Bam takes center stage at Our Lady of the Angels car show

Could you sell your child?

Hopefully, the answer is "No!"

But Emily and Kevin Kasperski had to deal with something similar.

Emily had a 1994 Chevrolet Corvette C4 that was her baby.

The Kasperskis, who now live in Panther Ridge Preserve, came upon the used car and bought it on April 3, 2013.

"I had fallen in love with Corvettes when I was 10," Emily said. "My neighbor had a 1981. I used to think, 'Someday, I would like to have one of those.'"

Her love for the Corvettes grew because it was "the" car to have when she was in high school. The Corvette C4 was named the MotorTrend Car of the Year in 1984. Everybody wanted one.

So she was in car heaven when she slipped into the front seat of her dream Corvette.

For Kevin, who owns KAC Enterprises Services, an electrician and handyman business, it was a love-hate relationship. The love part was tearing every last part of the Corvette down to the ground and rebuilding it. And he means every part.

"My goal was to teach myself the inner workings on a Corvette," Kevin said. "I was going to flip it."

Photo by Jay Heater

As far as Emily was concerned, Kevin was just raising Bam to a higher level for her. She fulfilled the duty of finding parts for Kevin.

"I remember going to the auto parts store and asking for 37 light bulbs for the dash," Emily said. "The guy looked at me, 'Thirty-seven?' Kevin replaced every one."

The hard part for Kevin about Bam had nothing to do with the engine.

"The biggest problem was how do you get in and out of it?" he said. "The frame rail is a pain in the (butt). You have to be good at gymnastics."

Emily laughed as she listened to her husband.

"Or you can't be 6-foot-4," she said.

Nevertheless, Emily loved the car so much that she named it Bam.

The couple nourished Bam over the next six years until they were faced with a tough decision. Living in Illinois, they needed to move to the Lakewood Ranch area to be closer to Kevin's mom, Terri Kasperski. They had to downsize their collection of cars to make the move. In January of 2019, Bam was sold.

Emily cried.

"It was a sacrifice we had to make," Kevin said.

But children have a way of finding their way home.

On Mother's Day 2022, Kevin received a call. The guy from Corpus Christi, Texas, who had bought Bam was selling it online.

"I bought it back for $7,500 sight unseen," Kevin said. "I had sold it for $12,500."

Still, it wasn't exactly a bargain.

Photo by Jay Heater

"He had beaten the Hell out of it," Kevin said. "It was a mess. I basically needed to rebuild it all over again."

Although Bam was back, Emily was in distress.

"I was bummed that somebody didn't take care of it," she said. "It was like he had spilled a Big Gulp in it. Everything was sticking together. I wanted new seats because I wasn't gong to sit on those. The carpet was so bad. He destroyed the thing."

With Kevin's mechanical background — his father John was a former mechanic who got out of the industry because he got lead poisoning from the workplace — Bam was simply the next challenge.

His wife is now riding high again.

"I love jumping into it," she said. "I love it because Kevin's done all the work on it. Little girls love it because it is a girl's car — it is a pretty color (aqua blue)."

Little girls, and anyone else who attends the Knights of Columbus Car Show and Cookout Nov. 1 at Our Lady of the Angels Catholic Church, will get a look at Bam. They also can hear the Kasperskis' stories about Bam as well as stories from all the other car lovers who nurture their babies.

Attending this event on an annual basis always is a joy for me, and I don't have a mechanical bone in my body. My auto stories are different in nature, such as the time when I was a teen and I owned an American Motors Ambassador.

The car, which was more than 10 years old, had blown its engine and a mechanic had put an undersized engine into what was a full-sized car. Since I was 16 and driving, I was a very popular kid on school mornings. The phone would ring off the hook from local kids who were trying to avoid the 12-mile bus ride.

With myself and five passengers, that poor engine had a hard time pulling us up over hills. My passengers got into the habit of chanting "Go ... go ,.. go ... go," as we got to the top of a hill.

Yes, there are all kinds of stories about cars.

What is yours? This is a great opportunity to tell them, and all the proceeds go to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

While you are at it, stop by and said hi to Bam.