[Spridgets] Spridgets?

[Robert Bruce Evans]

Perhaps I can put all of this questioning in perspective, for I was around when the news came out that Donald Healey had announced a successor to the Austin-Healey Sprite that for some still unknown reason he was going to call the Sprite Mark II.
I can tell you that all of the Sprite owners I knew were aghast and appalled by the "new" apparition.  First, we felt it was ridiculous it was for it to be called a Sprite "Mark II" when there had never been a Mark I!  Beyond that, the looks  of the new design were so put-offish.  It didn't even look like a REAL Sprite.  And that was all that Sprites were generally known by "in the beginning".  No "Bugeye", no "Frogeye", they were simply Sprites.  
So what did we call those new things?  "Wannabe Sprites".  So to me, the first was was the only true Sprite, although we did call the newer ones the "new Sprites" to make a distinction, and when MG was thrown into the mix, we still called each either a new Sprite or a Midget.  It would be years before I heard the term "Spridgets".  (I often wonder who first coined the word.) 
Now that is the unvarnished truth.  From my Mesozoic perspective.
Buster