In The Beginning

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In the beginning "CRUISING" Penn Street in Reading on weekends and certain weekday evenings was the thing to do in the early SIXTIES, if you lived in the Berks County area. If you were a Corvette cruiser you of course wanted to meet other Corvette owners crusing and talking Corvettes!! The first meeting and vette discussions usually took place at the parking lot in the city park of Reading, in the fall of 1963 and spring of 1964.  The idea of a Corvette club was brought into existence by having the first formal meeting at John Catalano's home on June 7th 1964. Some of the first members included Barry Goodhart, Gene Miller, Greg Buckly, Larry Bortz, Pete Bandonis, Irvin Cramp, Howard Endy, Ernie Hammer-Schmidt, Jack Martins, Jim Krallis, Skip McCoy, Rodney Spanier, Bill Wolf, Charlie Hummel, and larry Wixon.  From this meeting a letter was written to General Motors Company, Corvette Division, to officially register the "Skyline Drive Corvette Club" of Reading PA. The first meeting had 26 Corvette owners present (members) and by the July meeting membership was up to 31. The final reading of the By-laws were approved at the December 1964 meeting. By the March 1965 club meeting the officers and Board members affixed their signatures to the club charter which became official on June 23, 1965.    By February 1965 the SDC newsletter was more formally established with the name "FIBERGLASS FLYER". Going into the spring of 1965 the SDC "FLYING FIBERS" hill climb racing team was in full operation. The team members consisted of Gene Miller (Capt.) Wesley Custer, Fred Spatz, Jim Marks, Scott Beggs and Roger Custer. They raced local organized hill climbs such as Hershey, Fleetwood, Topton, Hellertown, and of course Reading's own Duryea, Which Gene Miller still holds the old course record of 2.3miles in 146.639 seconds.    One of the club's first community projects in 1965 was to meet on Sunday afternoons, at the Boy's Home of Reading, on Schuylkill Ave. Here, under the guidance of, Pop Schultz (the Homes Director), the club would donate clothing to the boys and would interact with them by showing them car movies. If the weather was clear a road rally would be planned to include taking the boys along as navigators to the final destination which was usually an ice cream shop.  As 1964 turner into 2022 the club now has 58 years of history with many exciting social and charitable events to look back on. The club has had over 25 different Presidents, many elected officials, Board members and over 1000 members passing through the ranks.