MAGAZINE

When you look at the "Hop Up 5 Window Build Up" piece, you'll note that our pal Paul Freund, who's had his own 5 window for 40 years, used to drag race with and against our own 5 window when Doug Clark owned it, and both were members of the SURGERS Car Club of Glendale, was helpful in establishing the background of the car..

We attended Paul's funeral a couple of days ago. We know he would have liked to run with/against Doug's old coupe next year (he'd-a smashed us though, since he's running a doosey of a stroker motor in his car) but he had a lot more to do and think about than us. We hadn't known him for very long, but long enough to see that he was a car guy who was doing it for his own yuks, with that purpose and deliberate-ness that most Hop Up Guys have. It's a kind of quiet resolve to untangle the daily mysteries, achieve the personal victories in the shop, on the strip, on the run (he went on Americruise last year, running with pal Larry Paradis, and they reported a memorable time that included the last Deuce/Merc Reunion), and we didn't know if he was one of those single minded, one dimension car guys, who had no life, no family no other interests or....we hadn't inquired.

One thing about memorial services is that you get to appreciate some things you didn't know about someone like Paul. Like: he had other interests. Like: he was as generous and sincere in other pursuits - 'Adventure' one of the speakers called it - as he was in the hot rod world. Like: he had a big family who loved him and who will miss him and who won't understand why something this crappy has to happen. Something like: he had high character in business, and a best friend who won't ever get over it but had the strength to stand up and tell us in loving terms what a friend means to him. Like: we wish we had known him longer.

Next time some hairy-legged mug you call a friend hops in your ride with ya, just appreciate that these Hop Up Guys are a vital part of what we do day to day, and you have t' have your buds around you. Your peers. Like-minded carnivores, as we've said before.

And it isn't about the iron alone.

***

Sadly, more:

We promise that there will not, will absolutely not ever be a regular obituary column here, but it is requisite that we note the passing of another rodding pal, Corky Root. Corky leaves the entire rodding community of the Inland Empire who will remember his good nature and friendship. He, too, was familiar to us for too little time.

R.I.P.

***

OK. Hop Up 2000 is done, out there for ever. We're working on the next one. We are deciding what Hop Up should be when it grows up. We are wondering what we will be when we grow up.Y2K will unfold however it's gonna unfold. There will be some subtle changes in our tiny world, and we will react to them, reject them, embrace them.......quien sabes?

Hop Up Guys will go on. They'll go on, grinding, filing, threading, sanding, fastening, bending, painting, studying, tuning, dreaming, and...........grabing gears.

And if they take a page out of Hot Rod Hahn's book, they will "love people and use objects". Not the other way around.

Stay Honor.