Three Generations

THE CORVETTE AND THE SAND PIT

Verse 1

My daddy had a Corvette,
Red as a summer sun,
He loved that car like family,
And every mile he’d run.

Then one day he left us,
And the keys were passed along,
To my fourteen-year-old son,
To keep his granddad’s memory strong.

Verse 2

That car was more than fiberglass,
Chrome and horsepower too,
It carried all the stories
Of the things my father knew.

Now I’m both mom and daddy,
Doing everything I can,
Trying to raise a good young boy
Into a good young man.


[Soft whistled melody]


Chorus

Three generations riding,
Though one had gone away,
Granddad in our memories,
Beside us all that day.

A promise made between us,
A mother and her son,
To find out what that Corvette had
When all was said and done.

Verse 3

My boy would sit beside me,
Dreaming of the day,
When we’d find an open road
And let that Corvette play.

So we headed off to Summit,
The drag strip shining bright,
His smile could light the grandstands
On that summer night.

Verse 4

The Christmas tree lit yellow,
Then green without delay,
I mashed that pedal to the floor
And we were on our way.

The engine sang like thunder,
The tires held on tight,
The quarter mile came rushing past
Like lightning in the night.

Chorus

Three generations riding,
Though one had gone away,
Granddad in our memories,
Beside us all that day.

A promise made between us,
A mother and her son,
To find out what that Corvette had
When all was said and done.

Bridge

One hundred miles an hour,
Fourteen point two they said,
My son was laughing loud enough
To wake the sleeping dead.

But nobody had told me,
Or maybe I missed the sign,
That after all that horsepower,
You still had to stop in time.

Verse 5

The finish line went flying by,
The pavement disappeared,
My son looked over at me,
And I could tell he was a little scared.

Into the sand pit we traveled,
Like a ship without a sea,
The Corvette digging trenches
As the world rushed past me.

Up the embankment we wandered,
Then finally came to rest,
Covered up in sand and dust,
Though we’d surely done our best.

[Whistled reprise]


Final Chorus

Three generations riding,
And nobody got hurt,
Just a little family legend
Covered up in dirt.

My son still tells that story,
And laughs until he cries,
About the day we raced Granddad’s car
And nearly touched the sky.

Three generations riding,
A grandfather, son, and me,
One living in our memories,
One sitting in the seat beside me.

Outro

Now when we talk about Grandpa,
The memories always fit,
His Corvette, my promise,
And that famous sand pit.

Some folks inherit money,
Some inherit land instead,
My son inherited a story
And a little piece of Granddad.