When I was in high school back in the 1980s, I worked as a movie theater doorman and mowed lawns to earn money. I was a miser. I saved my money whenever possible. I didn’t own a bicycle. I didn’t go to summer camp. All I did was put away cash for the goal of owning a Corvette.
By the end of my junior year, I had accumulated $6,800 and it was time to buy a car for my senior year.
After a brief search, I found a maroon 1977 Chevrolet Corvette: 350-cid, 4-barrel carb, T-tops and tan leather interior. It was a beautiful car. It was built for speed and cruising with the tops off.
As high school came to a close, I sold the ‘Vette for $100 bucks more than I paid and used the money to head off to college.
Now I am an orthopaedic surgeon, but for the last 28 years I have thought about that Corvette and the fun times that went along with driving it. Then last autumn the opportunity arose, I had the chance to become a Corvette owner after nearly three decades, so I took it. I became the fourth owner of an all-original, numbers-matching 1962 Corvette convertible with 327/300 horsepower with the original hardtop/soft top.
Now when I drive my “new” ‘Vette, each ride I take transports me back to those care-free high school day. The attention that this car commands as it rumbles down the road is unmatched.
Driving this Corvette is like walking a dinosaur down the street. Bystanders stop what they are doing just to stare.
The reward of driving it after a satisfying day in the operating room is exactly what the doctor ordered.
— Keith Lawson, Lincoln NE
