[Spridgets] Friends made through Sprite

Frank spritenut at comcast.net
Sat Jun 27 18:55:17 MDT 2009


I was just thinking about all the friends I have made thanks to these 
dumb little cars over the years.
When I was 17 back in 1972, I pulled into a 7-11 next to a yellow 
Sprite, I had a green Sprite, I met Elliott, he was older than me, 
married with 3 kids and a house.
He introduced me to Frank Russo, again, even older than Elliott with a 
couple of kids. Frank had a Sprite, a white 66.
So here we are, with a 66, a 67, and a 68 Sprite all hanging out and 
trading storys and parts back in 1972.
I watched Elliott's 3 kids grow up, his youngest is now forty something, 
his grand kids are getting married, and I went to his wife's funeral.
We are still friends, he stops over every couple of weeks.
Frank, who has a couple of Sprites and a 59 Bentley along with a 60 
Princess limo, was the limo driver for my son when he got married.
All of the wedding party drove Sprites that day while the bride and 
groom rode in a Bentley driven by my friend Frank, another Sprite owner.
Today I am working on his Midget project, it needed some fender work and 
a new paint job.
Then came Rick Moses and the Sprite meets where I met a bunch more 
people with the same love of some dumb little cars.
Rick from PA, Alan and Joe from Rhode Island, Steve from Mass, and a few 
others from Maryland, Virgina, PA, and Ohio.
We often called each other and talked for hours in the days before the 
internet and Email.
And then came the internet where I met people from Wisconsin, Illinois, 
California, Florida, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, and a few other states.
And I am in constant touch with all of them and have traveled to many 
states to visit with them as they have traveled to NJ to see me.
So today Elliott and Frank stopped by and those 2 have not seen each 
other in some time, all 3 of us a bit older then we were in 72 but all 
with the same story.
Elliott sold his Sprite to my wife's girlfriend, Frank and I still have 
Sprites all these years later and Elliott is going to start looking for 
another as he always said he missed that car.

We were not college room mates, nor army buddies, we were just a couple 
of people in town with dumb little cars and a life long relationship 
thanks to those cars.
Do you think a couple of guys parking next to each other in Camrys will 
be hanging out 40 years later?

-- 
Frank Clarici
Toms River, NJ
My own Fleet of Sprites


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