Ahh…the Irony!

For as long as it has mattered I’ve had ambivalent feelings about the Pinewood Derby.  For some parents the derby is an exciting time, a time of creation and anticipation and excitement. 

For me it’s just stress.

The stress of worrying that my son won’t win enough—I don’t want him to be disappointed. 

But at the same time,

The stress of worrying that he might win too much—I don’t want to have to go to the district Pinewood Derby!

 

I worried about this when Jason was in cub scouts.  On year his car didn’t win any races at all.  He was such a trooper, and my heart broke for him.  After that I read tips online about how to make faster cars and passed them along to Russ.  The most important of these was to sand the wheels and axels carefully so that there would be less friction.

I worried about this again when Josh was in cub scouts.  Fortunately he always won enough races, but never too many.

This was our last Pinewood Derby.  Jared’s third year.  With Jared each year I’ve had the same worries, but so far he’s won enough and not too much. 

A couple of weeks ago was our ward derby.  It was a good night.  Jared won plenty of races and he and the girls were excited.  I had a meeting at the same time as the derby, so I left as soon as the races were over.

 

I got home late so it was the next day before I heard Jared’s “good” news.  He placed 2nd in the derby and got to go to the district finals! 

 

I was laughing with Russ about it later.  Here we were, at our 9th derby.  We’d escaped the district finals 8 times before.  And now, the last time, we had to go to the finals.  Not even we, because Russ would be in Utah on the day of the district finals. It would be just me, getting to spend hours with a mob of cub scouts at the mall on a Saturday.  Not one of my favorite scenarios.

 

And then Russ delivered the kicker.  He said that he was surprised that Jared’s car had done so well…  Want to know why?  He forgot to sand the axels!

 

Ah well…I suppose it was just a cruel twist of fate.  ;) 

 

So today was the big day.  Jared and I got to the mall at 11:45—the very last possible moment to sign in.  He was a little traumatized that his car was longer than regulation and they had to sand down the nose of it about 1/4 inch.  Then we had an hour and a half to wait before the races started, so we ran some errands.  I got a new pair of scissors (everyone denies it, but someone has done something BAD with my good scissors.) and a new freezer.  (Thanks Katie for the tip that appliances go on sale in February—you were right!)  And then it was time for the bit moment.  Jared was pretty excited.

(I hope you appreciate the fact that I was able to get the semi-pornographic ad poster from Macy’s in the shot too.  This one won’t be in my blog book.)

Each scout’s car raced four times—once on each lane.  Jared had a great showing—he came in 2nd three times and 1st once.  Pretty good for the car with the unpolished axels!  He would have loved one of the huge trophies they were giving out, but I think he was still pretty happy.

By the time the racing was done I thought my back was going to break from standing on the hard floor for so long.  I finally just sat down on the ground while they gave out the awards.  Fortunately my car was well stocked with ibuprofen and by the time we got home I was tired but ok.  And happy that my boy was happy.  And not particularly sad that this was our last Pinewood Derby!

 

 

Here are some of the other amazing cars that won as most original in their packs.

the blades on the “pocket knife” car (beside the flag) actually opened!

the pocket-knife car and the catapult car both won trophies.

 

And this one was my fave.