<VV> Drive Your Corvair on Corvair's 49th Anniversary...October 2nd!

[chevrobilia at juno.com]

The most important date in Corvair history, many of us agree, is October 2nd. Of course, this was the day when the Corvair was first introduced to the public. Many of us celebrate the occasion each year as "Drive Your Corvair Day" and get as many of our Vairs out on the road as possible. 
This Thursday, October 2nd is the Corvair's 49th Anniversary, and Vintage CORSA and the San Francisco Bay Area chapters will both be meeting that night. I'm sure that other chapters will be doing the same, so I thought you'd like to know what SFBA has planned. Like most chapters, we see fewer and fewer Corvairs attending our meetings. We're grateful that the assorted water pumpers attend, but it sure ain't like it used to be years ago when members were embarrassed not to show up in a Vair.
The Corvair's anniversary is such a perfect reason for folks to bring out their Corvairs to be seen. Not just by us, but by the public. The weather's still great here and our members are able to park together just outside of our meeting room at Safeway headquarters in Dublin. We'll have a Corvair Birthday Cake and everyone who drives a Corvair to our meeting will receive a 1960 Corvair brochure...the same as Chevy dealers first handed out forty-nine years ago to the day.
We'll also have 1960 Corvair introductory posters, banners and a birthday cake for the Corvair. For entertainment we'll hear pre-announcement Corvair radio commercials which teased listeners about two lines of Chevy cars for 1960...."You've got a double date, a Friday October Second Date..." and we'll have introductory TV commercials too. 
How many of you remember where you were on October 2nd, 49 years ago? As an awestruck 7 year old motorhead, I was vying for a glimpse of a Cascade Green 700 four door in Don Gilmore Chevrolet's showroom in Hayward. Nah, 49 years ago...not possible! But It happened downtown on Watkins street, right where the City Hall and new condos are today. 
In those days it seemed like the whole city turned out for introduction day, especially in the evening. That's why announcement day was on a Friday. Don Gilmore's General Manager, Frank McCullough, was as proud as a new father that night. But he was just as much hidden in the crowd as the Corvair itself. You could hardly see the car. Just about every square inch of the showroom that wasn't filled with new Impalas, Bel Airs and two Corvairs was filled with people.
The Chevy billboard on Jackson Street said it best..."The Revolutionary Rear-Engine Compact --- CORVAIR --- is at your Chevy Dealer's! What Are you doing HERE?"   
Of course there was cake and coffee for Dad and soft drinks and small Corvair and Chevy jigsaw puzzles for the kids. And plenty of brochures for my budding collection. We could easily walk from the Chevy store to Hayward Ford on A Street to see the Ford's new baby, the Falcon. Then on around the corner to the twin showrooms of Cooper Chrysler-Plymouth-DeSoto on Mission Boulevard to eyeball the new Valiant. We'd never seen or imagined American cars like these before. Except for the Rambler American and Studebaker Lark of course, but those were old designs and barely counted as cars to me, Dad and the other kids.  
Throughout the months leading up to the Corvair's debut, most people had heard and read a lot about Chevy's upcoming small car, They'd seen fuzzy spy photos, fairly accurate drawings of prototypes, and even real Vairs stored at the GM Proving Grounds in the news. In fact, 1959 was Corvair's year, at least as far as the media and much of the public were concerned.  Because of all the suspense and publicity, some non-car folks still think of the first Corvairs as '59 models.
Before you know it, the Corvair's 50th Anniversary will be here next year. It'll be on a Friday, the same day of the week in 2009 on which the Corvair was introduced in 1959. It's not too early for CORSA Chapters to start planning events centered around Corvair's 50th Birthday on October 2, 2009. Why don't we all start the ball rolling by bringing out our Corvairs for the 49th, at your meeting October 2nd? See you there....or I should say, what are you still doing here?