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 THE EARLY
YEARS : 1968-1974
The first Club logo
WVCA's first club jacket was a Pacific Trail brown jacket with a yellow
patch containing the Corvette cross flag emblem of the day in the middle. It was
a simple design and the jacket color was distinctive and easily recognizable at
events anywhere in the Northwest. It was worn with great pride by the early members. Even today, people who were members of WVCA during the "brown
jacket era" all seem to have that jacket still hanging in their closet
somewhere.
How did WVCA get started?
The Willamette Valley Corvette Association was formed in Albany Oregon in July
of 1968 by a group of Corvette enthusiasts interested in enjoying their
Corvettes together. You can
click here to see a copy of the original Incorporation papers. WVCA's original home was Stodard Chevrolet in Albany but
most of the members were from Salem. After only a few short months Les Green,
owner of Capitol Chevrolet in Salem, contacted the officers of WVCA and asked if
the Club would be interested in moving it's meetings to Salem and having Capitol
Chevrolet as its sponsor. The offer of meeting space closer to home and parts
discounts was too good to refuse, and in early 1969 WVCA moved its base of
operations to Salem where it remains to this day.
WVCA helps found NWACC
In 1972 several Corvette clubs in the Pacific Northwest, tired of
driving to California for Corvette related events and autocross competition, broke
their affiliation with the Chevrolet-approved Western States Corvette Assoc. and
formed the Northwest Association of Corvette Clubs (NWACC). Willamette Valley
was a founding member of NWACC. To learn more about NWACC click
here and visit their Web site.
 THE MID-YEARS
: 1974-1993
The second Club logo
In 1973 the members of WVCA faced a dilemma. Pacific Trail, the maker of
the official WVCA jacket, discontinued the brown jacket the club members had
been wearing. New members were forced to try to find any brown jacket to
put the club emblem on. There were many different browns, and nothing matched
anymore. After a long drawn-out process a suggestion to adopt a white jacket was
made. White was picked as the new color because everyone thought that white
would always be available. Of course the yellow patch just didn't go with
the white background. One of the charter members suggested a design that would
not go out of date. One that contained a mountain scene, the club name, and
nothing that could get dated like the Corvette logo that Chevrolet was always
changing every year or so. Another member came up with a pencil design, it was
approved by the members and adopted in 1974. This Club emblem would ultimately
survive for almost 20 years.
Glass Sass gets started - (click
here to see the first volume of Glass Sass)
The Club Secretary had always mailed out the
minutes of the meeting to the membership every month. But until Sherri Swan was
Secretary in 1980 WVCA had never had an official news letter. Sherri changed all
of that. The very first issue of the Glass Sass was mailed to the members and
other Northwest Corvette Clubs in October of 1980. There were never very many of
these published because the Club was quite small at that time. Your Webmaster
just happens to have a copy of that first Glass Sass. It has been scanned and
can be viewed here on this Web site. You may note that it says "Volume
II" on the first page. It appears that this is actually the very first
issue of the Glass Sass however, in spite of that volume designation. The
"volume II" designation denotes that this is the second secretary
report of the fiscal year. You see in those days our officers took office on
September 1st of each year. The first secretary mailing of the 1980/81 fiscal
year was only the
minutes of the prior months meetings. If you choose to take a look at this
first issue
pay particular attention to the asking price for the 63 split-window on page
3.
These may have the the "good old days" that everyone talks
about.
 1994-2007
The third Club
logo
Once again the jacket patch was redesigned to make
it look more up-to-date and in touch with the times. After much discussion, the
jacket color remained white, but the back patch was changed from a sewn-on patch
to a design directly embroidered onto a jacket with a computerized embroidery
machine. The mountain background remained, but three Corvettes of varying years
and colors were added and the design was updated to look more modern and
refined. The words "Salem Oregon" were added to the logo to
answer the question we often heard when wearing our jackets outside the
Northwest, "Where the heck is the Willamette Valley?".
WVCA grows
With the introduction of the C-4 Corvette in 1984 things began to change
in the Corvette world. Gone were the days of the "reasonably priced"
Corvette that any young person could go out and buy for a few thousand dollars.
The Corvette was born with the baby boom generation and it continued to grow
with it. The prices of new Corvettes reflected the increasing affluence
of its generation. WVCA changed with the Corvette. The membership grew in
numbers and in age. The interests of the members moved from racing and hot
rodding to touring and restoration. WVCA grew from a club of a couple of
dozen members to well over a hundred members at one point.
TODAY:
2007...
The Jacket Changes yet Again
This time the logo stayed the same, but the jacket color changed for the
third time in our history. As the Club approached its 40th anniversary, the club
voted to return to a brown jacket. Not the same rusty brown of the first 1968
jacket, but a buff tan jacket. The back patch was left the same as the 1994
design. It was also decided that because these jacket changes were expensive and
often emotionally charged, that all previous jacket colors and back patch
designs would be allowed.
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