The
year is 1970. Richard Nixon is president. The U.S.
launched Apollo 13, it's 3rd manned Landing Mission to the moon, women were trying to decide if they should
wear mini or midi skirts and the Wisconsin Region,
VCCA was filmed.
But
let's go back to the beginning. When the
Wisconsin Region was only a twinkle in
Jim Maslo, our founder's eye. Jim has to be considered our Founder
as it was his actions that led to the formation of
our Region. On Oct 1, 1969, Jim received an answer from Chevrolet Motor Div to his request
for help restoring his 1932 Chevy pickup. They were only able to give him a
picture, but did give him a list of clubs
available that might provide information on the "older Models"
Jim
wrote to the VCCA requesting information needed to form a local Region. He received a reply from Howard Smith on Nov. 17,1969 giving the following requirements for forming a Region. A Region requires at least 12 members, a resume of the officers,
including ages, marital status, number of children, occupation and place of employment. He said "This was necessary, to insure that only mature, responsible
individuals would be representing the VCCA."
The
first gathering of interested people was held Jan 18, 1970, with 13 members paying dues. This started the ball rolling. Any
member join in 1970 would be considered Charter
Members. We still have 5 of them on our roster. They
are Bob Hensel, Bob
Lemminger, Fred Morris, Gene Schneider and Art Wandke. Our original Charter was dated
January 19, 1970 and signed and approved by Howard
Smith, Regions Coordinator,
dated March 4, 1970.
The members cars were
from the' 20's and 30's with one 1941 being the
newest. Anything newer were
considered too new. 1971 began with a January 24 th meeting at which
Bob Lemminger became Director, Gene Schneider was Assistant Director, Bob Hensel, Secretary/Treasurer
and Lucille Wandke, our first Activities person. By Sept. the club had added 6 new members. December was the first Christmas Party, complete with Santa which is a tradition ever since. 1971 ended
with 24 members, this count being the man only.
1984
the Wisconsin Region hosted the 7th Middlewest Meet. We called it our "The Blue Ribbon Meet" and it was held in
Oconomocwoc. This was our first adventure at hosting
a meet. Since we have hosted two more. June of
1992, we hosted the 16th Middlewest
Meet, we call it "A Week In The Country". It was held at the Country Inn in Pewaukee. June of 2002 we again hosted the Middlewest Meet. It was the 26th called "On
The Road Again" and it was held in Janesville, WI.
A
lot of Good times, Good Friends have come about since the
beginning of the Wisconsin Region. Let's hope there will be many more for all of us.