Pinewood Derby

I loathe the Pinewood Derby. Every year that my sons have been Cub Scouts, we have had to live through the saga of the Pinewood Derby. I am not sure what the Dad who started the Pinewood Derby was thinking. The kids cannot do this project; it’s the parents who end up doing ALL the work. Boys between the ages of 8 and 11 can’t use power tools! Josh didn’t even touch his car last night until he handed it over to the man at the weighing station.

Helmut has worked on Josh’s car on and off for a few weeks now. He even came home from work at 2:30 on Thursday to get it ready to sand and paint. He had to take his Professional Engineer Test in downtown Houston on Friday, so it was up to me to paint it. He thought he would be home in time to do all the final assembly and get it properly weighted. Well…his test ran over two hours, so it was up to me to put the wheels and weight on. When he called at 6:00 PM to tell me he was just leaving the test (weigh in started at 6:30), I went into full panic mode. I had no idea how to put the wheels on a pinewood derby car! It was like asking a ninth grade biology student to remove a gallbladder.

Josh and I went out to the garage and read the directions and did our best with a rubber mallet, sharpie marker and Popsicle stick (don’t ask…I did what I had to do and used what I had to use). The real tough part came when we realized the car was three quarters of an ounce under weight, and the little metal weight rods we had weighed an ounce each. The directions said, “use a hacksaw to remove the unwanted portion of the weight.” Do you know how hard it is to hacksaw a three-inch piece of metal (without cutting off your finger)? I am ashamed to say there were a few unsavory words flying around the garage while we worked out the whole clamp it down, hacksaw it and attach it to the car process.

In the end, Josh seemed pretty pleased with how “his” car turned out, and we took fourth place. Only one more year to go we will be done with the Pinewood Derby forever!!!