What was your first memory of a Corvette?

[Darryl D.]

[Philip A.]

Re: What was your first memory of a Corvette?

Similar experience. I was about 11-12 years old playing in front of a friends house. Heard a rumbling in the street and looked up to see a white C-2 convertible at the stop sign. I too at that moment said to myself when I grow up I will own one of those someday. The image was so impactful that years later, when I learned the differences between C2s, I could narrow that car down to being a 65 or 66. I am happy to say that I have been fortunate enough in my life to have owned a 1966 convertible and currently own a 1965 Coupe. America and Corvettes are AWESOME!

[Michael H.]

Re: What was your first memory of a Corvette?

I remember when our family came back from Germany in 1964 ( I was 14 at that time ) we moved to Southern California, my dad who work for Hughes Aircraft at the time had to buy a new car. So off we went he and I to Bahr Chevrolet in Manhattan Beach and dad bought a new 64 Silver/Silver 2 door Impala SS, nothing fancy just a little 283 Automatic. While we were at the dealership there were 2-3 Corvette's on the showroom floor that I feel in love with. Dad was big into Grand Prix racing so the salesman took us to the back part of the dealership where there was this corvette race car and we meet a race car driver who was wrenching on the car. Low and behold this corvette race car driver turned out to be Dick Guldstrand, who would have thought that at age 14 I would have had the pleasure to meet one of the most famous southern California race car drivers. I remember seeing his Daytona Blue convertible that had a upside down roller skate ( wheels up ) taped to the roll bar which was done by his fellow race car drivers as Dick rolled a car or to back in the day.

This was my first experience with Corvette's besides seeing the Cheetah's run away from everything at Riverside, those were the day's. Hard to believe that was more than 50 years ago.

Mike

[Ed S.]

Re: What was your first memory of a Corvette?

I have been waiting for the opportunity to tell this story. In the mid to late 1950s I was in my mid-year teens (nothing to do with C2) I polished and "simonized" cars of family members, and friends for what to me was a huge amount of money, depending on the size of the car and how clean it was I charged anywhere from $10 to $15. This was in Sayreville, NJ. I must have done a good job because during the summer months I had a car or two per week. "Clients" would park their car in our shaded driveway the night before and I would start early in the morning, wash, polish, simonize - actually, I was doing detailing but I didn't know it. Ok - that is the back ground. Around the corner from our home was a very large home where 3 sisters, all adults (ages in the 20s or 30s) lived. One drove a black Cadillac convertible, another drove a white 57 T-bird, the third drove a black 58 Corvette. One day the "lady" that owned the Corvette drove by and stopped when I was working on a car. Long story short, she hired me to simonize her Corvette - same routine, she brought it over & parked it, left the keys - I went to work. It had 2 4s and a 4 speed - I loved that car, I would "drive it" a few car lengths in the driveway to get the best shade. I also eventually polished the 57 T bird. Now the part that I did not understand was that my mom was very upset about my 2 new clients - she did not like those "ladies" and didn't want me working on their cars - my dad was indifferent - but to my mom's chagrin I retained them as "clients". Years later I learned why my mom objected. The 3 sisters did have "day jobs" but they also were high priced professional escorts. In case anyone is thinking, I always got paid in cash. But just to have the opportunity to sit in a 58 Corvette and start it and drive it 20 or 30 feet before I had my driver's license well....I would have polished the car for free.

[Dave H.]

Re: What was your first memory of a Corvette?

In 1972 or so I was 8 living on the corner of Westwood and Lambuth in Jackson TN, when we heard a crash at the intersection. One of the cars was an orange C3 and it was banged and broken up pretty good. We were looking at the busted fiberglass, and dad said that the older metal ones were better cars.

13 years later when I bought my 65 I proved him wrong, but he was ok with the needling. True story. I miss dad.

[Harry S.]

Re: What was your first memory of a Corvette?

I guess I was seven or eight years old somewhere about 1954. Was at a friends house and one drove by. It was in Paramus, NJ home of Malcolm Konner. Had to have one someday. What color was it?

[Dan A.]

Re: What was your first memory of a Corvette?

