A ten year old and a Red Corvette

[Rowdy1]

Gee............

Thanks you guys, I really never thought it should be any other way, I did it with the neighbor kids the day I brought the 62 home and have been doing it every time a kid walks up to it. Of course, I have spoiled the kids in the hood, when they hear me start it, they come a runnin to get their rides. With two of the parents, I did have to take them for a ride too. I even have an 11 year old that "helps" me work on it.
Now the Harley is a little different story, that I only let girls over 18 on :naughty: :booty

 

[SebringBill]

I was a little tyke walking in the neighborhood with my father. We came upon a guy waist deep in the engine compartment of his red 58-60 (to the best of my memory) Corvette. I pulled on his pants leg and asked "hey mister, what's wrong with your car?" He looked down at me, I think he winked, and said "the rubber band broke."

I must've been 10 or 11 before I figured out that Corvettes didn't run on big wind up rubber bands!

 

[XLR8]

Thanks for all the replies!

The thoughts and memories shared by everyone has been great! Thanks to all for taking the time to put into words the special bond we all share with each other and with this fantastic one of a kind dream car. I've enjoyed hearing that Corvettes have had the same effect on so many others as they have on me for years.

And I especially love the fact that not only has the Corvette inspired past generations, but continues to impress and instill desire in new generations everyday. This is the true test of a timeless Classic...

Thanks again and Happy Holidays to all!

JAG

 

[Rufus1050]

1st Encounter of the Vette kind

I was stationed in Norfolk, Va around 1970 and checking out a 68 vette at one of the local car lots. This fellow drives up in a new white caddy and asks if I like vettes. Sure I said...follow me he says. Turns out he's the service manager for the local Chevy dealership. He takes me first to see his 67 roadster...427 w/the leg pipes...$2,600. buys it he says. Next he shows me a 63 stingray. It was silver and had the 427 hood and leg pipes, too. The 340 hp 327 sounded good and he was asking $1,800. for this baby. I bought the 63! Brought it back to La. and replaced the 327 with a 350. Now the bad part...wrecked it one night and sold it for $400. w/o any of the running gear. The guy who purchased it redone it I'm told and takes it to car shows all over the south.
Now I own an 85 that I'm slowing fixing up. Boy if I still had that 63!!!

Rufus1050

 

[1KULC7]

Back when I was about ten years old, I got my first model car kit, it was an AMT kit you could make stock, race or custom, they called them 3 in 1 AMT kits. The first kit I got was a 1960 Chevrolet Impala. I built the kit and loved the experience, so bought another one. It was called a Corvette. So I built that one, and that is where I first learned about Corvettes. Then I started looking for them on the street and read as much as I could, visiting the local Chevy dealer to try and get the sales books.

Well in 1962 I heard they were going to redesign the Corvette for the new model year, and they described it as a bullet. So I had the image in my mind about a silver bullet like the Lone Ranger on wheels. Then I saw on TV that Bonanza was going to show the new Chevrolet line for 1963 the last five minutes of the show. I asked my Dad if I could stay up that one night to see it (school night to bed at 9:30 PM), he did. I remember seeing the Convertible first it was red and then the Silver Coupe....oh my God it was the coolest car ever.

For the next several weeks I would pedal almost every night my bike three miles to the only Chevrolet Dealership in Lynn, Mass., only to be disappointed as the new Corvette has not arrived yet, I saw the new Impala, Corvair, Chevy II, but not the Corvette. Finally on Oct 2nd, I entered the showroom and there it was in all its glory and splendor a 1963 Corvette Coupe in Silver with a black interior, and a Red Corvette Convertible with a black interior sitting in front of me. By this time I knew the salesmen and asked if I could please sit in the coupe. He said only for a few minutes but don't touch anything...then in a couple of minutes I was sitting in this new Corvette....I felt it was like a dream. The salesman returned with a Corvette sales book and gave it to me, and said time was up, go home and read about it and bring back your father to buy it. I had to settle for the AMT Model Kit and actually think I built the 63 Corvette several times during my life, always the color silver and always with a black interior.

