Jumper parts were fabricated by Gilbertson Machine. Only a few months after Com®had purchased the X-51, it once again ready for the sh-' circuit. But almost 20 years Pa s s e d - and !t would be uy an audience which for the most part had not been born when Courtney had built the car. To illustrate the radical changes that had been required to create the X-51, Corno showed it along with a stock 1951 Ford coupe, a plain-jane model, b la p k tires; the contrast was vivid. A. sign t}ie car m in jm jze(j John Corno s invoivci..—- •„ th e 51; he gave full credit to the pcopiv who had restored the car, and in large letters identified the X-51 as “The old custom of Ron Courtney....” Bob Benson Cont. from page 4 was to have a retired soldier’s pension. On the whole, Valley Vista, a railroad development which had had the bad luck of being subdivided into existence on the eve of the automobile age, turned out to be a disappointing project for its speculatorbackers. Sixty years later the place is still small and atm muddv. Bob’s father was a carpenter and small-time contractor who read a lot (Darwin and Kropotkin) and liked, as Bob does, to speculate on “the future of mankind." About the time Bob entered junior high the family leased out their Valley Vista place and moved to a cheap rental house Willy’s name was nowhere to be seen. It’s not clear whether Willy came to see th»» car or what he would have thought about it ir ut „ sen se the display did show the changes the car had gone through, but there was much more that was hidden away, like the dreams and longings that were imbedded in its metal—and an answer to the question of how anyone could ever be attached to a car. In the view of some, Willy had a legend. But a car lot on Union Avenue is not exactly a gateway to historic preservation, and given the nature of an automobile’s X“5 1 7 ^ i a !!y a car as fr a gile as the Willy saved the car—as’bVlY.?ay tbat in Oregon City, where his father, strapped for money, had taken a steady job. Bob discovered the nature section in the local library: all sorts of bird books, tree books, flower books. He devoured them all, and while he claims that he has never gained a profound knowledge of botany and biology, being able to identify the flora and fauna has been "a pleasure and a comfort" ever since. Many years later, speaking so softiy u iai htc visitors have to lean close to hear him, Bob win puint oi it "lovely rare flowers” with his pudgy farmer’s hand: There's the corydalis, an extreme rarity, related to the bleeding heart but quite different in the detail of the flower: it's gone to seed here, but when the whole thing is a spike of these oddshaped flowers it’s quite impressive. That little fringe of vine with the lacv flower, that's the saxifrage. And there 's the native waterleaf. There is also a weed waterleaf from Europe which is very coaiso looking. As you can see the native wateneuf is anything but coarse. I didn't know about that colony of tiger lilies...see them? There will be quite a show when they get into bloom. A s Bob grew older the delicate would gradually assume the role of thieatoned protagonists in a dramatic geographic onrt temporal scenario. Now, in his sixties, h» points out that the natural vegetation in his botanical zone is on the defensive, beleagured by modern technical progress, constantly threatened by monster timber and earth-moving machinery, and by poison spray. The arch villains in this scenario are the sales representatives of poison spray companies whose incomes depend on convincing people, especially officials in Salem, that even if their product should happen to wipe out a native plant or two, there's no reason to join the petty hysteria of the environmentalists. These native plants are just v»oode afte r an, which, when left to their own devices, by spread their messy way onto (what should be) neatly poisoned roadsides. Lesser villains in Bob's vision are certain flourishing non-native plant species which now cover acres and acres of Oregon and Washington. “A few newcomers have made themselves right at home here,” Bob says, waving toward a gigantic tangle of himalaya blackberries. “They find our climate to be just what the doctor ordered. We must have a care for the native species or they’ll be elbowed out by these immigrants. We crowded out the native Indians; we certainly don’t want to see the scenario repeated in the plant kingdom.” Bob likes to explain that the North Pacific Coast botanical zone, which extends from about Eureka, California, north to Alaska, is either the smallest ui uic the world's 24 botanical provinces (New Zealand might be slightly smaller). He says that there was a tii no when we could feel more complacent and say, “OK even if it is a comparatively small botanical CirOCX, there’s still so much land that there are bound to be holes and crannies here and there where almost anything could escape.” But these days we can’t be so sanguine about it: "With thousands of bulldozers rum- Wing about, and with all these poison merchants showing their bright shiny teeth, and treating the officials to banquets and giving them awards and ir.odals for their assiduity in destroying weeds—why some of these valuable species might be lost. And that will be a particularly poignant tragedy, ueocaoa O(Jr botanical zone is rather crucial in the evoiuiivnaw nrocess ” Crucial in the evolutionary pio Give a Portland gift Act now — for only $15 you receive Knowing Home plus a year’s s u u a v i PAIN (a $20 value for just $15)1 this Holiday Season! Delivering quality and c ire from plusn, stuffed animals to fresh red roses BALLOONS d F e a a r li a n n g d w ai w th a y a p th p e r o b p e r s ia t t U e .S te. c p h e n r o io lo d g ic y a . l —New Age Journal T> A T1\T 2270 N.W. Irving Portland, Oregon 97210 UNLIMITED ! I nationwide delivery // 241-2244 / 1 Mastercharge & VISA PIZZA ADPBTI0N 4901 S.E. 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