I was about 7 years old and my mom was dropping me off at school. We pulled in right behind a Mid-Year cuope. I can remember asking her what kind of car that was and she told me it was a Stingray. I knew then that I had to have one some day.

 

Mine was when my dad brought home a Corvette America model.

It was an orange 78 with 4 doors..

 

I was about 8 years old ... guy down the street had a black '67 coupe, "LOUD" side pipes, and had a way of blipping the throttle to keep it running, a real loppy cam, a high idle, ... the thing just spit meanness ... his house was 3 doors down from the intersection ... I was always running out of the house when I heard that thing coming or going ... just to get a quick glimpse of it ... he parked it in his garage and you could hear those side pipes blocks away when he'd start it ... sold me right then and there ...

 

I must have been 6 or 7. My dad had a client that had a blue mid-year vert in his shop and he let me sit in it. I remember it had one of those groovy bare foot gas pedals in it...keep in mind this was the mid 70's. First ride was in a white '77 and first one I drove was a white '85.

 

My Uncle would take me for rides in his 69'. I was somewhere between 6-10 years old.

It had factory side pipes and I rememeber exactly how it sounded.
I swore oneday I get a BB 69 with sidepipes.

It ended up a 72' BB with 69' side pipes, but boy it sounded just like I remember.

Bill

 

I don't remember a day WITHOUT a Corvette in the garage. Dad had a 63 in High school which he sold for a Camaro (and later regretted!) A couple years before I was born, he bought a used 66 coupe and converted it to a tri-power big block with side pipes. I was riding in it while in the womb.
...When I was four, Mom bought a used 68 L36 vert (which I still own) with the money from an insurance settlement from a head-on accident that caused some facial and dental damage to me. This was before childrens' car seats.
...They then "retired" the 66 to strip duty, which later went on to set some record for it's class or something (I was too young to remember all the details, but it was N/A, street-legal, on street tires.). There was an article written in Hot Rod about it when they hit 9.99 in the 1/4. That thing was a noisy beast and they would wake me up every weekend morning when tuning it in the garage.
...Eventually, they added a '69 tri-power coupe, a 78 L82 Silver Anniversary, and an 85 to the stable. Yep...at one time we had four.

They took a driving vacation down to Gatlinburg, TN (from NW Ohio) in the 78...with me riding in the back, under the bubble! I spilled some red juice on the oyster/silver(?) carpet back there and my dad FREAKED. Mom took care of it, though. No stain.

Like I said, I can't remember a day where the word "Corvette" was new to me...