Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Pinewood Dreams
My brother mentioned to me a couple of weeks ago the possibility of doing a crossover between our two blogs about the Pinewood Derby, so I'm going to get the ball rolling today.
For those who don't know, the Pinewood Derby is one of the highlights of the year as a Cub Scout (and for those who don't know what a Cub Scout is, it's just the Boy Scouts for kids who aren't old enough to be that yet). Of course, it's not hard for the Derby to be the highlight of the year, when the only other thing I remember about being a Cub Scout is sitting around eating cookies and drinking juice.
The Derby works like this: each kid is given a rectangular block of wood, 4 nails, and 4 little rubber wheels. Then the object is take your little block of wood and fashion a car out of it. With proper adult supervision and some time, you could make a really sleek, aerodynamically sound vehicle. Or you could do what I did. Being a lazy little bastard, I stuck the four wheels on the little block of wood, slapped on a quick coat of ugly brown paint, and took it to the derby.
The Derby itself is pretty cool. It amounts to what is basically a giant wooden slide divided into lanes. I forget how many kids go at once, but each kid puts his car at the top of the slide and then they let them go. First one to the bottom wins, and the winners of each race face off, until there is only one standing.
It doesn't take a degree in rocket science to realize that a clumsy wooden block is not going to win this race ( in fact, it somehow defied the laws of gravity and didn't even make the bottom of the slide), and thus my dreams of becoming Pinewood Derby champion went unfulfilled.
For those who don't know, the Pinewood Derby is one of the highlights of the year as a Cub Scout (and for those who don't know what a Cub Scout is, it's just the Boy Scouts for kids who aren't old enough to be that yet). Of course, it's not hard for the Derby to be the highlight of the year, when the only other thing I remember about being a Cub Scout is sitting around eating cookies and drinking juice.
The Derby works like this: each kid is given a rectangular block of wood, 4 nails, and 4 little rubber wheels. Then the object is take your little block of wood and fashion a car out of it. With proper adult supervision and some time, you could make a really sleek, aerodynamically sound vehicle. Or you could do what I did. Being a lazy little bastard, I stuck the four wheels on the little block of wood, slapped on a quick coat of ugly brown paint, and took it to the derby.
The Derby itself is pretty cool. It amounts to what is basically a giant wooden slide divided into lanes. I forget how many kids go at once, but each kid puts his car at the top of the slide and then they let them go. First one to the bottom wins, and the winners of each race face off, until there is only one standing.
It doesn't take a degree in rocket science to realize that a clumsy wooden block is not going to win this race ( in fact, it somehow defied the laws of gravity and didn't even make the bottom of the slide), and thus my dreams of becoming Pinewood Derby champion went unfulfilled.
