We'll be the Judge of That!

A message from 2012 Convention Concours Chairman Ken Schifftner:

We are in the process of recruiting judges for the Concours d’Elegance to take place during the 2012 CORSA Convention next July in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. We will be needing judges and back-up judges. Since we don't know how many vehicles may enter the Concours, we need to have some extra judges just in case. Volunteers are needed.

The Concours judges just judge for condition and cleanliness... they do not judge for originality or any other standard... If you haven't done this it is a great experience. You can do it even if you have a car in the Concours, you just won’t be judging your own vehicle or those in your vehicle’s class.

By late December I must send a list of names of potential judges to Don Wagner who coordinates the judges. Don then mails a form to these folks. This form asks them what areas they might want to judge (interior, wheels, trim, undercarriage, etc.). You just fill out the form and send it back to Don. Don then sends a return letter to you.

At the Convention, there will be a Judge's Meeting where the details will be provided. If you are a novice, you'll be paired with a "veteran" judge. You may or may not be called upon to judge... depends upon the number of vehicles.

If you are interested, please send your name, address, phone number, email address to me and I'll compile the list for Don. Please respond by the email link here.  Thank you!

Old Car, Young Owner

This 1960 Corvair 700 sedan will be at the Sturbridge convention, and it will be approaching its 53rd birthday at that time.

It’s a relatively early production car, built in the summer of 1959. It’s owner, on the other hand, is a relatively late production, born several years after the last Corvair came off the assembly line.

The car belongs to CORSA Eastern Division Director Jason Cesana, who reports that he never intended to buy such a car but now that he owns one he loves it.

Jason tells us that "I was looking for a late model coupe. I never really liked the style on the earlies and wanted the sportier looking late model. I put down a deposit on a bad-looking ‘69 but it needed everything right away. The car ran but smoked, the paint was gone, and the interior was hardly there. The owner wanted $1000 for it.

"I went home and was looking on Craigslist and lo and behold there was a new ad. I called the guy up and in a week I was the proud owner of the ‘60.

"I was new to the hobby so I didn't realize what I really had. It was not until after I did some research that I realized that this car was an "early" early!

"Now my opinion on earlies versus lates has sort of switched camps!"

Come to Sturbridge this July to see this old Corvair and to meet its young owner.

Another Thanksgiving Tradition

It is Thanksgiving Day, and as we write a New York City radio station is broadcasting Arlo Guthrie’s original Alice’s Restaurant Massacree, as has been done every year since it was first aired in 1967 – when Corvairs were new.

If you are an aging hippie or just a fan of the infectiously catchy tune that backs up Guthrie’s famous monologue, there are plenty of relevant sites to visit while in Massachusetts this coming summer.

One of them is this church in Great Barrington, the church at which the original "Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat" took place.

You could also visit the site of Alice Brock’s actual restaurant, in nearby Stockbridge. Walk right in, it’s around the back, just a half-a-mile from the railroad track.

Where Thanksgiving Began

As Thanksgiving 2011 approaches, we are of course reminded of the special significance the holiday has in Massachusetts, and how you can visit some historically important places during your Massachusetts visit in 2012.

The Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts in late 1620, and today’s Thanksgiving tradition stems from the feast held in the autumn of 1621 by the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag natives to celebrate the colony's first successful harvest.　

　The First Thanksgiving, 1621, painting by J.L.G. Ferris (1863-1930)

While in Massachusetts this coming summer you can visit Plymouth Rock, along the coastline between Boston and Cape Cod, where folklore has it that the Pilgrims on the Mayflower first landed.

Another modern Thanksgiving tradition is the "pardoning" of the White House turkey in Washington. (No wisecracks, please, about how many turkeys there are in Washington.) In the photo below, President John F. Kennedy is pardoning the 1963 turkey, only a matter of days before his fateful visit to Dallas.

　
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is located in Boston, a city that is a must-visit while in Massachusetts. If you want to further immerse yourself in the history of the Kennedys, you can visit the Hyannis Port Historic District along the Nantucket Sound waterfront on Cape Cod.  You could even go to Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard, an utterly charming island village adjacent to Chappaquiddick Island, where Senator Ted Kennedy’s infamous and deadly auto accident took place.

There is a wealth of history and tradition to be explored in Massachusetts. Don’t forget to allow extra time during your convention vacation to fully enjoy all these distinctive attractions.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We Do

It has been quite a few days since our last post, due to business committments, but today is Friday and the work week is almost done.

As we write there is a meeting taking place at the Sturbridge Host Hotel.  Among those in attendance are convention chairman Brian O'Neill, convention promotional coordinator Al Lacki, CORSA executive secretary Harry Jensen, and CORSA convention coordinator Larry Claypool.  For Jensen and Claypool it is their first visit to Sturbridge, but of course it won't be their last as both will be back for the convention in July.

Tomorrow (November 19) there will be a larger meeting to include many more persons from the NECC convention committee.  It takes a lot of good volunteers to conduct a CORSA convention and the NECC is fortunate to have a lot of good volunteers.  If you would like to join these volunteers and help make the convention the success it is sure to be, contact us here.

In the meantime, here's a wedding photo, taken on the hotel lawn where our Concours d'Elegance will take place next summer:

If this location is good enough for a wedding, it will be a great place for our concours!

(Thanks to the Sturbridge Host Hotel and Snap Shots Unlimited for the photo)

Michigan in 2013!

Congratulations to the members of the Western Michigan Corvair Club, who will be our hosts for the 2013 CORSA Convention, one year following the gathering in Sturbridge.

Where will that convention take place? This video should answer the question!

It’s never too early for convention planning, and you can plan on meeting members of the Western Michigan group in Sturbridge, where they will have information available on their convention and the locale.

We should note that the Corvair Society of America received convention bids for 2013 from the Chicagoland Corvair Enthusiasts and the Circle City Corvair Club of Indianapolis, as well as the bid from the Western Michigan Corvair Club. Goes to show that Corvair enthusiasm remains strong in the midwest!

(By the way, the person who put the Nicholas Brothers' video on YouTube got the song title wrong.  It's "I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo," not "a Girl from Kalamazoo.")

Room at the Inn

As of November 1st, 2011, more than eight months ahead of the convention, more than 50, yes, 50 rooms have been reserved at the Sturbridge Host Hotel!

There appears to be little doubt that rooms at this convention will be sold out, so you may not want to wait much longer to make your reservations.

Fortunately, even when the Sturbridge Host is fully booked, there are plenty of other hotels in the immediate area.  But that doesn't mean that you should wait -- Sturbridge is a very popular summertime vacation destination, and so chances are good that those hotels will be sold out, too!  We suggest that you make your room reservations sooner rather than later.

An earlier post on this blog reviewed what you need to do to make your reservations either by phone or online, and that information is also available on the convention web site, here .

Of course, some people want to know the convention schedule before they make their plans.  The convention schedule is posted on the convention web site, here, and as more schedule details get filled in we will be updating that schedule.