I never forgot this and swore that day I would own a 1963 Corvette Coupe. Years went by, always in the back of my mind I remember that day. I have been fortunate to be able to own several Corvettes, but never a 63 and it always remained on my mind. Finally after 40 years have passed, I was able to locate one and purchased a Silver 1963 Corvette Coupe, which has just been fully restored to stock showroom condition, a dream has finally come true.

Yesterday, my dream car was returned to me fully restored a matched number car in mint condition, or should I say showroom condition. The funniest thing is this, when the car was returned and safely in the garage, I sat in it for the first time since it was sent out to be restored, while sitting in it I remembered this whole story and could even picture that salesman handing me the sales brocher, I swear if was one of those deja vue moments....strange that this post should have happened so soon after my experience...

 

[XLR8]

Congratulations on your restoration! You are truly living your dream - you have the best of both worlds - old and new. As I said earlier, the midyears will always be my first love. Maybe one day I'll own one myself, if it's meant to be.

Again, congratulations, and enjoy it!

JAG

 

[Mac]

I can't recall my exact age but it was somewhere between 8 and 10 when my uncle arrived to visit in a bright orange C3. I remember walking around, looking at the coke-bottle curves, sitting in the driver's seat, wondering about the 160 mph speedometer, just generally loving the car. He only kept it for a year... I'll have to ask him if he has pictures of it the next time I see him.

-Mac

 

[Vettehead Mikey]

My mother likes to tell the story of me latching my fingers onto the mesh headlight grills of the only '53 in town and refusing to let go no matter what she tried. The owner of the car came out to see what the fuss was all about and apparantly had a good laugh at the goings on.

I have to take her word for it- I was barely three years old at the time and don't remember!

 

[Verle]

I turned 16 in 1957 in a small town in Missouri. No Corvettes in that town. One day I was driving my Dad's pickup around the town square and spotted a 57 Corvette, Red with white cove and red interior. I parked and stood around drooling down the front of my shirt until the owner walked up. He stood there for a long time answering questions and letting me look at everything. He finally had to leave for his drive back to Springfield. I bought my first Corvette in 1968 and finally got my dream car ( a 57 of course ) in 2000; white with red interior. I smile every time I enter the garage and see it.

Verle

 

[randomize27]

I've told of my first encounter with a Corvette in my introduction.

My first ride, though, was years later.

My mother, after divorcing my dad and remarrying a cop, went out and got a '71 orange Corvette with a white top and tan interior when I was 10.

I was sitting in the living room, reading a comic book, when something rumbled into the driveway. I looked up, and then got up to go out and see what it was.

I stared, without moving, according to my mom, "for a good 15 minutes." Then I was all over the car, just looking, afraid to touch it.

Then, my mother offered me a ride.

Needless to say, we were glad that A) My stepdad was a cop and B) None of his co-workers were around. The ride involved a lot of squealing tires, hard acceleration, and sudden stops.

2nd most incredible ride of my life. (1st most incredible - I was driving a friend of my dad's '69 white w/red interior @ 15.)

After that, my mother had a trump card. If she wanted me to go somewhere, and I didn't want to go, she'd just have to stand in the Kitchen and holler through the house "We're taking the..." THUNK "...Vette."

I don't think that they ever figured out that I was hiding in the rafters over the 'Vette when I didn't want to go somewhere. There were sheets of plywood covered with boxes, and I had created a little nest among them. I could scramble up the shelves over the workbench without disturbing them, and then when it was announced that the 'Vette was to be the vehicle of choice, I just swuing down between two rafters, dropped the 6' to the floor, and jumped in the passenger seat. I'd lay up there frequently, reading for hours at a time.

I also give up my Saturday Morning Cartoons and anything else I was doing if I heard the 'Vette fire up. It didn't matter what was going on, if the 'Vette was in motion, I wanted to be in the passenger seat.

 

[wapaugh]

1962. I was 7 years old and my dad had just received his orders, transferring from Elsworth AFB in Rapid City SD to Altus AFB in Oklahoma. We were in New Jersey visiting my mom's family when her brother arrived in his beautiful black '59 w/ silver coves and red interior. He had bought the car new in 1960, but it was the first time we had seen it. I can still remember the look on my dad's face as he poured over the car (I think it was jealousy) but I don't know that I was all that impressed. Of course, the Stingrays I was into then had handlebars and banana seats. Once we went for a ride, however, I was hooked for life. We got out on the expressway and he let 'er rip. I didn't know anything about 4 speeds, 2-fours or positrack, but I knew about being pinned to the seat! It would be 11 more years before I owned my first Corvette. And 43 years after that first ride, that same grand old 59 is in my garage, slowly coming together for the day my kids go for their first rides and become hooked for life.

