Howdy Cowtown,

   With our 50^th Anniversary party coming up next month on June 15^th,  let’s look back to 1974 and “The Way   We Were”.  Which just happened to be that years’ Number 1 song by Barbara Streisand.

  The Way We Were:  Prices were high  but in 1974 it was thanks to the Middle East Oil Embargo

  (OPEC)

-       Car sales dropped by 12 ½ % due to gas crunch

-       The new Corvette average price rose to just over $6000 for the 1^st time – with sales increasing

m      about 30,000 units to 37,000 units

-       Gas prices rose 43% (thanks OPEC!) from .38 cents a gallon to .54 cents

   According to AARP

-       Ribeye steak $2.49/lb (in today’s dollars $17.50)

-       Vanilla ice cream $1.29/gallon ($9.06 today)

-       Milk .89 cents/gallon ($6.25 today)

-       Bacon .79 cents/lb ($5.55 today)

-       Coffee .66 cents/lb ($4.57 today)

-       Chuck Roast .65 cents/lb ($4.50 today)

   Despite all of this, we did have a sense of humor with Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein being the 1^st and 3^rd top grossing movies. If you were around back then, I know you (like me) remember the struggles to make ends meet.  But if you are reading this – we’re still kicking and for the most part still have our sense of humor.

   Thank you …. to all that have put in the hard work over the years to keep Cowtown Vettes a fun and active diversion in good and tough times.

   Cheers to 50 Years – take your right hand and pat yourself on the back and high five a fellow CTV member.  Just like our favorite car – Cowtown Vettes – it’s been quite a ride !

                     Randy Baker

             Cowtown Vettes President

               rworldbfree@gmail.com

Socials

Well, 2024 is certainly flying by....how can it already be May!!  We have already enjoyed a social, a cruise, 2 NCCC events...the Spring Scramble and the Larry Hoaldridge Memorial Autocross...and are looking forward to our “Cheers to 50 Years” celebration.

MAY

On May 11th, we will be headed out on another cruise..this one led by Doug McMahan through parts of Tarrant, Johnson and Ellis counties ending at a local winery. 

You will be able to show off your Corvette as well as enjoy wine tastings. 

They have wood fired pizza and/or charcuterie boards for purchase. 

There will be a sign-up sheet for this event at the May meeting. 

 Look for a CTV-All from Doug with details.

June

June will be our “big” celebration of Cowtown Vettes 50th Anniversary, our Cheers to 50 Years”...  

a “Margaritaville” themed party on June 15th at the

Lone Star Towers Clubhouse at Texas Motor Speedway from 1 to 5pm. 

**See the invitation to this party on the Cowtown website under coming events. 

The cost is $25 per person and will include finger food, Margaritas (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic), misc. beer, water, fruit, veggies, and other munchies.

 Bring out your best “beachy” apparel for the “Best Parrot Head” contest and show up in your best “decorated” flip flops for the best decorated “flip flop” contest.  There will also be a historical display of Cowtown memorabilia. 

We need your reservations & payment by May 28.

Let me know if you plan to attend by email at marypittman@hotmail.com

or text me at 817-368-3730. 

PARROTHEADS UNITE

by Debbie Lindsey

 Cowtown Vettes 50^th   Anniversary party, a special salute to Cowtown Vettes and its’ 50 glorious years of existence.

Now you may be asking yourself, WHAT IS  A PARROTHEAD?? (just as I was! I am very naïve!) I googled this question and these are  a few definitions:

1) A rare specimen of non-conformist that is an apparently normal person that in reality is a restless dreamer and wild wanderer. Possessing a creative imagination and pure gypsy soul, their dress consists of delightful, yet creative and comfortable clothing of colorful Caribbean design. Diet consists of Cheeseburgers and Margaritas.

Digital / Social Media Article

How about this amazing weather, although a few storms at times. Robert had a great cruise to Boerne for the TCA Car Show – lots of awesome rides at the Car Show. A couple of us came back a different route with some awesome backroads. I found what looked like some curvy roads on Google Maps and just couldn’t help myself – had to do it 😉  So next time you are out cruising – take the backroads and FORGET the busy major highways!

