Scott Swanson
Susan Angland says she wasn’t really into cars until her husband Larry bought his 1965 Corvette.
So it’s clear she’s come a long way as she and Larry and other volunteers organize the third annual Sweet Home, Sweet Ride Car Show for Kids, to be held on the last Saturday of the month, June 25.
“I’ve always liked cars,” Larry said. “She didn’t know anything about cars when we got married except where you put the gas in.”
But she’s learned, and the result is a couple of Corvettes in the garage and a show that’s expected to draw hundreds of vehicles to Sweet Home and raise well over $1,000 for local kids.
Though the Anglands moved to town from Southern California in 2007, Larry started out in Oregon.
He was born and grew up in Lake-view, graduating from high school in 1955. He served three years in the Marines before returning to Oregon, where he worked in the woods before deciding to go to college. He attended San Francisco State, earning a bachelor’s degree in business in 1967.
He got a job as an insurance adjuster and eventually was transferred to Southern California, where he got involved in insurance reconstruction, rebuilding damaged structures damaged by fire and other calamities.
Susan, 58, was born in Minnesota but grew up in Southern California, where, over the years, she worked at a variety of office jobs, waitressed, “dabbled in real estate” and taught racquetball.
“I didn’t make much money so I had to get a regular job,” she said.
Both had been previously married before the two met while Larry was working in reconstruction.
He said Susan dropped by one day after they met, when he was preparing to go play racquetball. He invited her along, mentioning that he had an extra racquet. She accepted.
Larry, who turned 73 this week, had fairly recently taken up the sport at the time. He said he had no idea that she had been playing for about 15 years and actually taught the sport. In fact, she invented a training machine for racquetball players that was featured in a national magazine on the sport in 2000.
They reached the gym and “I was warming up with my back to her and all of a sudden I hear this ‘ka-baang,’” Larry said. “I thought, ‘What was that?’ It was her hitting it against the wall. It took me several years before I could beat her.”
“We’re both so competitive at it, we kill each other on the boards,” Susan said. “We have to come home and calm down.”
They were married in December 1990 and soon started their own reconstruction business, which eventually grew to 20 employees. They were grossing $7 to $8 million a year, he said.
In 2006 they retired and Larry brought Susan to Oregon that summer to show her where he’d grown up. One of his two sons from a previous marriage, Brian, lived in Lebanon at the time so they stopped there to visit.
“He brought us up to see the lake and we drove around for a couple of hours and by the time we’d left, Susan had made an offer on a house,” Larry said.
Though that deal didn’t work out, they eventually did buy a house in Sweet Home.
“The reason I fell in love with Oregon was I saw sunshine, rain and snow, all on the same trip,” Susan said. “Everything was green and there were trees everywhere. The air was clean. I just fell in love with it.”
Arriving in town in January of 2007, they didn’t know anybody. Susan said she liked the Kiwanis Club’s focus on helping youngsters, so they decided to join. She’s serving as president this year.
The car show idea grew out of their own experience in that area.
Larry had always liked cars, he said, and after they got married he found one he’d been looking for, a 1965 Corvette Stingray “fuelie” – which had a rare fuel-injected 327 engine. He said he bought it from a guy whose wife had given birth to twins, “and that ended his sports car days. He bought a Hummer.”
“I never really intended to make a show car out of it,” he said. “I wanted to put it back in its original condition because I liked it that way. He said he worked on it for years, finding the proper parts, right down to the correct bolts, to make it original.
One day, Larry said, he noticed a small car show being held near their home in Chino Hills, Calif., and decided to enter his car.
“I drove down and parked my car and the next thing I knew, I got a trophy,” he said.
That got them interested in car shows and they discovered that their car, which has since won trophies at the national level and been written up in a couple of car magazines, was worth a lot of money – enough that they take great care with it, trailering it to many events and keeping it away from moisture.
Meanwhile, partly because their 1965 ’Vette was not very drivable and they were members of a Corvette Club that held tours and cruise events, Larry bought Susan a Torch Red 2001 Corvette so they could participate in those.
When they reached Sweet Home and joined Kiwanis, they suggested a car show as a way to raise money for the club’s outreach to kids. They had never organized a show but they had been to plenty – about 150 by Larry’s count.
“Initially, we thought it would just be a Corvette car show,” Susan said.
“We knew we could get the Beaver State Corvette Club members to come because we’re members of that club. But then we realized that there was too much work involved to just have 30 or 40 ’Vettes show up. It wouldn’t be worth it.”
So they raised the bar. Larry and some other Kiwanis members worked the streets in the spring of 2009, signing up merchants as sponsors for the event, while Susan organized the activities and registration process – while holding down a full-time office position at Ti Squared Technologies, Inc..
They also approached Am-Vets and the Elks Lodge for help, and ended up joining those groups, which did provide assistance. They also joined the Rollin’ Oldies car club, which draws members from Lebanon and Sweet Home.
In addition, the Anglands said, they didn’t want to step on the toes of Grampa Tom’s Car Show, which is held the first Saturday in June. Larry said he talked to Hufford and Wilson family members, who organize that event, and decided to schedule the new show a few weeks after Grampa Tom’s to avoid conflicts.
“I didn’t want to hurt Grampa Tom’s,” he said.
“If you have a good car show, it doesn’t matter when you hold it as long as it’s not on the same day as another one,” Susan said. “Everybody wants to go to car shows.”
Between shoe leather, lots of trips to other car shows to pass out flyers, and word of mouth, they got 157 entries in 2009. That went up to 282 last year and this year the Anglands say their early registrations indicate that the turnout could be between 350 and 400, including cars from central Oregon, Seattle and Northern California. CruZin’, a hot rod magazine, has indicated it is going to cover this year’s show, which means entries may be featured in that magazine, the Anglands said.
They’re also getting more help this year, Susan said.
“I think people have seen that it’s successful, so they’re more eager to help,” she said.
The two previous shows have both raised about $1,500, which has gone to the local Shop With a Cop program, Doernbecher Children’s Hospital and other organizations that serve local youngsters.
Sweet Home has been a new experience all the way around, but a good one, Susan said.
“Prior to moving to Sweet Home, Larry and I had not been involved in our community,” she said. “So being a volunteer is new to our experience and lifestyle. Living in a small town had always been a dream of mine, and I feel that we’re truly living that right now.”