{"id":1429,"date":"2024-05-18T11:33:13","date_gmt":"2024-05-18T18:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/187thahc.net\/wp\/?p=1429"},"modified":"2024-09-13T14:38:44","modified_gmt":"2024-09-13T21:38:44","slug":"girl-in-the-bug-eyed-sprite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/?p=1429","title":{"rendered":"Girl in the Bug Eyed Sprite"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Girl in the Bug Eyed Sprite<\/big><\/big><\/big><\/em><\/u><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dan Crummett
187th Assault Helicopter Company<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n

The malts were extra thick that night,<\/p>\n

The air was sweet and warm,<\/p>\n

The western sky\u2019s blue-white flash<\/p>\n

Bore news of a thunderstorm<\/p>\n

The curb-hops sailed between the cars<\/p>\n

With malts and fries and Cokes<\/p>\n

While a cast of studly teenage males<\/p>\n

Discussed their cars and smoked.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the parking place, out by the street<\/p>\n

Sat a Chevrolet Bel-Air<\/p>\n

A bronze two-door with tuck and roll<\/p>\n

And flames put on with care<\/p>\n

Beneath the hood, below the quad<\/p>\n

The small-block Chevy roared<\/p>\n

To impress the girls and get the<\/p>\n

goat of the next guy, in a Ford.<\/p>\n

Now the Fairlane, too, would rumble loud<\/p>\n

From its engine, slightly larger<\/p>\n

With factory duals drowning out the whine<\/p>\n

Of a Paxton supercharger.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

None of us had seen this pair<\/p>\n

before on summer nights,<\/p>\n

But their haughty insults grew intense —<\/p>\n

We knew there\u2019d be a fight.<\/p>\n

My root beer float was melting fast<\/p>\n

So I chugged it with delight<\/p>\n

And noticed sitting next to me,<\/p>\n

a girl in a Bug Eyed Sprite.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Now I was in my father\u2019s car,<\/p>\n

a four-door white sedan,<\/p>\n

An under-powered “practi-car”<\/p>\n

The size of a moving van.<\/p>\n

I longed to be driving a new Corvette<\/p>\n

Or a Falcon Sprint with duals,<\/p>\n

To get this girl\u2019s attention<\/p>\n

As I suavely played it cool.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But with the noise off to my left,<\/p>\n

and the approaching thunderstorm<\/p>\n

This aphrodyte in the Brit skateboard<\/p>\n

Called for action \u2013 not my norm.<\/p>\n

The pair of Fifty-Sevens,<\/p>\n

Were backing out to race<\/p>\n

When I finally bolted out, around<\/p>\n

And met her face-to-face<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her beauty put old Fords to shame.<\/p>\n

I stuttered as I asked her name<\/p>\n

And felt a fool to invite her there<\/p>\n

To go and watch the racing pair<\/p>\n

Her saucer eyes were deep sea green<\/p>\n

Her hair was Raven Black<\/p>\n

She said “of course, and it\u2019s Eileen,”<\/p>\n

My trembling jaw went slack<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now all at once we\u2019re in my car<\/p>\n

With thoughts all run asunder<\/p>\n

The racers left so long ago,<\/p>\n

And now I hear it thunder.<\/p>\n

I heard the Chevy jumped off the line<\/p>\n

With front wheels off the ground<\/p>\n

But within twelve lengths the Fairlane\u2019s<\/p>\n

Torque propelled it well around.<\/p>\n

I must admit, we missed the race<\/p>\n

But I\u2019ll remember well that night<\/p>\n

As lightning flashed and thunder rolled<\/p>\n

With the girl in a Bug Eyed Sprite.<\/p>\n

Copyright 1999– Dan Crummett<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poems","category-tins"],"modified_by":"Webmaster","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}