BY JERRY HEASLEY (^) I PHOTOGRAPHY BY THE AUTHOR
Rare Finds
Not For Sale ...
1955 Roadster
ob Doucette has four grown children. The
youngest two, who are 38 and 42, were
asked if they’ve seen this Corvette? They
have never seen it driven because it has
been parked before they were born.
Bob agreed to take us where few people have gone,
the car’s “at-the-moment, final resting place,” a single-car
garage in his dad’s house.
“I was born November 13, 1950, and this is where they
brought me from the hospital. I was raised here,” Bob
said as we walked up two steps of a small concrete porch,
flanked by tall evergreen trees.
“I kept this since my dad passed away. It looks inside
like it did when my dad had to leave to go to the
nursing home.”
Bob showed me the house key, worn almost paper
thin from 50 years of use. Inside, the house was cluttered
and a time capsule, from an antique stove, working in
1953, to the ornate 1950’s TV cabinet in front of which
Bob sat as a kid and in his mother’s words, “too close to
the set, you’ll ruin your eyes” to watch shows like Captain
Kangaroo, The Mickey Mouse Club and The Wonderful
World of Disney.
When Bob’s father passed away, Bob simply locked
the doors and left the place as is, which included safe
Doucette is quick to point out the black interior is not stock,
same for the aftermarket steering wheel, which is vintage
late 1960s. The seats are original, but not covered with stock
upholstery.
The ’55 was last registered in 1977 and has been stored inside
in various locations through the years, and since the late
1990s in this garage.
Seeing this 1955 Corvette in a house of its same vintage, in the steward-
ship of an owner of 50 years, not for sale and never for sale, is a stark
contrast to seeing a 1955 at a car show with no hint of a history.
Bob Doucette, seen here
in 1974 with a couple tro-
phies he won with the 1955,
enjoyed autocrossing, drag
racing and showing his Cor-
vette for the first 9-10 years.
jacob rumans
(Jacob Rumans)
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