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Haze Green, Schmaze Green. Like Hugh said, these are Imperials built during the height of the hippie counter culture era. Although, I do want to point out that these cars were in fact desired by a few, if not many a hippie, or hippie wanna be (who through the use of their parents money, in many cases, but not all, avoided the draft and stayed in school far to long and are now lawyers, Dr’s who drive Lexus, etc…), as evidenced in the movie version of HAIR. There is the scene wherein the “Bad” punks steal another kid’s dad's Lincoln suicide door 'vert for a little "trip". There was one of many of the musical’s songs that played during an extremely Streisand-esque helicopter swirling around the car shot overview of them flying down the highway, Lincoln’s top down, hair blowing in the wind in that car. You just KNOW those kids were glad it was not a Volvo whatever model it was that looked like something American but smaller out of the 40's. Not all hippies were dirt poor, but many people followed the fashion trends set by it, and kept their creature comforts. I would not mind finding a cool vintage Nehru Jacket to wear while driving Doris down the country roads.
Now, if we, pardon me, if I really want to raise ’67-’68 and forward year owners blood pressure, which I do NOT want to do – all in good fun people, all in good fun! We ALL own IMPERIALS not matter the year or era! So nobody get your panties in a bunch over the following, OK? Thank you. If you must rant, rant at ME off list! Thanks. The following is just MY twisted sense of HUMOR trying to put a little LEVITY on what has become an overly serious non-issue-in-all-reality topic.
Leslie, by the way has a ’67 Sedan, and Leslie virtually built, along with many others, the website, and probably named the era HERSELF. Leslie’s ’67 Sedan, which is very nice, restored beautifully, and anyone, including myself, would be proud to own, so, like I said, all in jest, I offer you these alternatives to “The Haze Green Era”...
If one wanted to get technical, and to make Haze Green more palatable to those in a tizzy over the current name given, and stop all the fuss, we COULD change the '67-’68 Imperial models pages from “The Haze Green Era” to: "The Back to Chrysler years", or The "A Newport frame by any other name is still a Newport years", or even just add to the current naming convention: “Haze Green...the stoned years”.
As for me, personally I would not mind having the Fuselage year Imps named the "Paisley Top Era”. I might even consider getting Mikey Sutton, or Kenyon Wills to help me “Borrow” this car! Although it was only offered one year, or just even part of one year. Here is the link to one on the website I would kill, or at least maim in order to avoid a life term, have this car: http://www.imperialclub.com/Yr/1971/Paisley/index.htm Better yet, if I COULD find this material somewhere I would be thrilled beyond words to have a convertible top made from it for my ’66 ‘vert!!!! Now that would be just way too cool! Now that I think about it, I’m going to start looking around for that material... Not stock, but way cool...A hippy-dippy-yippy-yuppie-guppie, groovy, paisley ’66 ‘vert! With my Brian Jones mop top hair cut I wear now, I would be in Imperial nirvana.
Oh, and to whomever said the ’64-’66 Imps should be referred to as the “Sand Dune years”. Fine, works for me. It brings up images of “Dr. Zhivago” with Omar Sharif & Julie Christie; even though what I think I really mean is “Lawrence of Arabia” with Peter O’Toole, Alec Guinnes, AND Omar Sharif. I must have a Omar Sharif fixation going on. Hey, I could do worse, like maybe...Danny DeVito? Anyway, and actually, what I really want is that fabulous fur hat and hand warmer Julie Christie wore in Dr. Zhivago, but that is an entirely different subject...
Chill people, just enjoy your cars. Their CARS, not people, not a newly discovered species just found in the Amazon jungles for scientists to argue over its official scientific journal name. There CARS! Go drive your car, work on it, do something with it today that gives you the pleasure you derive from owning an Imperial, and LET GO of the website naming convention. One hundred years from now, nobody is going to give a rip! Enjoy your car today!
Happy motoring to all, and to all a safe “trip”. Haze Green, OR Purple...
Wm. R. Ulman Seattle, WA '66 Crown Convertible Coupe - Doris Day '95 Buick Roadmaster - Rock Hudson twolaneblacktop@xxxxxxxxxxx
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As someone who is quite capable of running hot over a storm in a tea cup, I have been following this thread with some interest. I can understand why some 67 & 68 owners are seeing red over the green appellation given to this era of Imperial. It was and is still intended to be tongue in cheek but evidently not everyone find the joke so funny anymore, even though the vast majority of survey participants are quite happy to smile and go along with it.
I don't know if explaining the joke to folks who are already upset is going to mollify them, either. As removed as I am from the crucible of this little inferno, the name suggests the hedonistic hippiedom that was so prevalent in the culture at that time. Jimi Hendrix had his purple haze while Chrysler's was green. I cannot think of anything less a part of the counter culture than an Imperial but someone had to work to give all those wild teenagers the money to be free enough to mock the very people who were making it possible.
I am always concerned that the tyranny of the majority is not always wise or kind to those who are excluded. As the "leader" of another all volunteer group, I share the often expressed concerns of the folks who try so hard to maintain the IML as one of the very best such lists on the internet, which is to somehow come up with a solution that keeps everybody happy. It isn't always possible but it is very important to try to keep people, who take their semantics very seriously, and we do, in some kind of harmony. There is a value in avoiding the loss of a single member if it can be avoided.
To acquaint myself with the era in question, I went to the Year by Year section of the web site and checked into what Chrysler Corporation itself came up with. And there's the rub. They didn't, it seems, come up with anything. The field was open, the "Haze Green" name arose and kind of stuck as being somehow, inexplicably, sort of just right and it stuck. That's as good a test as you can find, by the way.
In 1967 the key word seems to be prestige. But, in 1968, the word was luxury. "Prestige" was no longer to be found. Nonetheless, I voted for 'Contemporary Prestige' on the survey. I'm not sure it really means a whole lot as the sine qua non of any Imperial is luxurious prestige. It seems to me, however, that the phrase is not out of place and provides someone looking at the web sight for the first time in search of some guidance on that era with a good idea of how Chrysler itself perceived the cars.
I just hope no one decides to fly the coop over this. If my car was red, white or blue, I might be aggrieved about the name myself.
Hugh
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