In 1964 when I was 10 years old I went with our next door neighbors when they bought a new 1964 Impala, biege with red interior, at MacRobert Chevrolet in Houston. There was a red Corvette coupe on the showroom floor and I sat in it and figured out to rotate the headlights into the open position. After doing it about 10 ten times a salesman finally walked over and politely asked me to get out of the car. I was aware of Corvettes before then but that was first up close and personal experience.

[Ralph S.]

Re: What was your first memory of a Corvette?

My neighbor who was 19 years old had a new 1959 Black/Black Fuel Injected Corvette us kids used to hang around his house and wait for him to start it up and drive away. Sometimes he used to take 2 of us at a time for a ride around the block.

[Pete P.]

[Richard K.]

Re: What was your first memory of a Corvette?

It was 1953, I was 5 years old, and my dad bought me a little plastic '53 Vette toy that I played with in a big dirt pile near our home. I would carve a racetrack into the pile of dirt and take that lil' car round and round the rally course until the imaginary checkered flag would fall, i.e., when Mom would call me for dinner.

My favorite memory though, was of a 1959, black with silver coves and a white soft top that would drive by my high school bus stop each day. The bus stop was on a long one mile straight away, so we could hear him coming from about a half mile away. He would pick up speed as he approached us, nearly blow us off the side of the road as he went by with a big smile on his face, then he would back off the gas to make that wonderful sound..................badadadadada . That's when I got the Corvette bug.

[Rich G.]

Re: What was your first memory of a Corvette?

High school. 1962. Wayne Anderson whose father owned a large truck repair business and also raced modifieds locally, showed up with a triple white 1961 Fuelie. It made it into our yearbook!

Rich

[Joseph L.]

Re: What was your first memory of a Corvette?

Spring of 1960, I was a junior at Gonzaga & my buddy had graduated when he received a call that his graduation present was arriving from Ca. in two days via rail. We went together to receive this exciting mystery & as it was unloaded we both were awe-struck! An absolutely gorgeous "testosterone" red "fuelie" 60 Corvette with its frontal grill grinning its promise of adventure. My bud told me to beg my Dad two wks off from working on our ranch & drive down to "magic Ca." along the coast for a trip of a lifetime to his home in San Fran. We stopped at every freshly hand squeezed orange juice stand & "invigorated the fluid with a common upgrade. The fighter ran flawlessly with a degree of challenge from each of us. Once in San Fran, we were never alone in the two seater with one of our laps filled with two "flt. attendents." Needless to say, today I have a 60 fuelie.

[James N.]

Re: What was your first memory of a Corvette?

Buz Murdoch starring in Route 66 on CBS was my childhood hero. And of course cruising around the USA in a new Corvette like Buz and Todd became my dream. I was just 8 to 9 years old then but still remember the impact the shiny Vette made. I suspect quite a few kids around my age felt the same.

[Roy V.]

Re: What was your first memory of a Corvette?

I was 17 years old in 1972, and my neighbor from down the road had just returned from Byrne Bros. Chevrolet in Mt. Kisco, NY with a brand new Elkhart green LT-1 corvette, he gave me a ride in it shortly after that, and I was hooked.
i bought the car from him a few years later and it was restored by A&R Corvette in Patterson, NY and I still own it today.
at my age now at 61, I feel just like that 17 year old every time I go for a ride.

[Walter G.]

Re: What was your first memory of a Corvette?

I was fascinated with cars very early on and my parents picked up on that. When my dad was on a business trip in 1953 (I was only 3) he mailed me a '53 Corvette promo model that he found at a department store or somewhere. For some reason I never 'played' with that one like I did with the rest of my cars so it was never nicked up or taken apart to customize a few years later. I still have that promo in just about mint condition; the bodies didn't even warp on those-it was the later ones, '58 on up- that had the issue. That was my first memory and I don't ever recall seeing a '53-'55 around the city when they were new. My first up close and personal encounter was when we picked up our new '57 Bel Air at the dealership and they had a red '57 Corvette on the show floor. I recall spending some time looking at that one and I guess from that point I was hooked. I was 24 when I finally bought my first one-a used Riverside Gold '69 427 coupe and I've owned at least one ever since!