Re: Really lucky couple
Here you go JB a C&P of the article less photo
Two cars, one lucky couple
Hanover couple wins their second Corvette in two years at Carlisle car show.
By TIM STONESIFER The Evening Sun
Posted: 09/20/2010 01:00:00 AM EDT
Earle and Dianne Black, of Hanover, stand next to the two Corvettes they ve won in consecutive drawings at the annual Corvettes at Carlisle. The odds of that feat are more than two billion to one. (Evening Sun Photo by Shane Dunlap)
Can lightning strike twice?
Apparently so, at least when it comes to the Black family winning corvettes.
It began last year, at the annual "Corvettes at Carlisle" car show event Earle Black has been attending with his wife, Dianne, for more than 20 years. Each year event organizers sponsor a drawing, with one lucky winner driving away in a special Corvette.
And last year, that winner was Dianne Black.
The couple looked on with thousands of others from a packed grandstand as the number on Dianne's ticket was called. She was the new owner of a yellow, 2004 Corvette with racing decals and 31,000 miles of road racing on it.
"I told my friends when we were out there at the raffle that if I win this car I'm going to absolutely scream," Dianne Black said last summer.
Then she screamed.
And the couple brought the car home -- their sixth Corvette -- with Earle Black, the retired owner of a garage in Brushtown, a longtime collector.
So this August, he said, when the two made the annual trek back to the Carlisle Fairgrounds, there was little talk of winning the drawing again. Though Earle Black said he held onto the tickets he was given with his passes, and bought three others, just for fun.
"I just did it for the same reason you buy lottery tickets," he said. "You just never know."
And as expected, this year Earle and Dianne listened at the drawing as another winning number was called-- not theirs
A few, long minutes passed.
With no one stepping forward to claim the prize -- a red, 2006 Corvette with just under 30,000 miles -- another number boomed from the public address system.
Earle Black's number.
"I was kind of embarrassed to walk up to the stage," he said, standing beside that red Corvette in his driveway this week. "I thought, how often does this happen?"
Not very often, it would seem.
Black said organizers told him there were about 50,000 tickets fluttering around that rotating drum in front of the crowd, and that the turnout was similar to in years past.
"There's just no way," Dianne Black said. "I mean, lighting doesn't strike twice, does it?"
Then, she said, she remembered that big tree in her back yard, which has been hit by lighting each of the last two summers.
And then Earle drove to the store and bought a few lottery tickets. Results there are pending.
Earle Black said maybe next year the couple will take their daughter to the car show, just for fun, to see if the tradition will continue. Dianne Black said maybe the streak actually has more to do with their son, who passed away eight years ago, and is smiling down on them.
Either way, the couple said the newest Corvette in the family is a keeper, and will always have a special significance.
After all, after years of collecting and restoring Corvettes, this one is lucky number seven.
tstonesifer@eveningsun.com