 

[MMM]

Late Fall 1953, Newark, DE

Walked the mile from my house (George Reed Village) to Newark Elementary on Academy Street. We had a short cut that took us through a lot on Main Street where Porter Chevrolet stored their new cars. For anybody in Newark today, Porter was originally located on Main Street before they moved to their current location on Cleveland Ave. Anyway, on my way home one afternoon there is a small white car on a single car trailer being towed by either a Buick or Olds in Porter's lot. I had never seen anything like it before and being car crazy since I can remember I ran over to get a better look. A couple of guys were preparing to unload the car. I asked a few questions and was told it was a new Chevy Sports Car, the Corvette. The guy who drove the tow car told me there were very few of these cars and he was trailering it to various dealerships so they could display it for a day or so. He showed me the engine and actually let me sit in it. I vividly recall sticking my fingers through the mesh that covered the headlights. I wanted to ride with him into the showroom, but didn't get the chance. I watched as it was driven into the showroom and went home. Went by Porter's the next day and stared at it through the window. Then it was gone. Made my mind up then I would own one of those cars one day.

Mike

 

[SebringBill]

I was little bright-red headed tyke taking a walk around the neighborhood with my father. We came upon a guy waist-deep under the hood of a red 58-60 Corvette (that's the best I can recall; 4 headlamps and the sloping rear).

I asked "hey mister, what's wrong with your car?"

He pulled himself out from the engine compartment with a sour look on his face, then he smiled at me and I think he winked. He said "the rubber band's broken."

I must've been nearly 10 before I figured out that Corvettes didn't run on big wind-up rubber bands!:L

 

[Delph]

I think I was around 10 or so. I saw a red Mid Year Vette going down the road and I knew one day I would have one. So on and off for the next 19 years I researched everything I could about Vettes and I was dead set on a 67 Roadster. I looked at all of the Vette Trader, local paper, trading posts etc... for about a year. One Sunday I was reading the newspaper looking for some mirrors for my Home Gym and I saw this really small ad for a 1967 corvette convertible. It was Labor Day weekend and I wanted to see this thing. I called them up and they let me come and look at it. After I saw it I knew that I was walking out with that car no matter what. The owner said that I was the first one to look at it but he had numerous calls to show the car the day after the Holiday. I said no problem I want the car what bank do you have? We both had the same bank and I was prepared to wire the money to his account as soon as the bank was open. He did not want a certified check, a wire transfer or anything. The only thing he would accept was cash. He also would not meet me at the bank, he wanted me to deliver the cash to him at his home. We are talking thousands of dollars. I dont know if you ever counted 30,000 dollars, but it takes a long time. I was very nervous and had my buddy waiting in his truck with the gun, just in case something stupid was to happen. It turned out the guy was great and me and my 4 year old son got to drive home in my dream car. Since then I pretty much changed or replaced everything on that car. Its funny how you think the car is perfect until you learn a few things and then you get that Corvette Fever.


This is an awesome hobby...expensive but awesome. Come to think of it there arent too many hobbies that arent expensive. Golf, drinking...also expensive.

XLR8--it looks like you opened a can of worms. :L

Tim

 

[Duntov-097]

I was born with it in my blood. My father had a 61 fuelie he had to sell after I came along. He replaced it with a 57 a year later and we have never not had a Vette in the garage since. My mother helped restore that Vette and gave it to me for HS graduation. My whole life has been spent going to shows, swap meets, road rallies, autocrosses etc. I love it.


I too take kids and adults for rides. I have taken a young man whose parents divorced under my wing so to speak. He's been through 3 body-offs so far and loves it. He is probably going to ride along to Bloomington with me next week.
Thats what its all about man. It not so much the cars, as it is the people and experiences along the way that make it fun.