Willamette Valley
Corvette Association

Text of the club presentation made at the WVCA 40th anniversary Banquet

The very beginning 1968 to 73 - Larry King:

1973 to 2008 - by Paul Ennor

My name, for those of you who don’t really know me, is Paul Ennor. I’ve been a member of this club since 1973, not quite as long as Lucky King, but quite a while anyway. Over those years I’ve held almost every office except secretary at least once. Kay asked me to summarize the past 35 years of Willamette Valley Corvette history in five minutes or less. Well, that’s sort of a tall order, but I’ll try.

I joined this club in June of 1973, right after I took delivery of my ’73 Roadster, the same Corvette that we still drive today. It was obvious when I joined WVCA that I was joining a drinking club with a Corvette problem. There were two factions in the club back then; no, not older and newer Vettes. It was the Olympia group and the Blitz group. Each group fiercely loyal to their brand of beer, neither of which is still on the market today.

The Corvette has always been the car of the Baby Boomer generation, and in the early 70’s that meant that club members were mostly in there 20’s and 30’s. Driving fast, racing, and beer, not necessarily in that order, dominated the events schedule in the early 70’s. When I joined we would adjourn our bi-monthly meetings to a local tavern, drink a pony keg of beer, and then go out to the bars for the rest of the night.  Back then Corvettes were cheap. For example, a good friend of mine bought a used ’63 roadster for $1200 in the fall of 1972. Anyway, because Vettes were inexpensive, we modified them, hot rodded them, and drove the, uh, stuff out of them, often seeming to not give a darn if we got them home in one piece or not. This early WVCA had a reputation around town only slightly better than the Hells Angels.

In the 70’s, Corvetting was a male dominated sport, and this club was no exception. There were two requirements to join the club back then. You had to own a Corvette and you had to be a male. Wives and girl friends were welcome and encouraged to go places with us and we even let them serve as secretary (because that was women’s work), but they had no voting rights and could not be members.

Times change, and by the late 70’s things began to change in WVCA as well. As we grew older and got married, the ladies were finally given voting and membership rights, whether that was what changed the nature of the Club is a matter of conjecture or perhaps it was the fact that the membership was maturing; I don’t know, but and by late 80’s the club was to have its first female president, Carol Taylor. Many members of the earlier era dropped by the wayside and the membership of WVCA took on a decidedly family oriented atmosphere. During the 80’s beer, racing and raising hell gave way to more family oriented events like car shows, autocrosses, camping, and gymkhana’s. We still partied, but it was more likely to be a Halloween costume party than the kegger we may have had a decade earlier. Many of our children were raised as Corvetters and spent almost as much time with the club as they did with friends their own age.

As the sticker price of a new Corvette quickly moved into the 5-digit area, the idea of risking our Vettes to stupid driving techniques soon passed. The Corvette was by this time becoming an investment as well as a plaything.

The huge changes of the 80’s seem to have passed in a blur and the 90’s were upon us, the new C4’s were quickly becoming a common sight at club events, replacing the straight axels, mid-years, and those other’s we used to just call the newer Vettes. Now it was C1, C2, C3, and C4. Those old names, as descriptive and colorful as they were, were fading from memory, and once again the demographics of the club were changing. We Baby Boomer were entering middle age. Our kids were for the most part out of the sport and out on their own. Many of the newer members were doing very well financially and buying newer C4’s and soon C5’s. The stratospheric cost of these new Vettes meant that the hobby was no longer a working mans pass time. Wrenching and tune-ups in the winter became difficult if not impossible, as these new cars returned to the dealership for even the simplest oil change. Along with our advancing average age, our reflexes tended to get slower, and with that racing and driving fast slipped from the club agenda. Tours, dinners, and weekend drives seemed to draw more interest.

So that’s a brief history of this club and it’s membership. There have been many changes. We’ve been a small club of less than ten members, and we’ve been a large club with well over 100 members. We’ve been known as delinquents and as honored citizens. We’ve been chauvinists and we’ve been politically correct. But always we have reflected the times in which we lived, and it’s been quite a ride, I must admit.

Before I sit down though, let me share a couple of more items of historical note… Willamette Valley was indirectly responsible for the formation of two other Corvette clubs in the valley. Beaver State and Capitol City; the new Capitol City Corvettes that is, as there was a Capitol City Corvettes that preceded this club. Former member of Willamette Valley formed both of those clubs. During our 40 years, much has changed. We have had four different back patch/jacket color/style combinations. We have morphed from a drinking club with a Corvette problem to a club comprised largely of retired or soon to be retired baby boomers. But one thing has never changed. We have an abiding love affair with the Corvette, and I hope that this club will be here in another 40 years. There’s no way to tell what Corvetting will be like in 2048. Perhaps we will have electric Corvettes by then with quarter million dollar price tags. Or perhaps Corvettes will become the Model-T’s of their era, relegated to museums and the occasional parade or car show. But one thing is certain; the journey there will be very interesting.

Thanks, and have a great night.