I found a solution... I have a section in vimrc like the code below.
I'm not really sure what all it does ... one of the drawbacks of just
stealing stuff from someone elses .vimrc... long ago.
If I comment out the line with the two asterisks, vim comes up like I
expect it to without the purple Statusline I've been seeing. I'm not
sure why having that line re-sourced after startup would bring up the
settings I like and not on startup but commenting that one line out
fixes things for me. For anyone insterested... I still see some
changes if I `:so ~/.vimrc' but they are minor like making some sytax
elements bold but the same color.
if &background == "dark"
"hi Comment term=bold ctermfg=DarkCyan
hi StatusLineNC term=reverse cterm=reverse ctermfg=7 ctermbg=0
" # [HP 07/08/03 21:18 Using 99 means it uses default font color]
** hi StatusLine term=reverse cterm=reverse ctermfg=99 ctermbg=8
hi Comment term=bold ctermfg=grey
hi Constant term=underline ctermfg=Magenta guifg=Magenta
hi Special term=bold ctermfg=white guifg=Red
hi Identifier term=underline cterm=bold ctermfg=Cyan guifg=#40ffff
hi Statement term=bold ctermfg=Yellow gui=bold guifg=#aa4444
hi PreProc term=underline ctermfg=grey guifg=#ff80ff
hi Type term=underline ctermfg=LightGreen guifg=#60ff60 gui=bold
hi Function term=bold ctermfg=White guifg=LightRed
hi Repeat term=underline ctermfg=White guifg=LightRed
hi Operator ctermfg=Red guifg=Red
hi Ignore ctermfg=black guifg=bg
else
hi Comment term=bold ctermfg=DarkBlue guifg=Blue
hi Constant term=underline ctermfg=DarkRed guifg=Magenta
hi Special term=bold ctermfg=DarkMagenta guifg=SlateBlue
hi Identifier term=underline ctermfg=DarkCyan guifg=DarkCyan
hi Statement term=bold ctermfg=Brown gui=bold guifg=Brown
hi PreProc term=underline ctermfg=DarkMagenta guifg=Purple
hi Type term=underline ctermfg=DarkGreen guifg=SeaGreen gui=bold
hi Ignore ctermfg=white guifg=bg
endif
set nohlsearch
