GALLERY OF PHOTOS — click a thumbnail for a larger version    Vern's Chevys
	In 1955, the Oldsmobile franchise was added to the business.  Later, my father realized that he could obtain yet another revenue stream if he offered auto financing to his better customers.  They could pay the interest on their car loans to him, instead of paying it to GMAC or the local bank. His brother-in-law, publishing executive Ralph Buckingham (far right), provided some of the capital for this venture. First, however, the business would have to be incorporated.  The state required proof that the corporation had a physical presence, including a building displaying the new corporate name “Vernon M. Thomas Chevrolet Inc.”  So in the winter of 1961-62, we taped an “Inc” to our existing signage and mailed a Polaroid picture like this to the bureaucrats. Harold Tillman of Broadway, Ohio, bought all the dump trucks for his business from Thomas Chevrolet.  He was our best single customer. The publicity photo below was probably taken in the spring of 1963.  The next year, after a fire destroyed the dealership building shown above, Tillman and Walt Hamilton furnished trucks at no charge to haul away the rubble.