Man, I've got it bad.
The Saint Paul "Classic Cruisers" started up for the season tonight. Every
Friday and Saturday night, the City closes off several blocks of Wabasha
Street downtown and the locals can show off their 1965-and-older cars.
I went downtown and wound up parking in a ramp because the audience for "The
Buddy Holly Story" at the opera house had sucked up all the street parking.
There was the usual mix of street rods, stockers and few cheaters like the
Auburn kit car and a Corvette from the seventies.
Anyway, I was back in the ramp and had stepped into the elevator to go and
get my Saturn. As I turned around, through the closing elevator door, down
the long hallway to the street, I saw a millisecond flash of reflected
light. I said to myself: Hey, that looks like the back of a Bugeye. One
I have not seen before! I started madly pressing buttons to get the
elevator to return to the ground floor. When the elevator released me, I
ran down the hall and onto the sidewalk. Yep. Stopped for the light was a
metallic-charcoal Sprite with a hardtop, wire wheels and the bonnet hinges
reversed. I sprinted down the block and started talking to the driver
through the window. Chatted about Sprites/Spridgets for a while until the
cruisers started to move on the other side of the light. Never exchanged
names.
As I was walking away, a guy about my age wearing an Minnesota Street Rod
Association jacket said to me, "What kind of car is that?" It's an
Austin-Healey Sprite. "What year?" About 1960.
If I can recognize a moving car by seeing a small part for a very short time
while I am turning around to face the front of an elevator, and THEN
instinctively rush to see the car, I guess I still have the britcar bug.
Phil Vanner brings his Spridget to these things sometimes. It's old enough.
You know, the one they have every Friday night in North Saint Paul takes
cars up to 1972... When I get some paint on the Lotus...
Phil Ethier Saint Paul Minnesota USA
1970 Lotus Europa, 1992 Saturn SL2, 1986 Chev Suburban
LOON, MAC pethier@isd.net http://www.visi.com/mac/
"If I can do it, it's not art" - Red Green
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