This year has started off great, it’s going to be a fun and exciting year for Cowtown’s 50^th Anniversary 😉 We will continue with the slideshow each month at the Membership Meetings, which will include any socials and other events that took place in the previous month. The slideshow will continue to include some Corvette Trivia along with various other Corvette happenings around the country. Larry (our webmaster) does post a lower-resolution version online, on the CTV Website. Please provide any submissions for the slideshow to me no later than Monday evening of the Membership Meeting week.

If you have been working on or updating your Corvette with new items …or if you have taken a trip in your Corvette and have some photos to share with membership, please send those to me and I’ll include them in the monthly slideshow.  Cowtown’s Microsoft O365 account allows us to use OneDrive, which makes it much easier for you to provide high-resolution photos from events for the web and/or monthly slideshow. If you would like to share photos, please take them in high-resolution; if not, they can’t be used on the big screen since they would show grainy / blurry.  These are needed by noon, the Monday before the Membership Meeting. If you have questions, please contact me and I’ll provide you with more information and the OneDrive link to share your photos – basically use the highest resolution option you can set on your camera or smartphone.

When you receive a CTV-ALL eMail blast, we would request that you please only reply to the originator when you are replying to a CTV-ALL email. When you opt to reply, simply select Reply on the email, then remove the CTV-All entry and replace it with the email address of the originator. If you are sending CTV-ALL emails, please include your email address in the body of the email so you have that address handy.

If you change your email or home address, Corvette, or other info – please drop an email to CTV-Membership@groups.io.

If you are not receiving CTV-ALL emails, please get with me so we can either add you or figure out why you aren’t receiving them.

More information on email distribution lists and the acceptable use of them can be found on our website.

Facebook – if you are on Facebook and not a “friend” of Cowtown Vettes, members cannot include you in tags at events; these tags show your non-club member friends all the fun we are having. Who knows, maybe some of you are in the witness protection program and don’t want to be tagged J If you are posting, be sure to tag Cowtown Vettes so it appears on our Facebook news feed.

Doug McMahan

Digital / Social Media Chairperson

socialmedia@cowtownvettes.org

CTV Treasurer

As a friendly reminder, our Monthly Treasurer Reports are located on the Member’s Only page on our website. If you have any questions about the reports, please feel free to reach out to me.

Additionally, all the Budgets and P&Ls for events and socials are on the Member’s Only page as well.

Doug McMahan

CTV Treasurer

treasurer@cowtownvettes.org

CTV Sponsorship

For our 50^th Anniversary, Cowtown could benefit and would like to partner with some good club sponsors (at any level); see below. Do you own or work somewhere that might be interested in becoming a sponsor?  …if so, help promote them to become a Cowtown Vettes Sponsor? There are multiple levels depending on the depth of sponsorship desired. Do you have a candidate or any thoughts for a club sponsor? With club sponsors we can fund the financial needs of our club, but we also have opportunities for funding an event or socials; or event to print the Low-Down, etc. Not all sponsor levels have to be automotive related, so talk to us and share what you might be interested in sponsoring.

Note: We have a freshly painted Club Trailer – Certain Club Sponsors Levels will have their logo added to our club trailer, adding visibility beyond the flyer and our website.

.

We always have copies of Cowtown’s Sponsor Program at the Membership Meetings – see me. They are also available on our website, on the Sponsor page. If you need some in between meetings, contact either me or the Sponsorship Committee CTV-SC@groups.io

We continue tweaking the Member Guide that will help everyone to understand and promote Cowtown to potential sponsors. This guide will only be posted on the CTV Member’s Only website page – not to be distributed to non-CTV Individuals.

If you have questions or need clarifications, please reach out.

Doug McMahan

Sponsorship Chairperson

macsvettes@gmail.com

50^th Anniversary Club Photo Shoot

We are planning a 50^th Anniversary Club Photo Shoot, hopefully in the May timeframe. We are currently looking at the Cleburne Railroader’s Stadium – providing we can make it work.

Where you can help us: please update your Corvette Info in the Membership Directory. We will be using this to plan the layout of the Vettes at the Photo Shoot. If you have more than one Corvette, please share which Corvette(s) you will be bringing to the photo shoot.  Please send that information to socialmedia@cowtownvettes.org.

Previous Photo Shoots (most recent):  30th  35th  40th 

Doug McMahan

50^th Anniversary Committee

socialmedia@cowtownvettes.org

Robert Geyer 

       cathybaker3@gmail.com