t like the old ones at all totally unworthy of the Hudson insignia And that’s how a great ear became extinct'’ “Kind of like the passenger pigeon and buffalo herds W'' Nash-Kelvinat- huh?” I didn’t answer I’m trying to recall the vision of that old car in all it’s glory s i wvwfwr wmswuwnr wives in STiT oM Dodge and says h is sentimental about old SmMMWd With £22: daughters He Has had hi thjfr publlstwd on the Valley page in the past EL"? Tl if? Water's Art lie in the depth of one’s convictions To "believe" is the strongest term: Christians believe in one God Father almighty and so forth On a fast run to the airport "I believe we will make it" carries a sense of uncertainty It transpires that a certain couple were living together out of wedlock: "I believed they were married" carried an overtone of disillusion "I thought they were married" is not so surprised Because of its tactile meaning "to feel" is less cerebral "I feel she dislikes me" is a mistaken subjective impression not a considered conclusion As the animosity become more evident "I think she dislikes me” When the face has been slapped “By George I believe she dislikes me” As for the baseball manager and his erring infielder "think” would have been better than “feel" Once a manager believes a second baseman needs bunting practice the second baseman is in trouble 'jvJn is there any difference? Other readers lately have raised other fine James J Kilpatrick or points A gentlewoman in Lebanon Ore challenges the statement that a child "drowned" in four feet of water She believes the verb properly should be "was drowned” but "drowned" has been correct since the 14th century To say that the child was drowned would suggest that someone held the child’s head under water The passive voice is required at least by careful writers in the matter of "to graduate" Properly speaking a student does not graduate from college It is the college that does the graduating "John was graduated from Indiana University in 1966" A recurring question has to do with the subjunctive In the Raleigh (NC) News A Observer we find this sentence: "Before sentencing Terry Reed for cocaine possession the judge asked if he was married" A reader thought it should have read "if he were married" but the reporter had it right The subjunctive — what is left of it — applies to conditions of hypothesis supposition conjecture or contingency Here the judge was asking a plain question of fact The subjunctive mood has just about disappeared from contemporary English It still fact: If I were king If I were a rich man If it were only true Otherwise the plain old indicative rules The distinction between “may" and still matters This headline puzzled "might" the Mercer Mend PeporUr: ‘?Dtor say use of helmet may have let boy save face The story told how David had fallen off his bicycle tumbled dSS a embankment and landed headfirst on some pavement He suffered a cracked and other serious injuries He had not skull been wearing a helmet But the "may" in that headline gave precisely the opposite impression The head implied that the boy had escaped harm because he was wearing a helmet Wh) 11 30-fo- ot Remember that "might" though it means power in one sense as an auxiliary verb means weakness The difference between "it may tomorrow" and "it might rain tomorrow" rain is a significant difference In the case of young David wearing a helmet "might” have him an awful headache and a beautiful saved black 6f6i ® 1H Universal Press Syndicate |