There I was in high school just cruising around in my L72 Corvette when I spotted a near-new '69 Z that I bought for 1200 bucks.

Reminds me of the scene in "Top Gun" when Maverick is telling his MiG story and Iceman coughs and says "BULL*HIT" at the same time.

Hey that's my 74 z/28 trans stamping in that pic above of Norwood stampings.

Yes it is! Perfect original example of the reality of the assembly line.

The X stamp on display might be the one they used on your case..

Bill November of 1969 is very late to see a 386 block casting in production, the 010 block had been around for ~6 months by then; do you recall how much earlier the casting date was than the car build date?

The stamper picture is of the Corvette gang stamp, not NOR, btw.

Could be... What it represents is an accurate example of a gang stamper used by the chevrolet motor division during the period being discussed in a setting that photographically matches the Norwood element arrangement for the assigned worker.

BTW... John kyros sends his regards.

I know because it's JohnZ's picture. :)