Pinewood Derby 06/12/25
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I was in Boy Scouts as a kid. I still recall my first Pinewood Derby.
My older brother was the one that did all the projects, built all the
models, took apart all the old toasters; in short, he was the handy
one. In my mind, building a car out of a block of wood wasn't
something I was capable of. So when it came time, I went to him and
asked him to help me. And by help, I meant do it for me.
He refused. He handed me his coping saw and told me to go do it
myself. I begged a little, but he was firm, and so I went off and got
started. My design was poor, and my execution was poor, and at the end
I had a thin wedge with what I thought looked like a spoiler.
It looked something like this:
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I should say, it looks something like that. I actually still have it,
and at the moment it's sitting on my desk. My brother let me use his
model Testors paint; I chose gold, and painted it with a small brush.
That enamel paint is mostly chipped off now, but it still has a gold
hue, even in the places where the paint is gone.
Perhaps to my brother's dismay, my car performed better than it
looked like it would. I took the Grand Prize in our troop, and went to
the regional level, where I took 2nd place. I recall the regional race
(this was in Phoenix, where I lived) was held at a car lot, with a
McDonalds next door. My mom bought me some "treat" there afterward. It
was held early in the morning. I got a trophy at each of those, but
those are long lost.
I'm not really sure why I've held on to the car all these years. Maybe
because it was the first thing I built on my own, the first time I
felt like I wasn't dependent on someone else to do what I wanted to
do. I have my brother to thank for that, regardless of what his
motivations were.
And I've dragged it out this evening to get ready for this Saturday,
when it will race again after all these years. A local group of guys
bought a track, and are having an informal race. There's no attached
Scout troop or anything like that, just guys hanging out, having some
BBQ, and racing cars. I'm taking my two boys along, and they'll be
racing cars from when they were in Scouts as well. Should be fun!
