April 25th, day before Pinewood Derby: Grandpa calls Rob's old friend, who has a wood shop in his garage, about his derby cars. The friend invites Rob over to choose one to rent (rent?) for the "big night." Rob walks into a garage full of derby cars and race tracks. After some catching up, Rob picks one to rent and asks how much he owes. "That'll be $50 to rent, or $250 to buy it."
OH. MY. GOSH.
He dropped the car and hightailed it out of there, right? Nope. (Peer pressure isn't just for teenagers.)
April 26th, day of Pinewood Derby:
(Cy was pleased.)
Is that the worst spirit of scouting story you've ever heard?
Rob didn't take the credit as the dad's gathered around him. And, in our defense (because we discovered we needed one), we didn't rent it to win. We rented it to avoid having one more project to pile on our "to do" list. (I found out later we could've just bought one all ready-to-go at Hobby Lobby for $15).
Maybe I'm not familiar enough with the whole process, but it seems to me that the boys aren't the ones who build and carve out these cars with power tools—the adult men do. I figure the car represents the boy in the races. Oh well.
But wait, there's more...
April 27th: day after Pinewood Derby. Remember how the car flew off the end of the track on its first race? Well, apparently that landing caused a hairline fracture rendering the car unsellable. Cost to us? An additional $150.
Not even kidding.
Not even funny.
So, for the next Pinewood Derby, we'll have to hide the fact that we actually paid $200 for a stupid derby car (is it the car that's stupid?). I'm just going to tell the cub master up front to disqualify us. Anyone who would pay $50 to get out of sanding a tiny car should be hung in the Scouter's Hall of Shame. (And they have one.)
4 comments:
that's awesome....ya know, the older we get, the less time we have for some stuff. It's all good!
Cindy told me I needed to read this and after reading for like 3 seconds I just looked at Cindy and said, they went to Glenn's to get a car didn't they? She looked at me a little puzzled wondering how I would know anything about that. I had just ran into him a few weeks ago and did some catching up and later looked at his web site. I guess when you are dealing with a 3 time national champion what would you expect?? :) Did Rob happen to mention when I was a little kid and Glenn was still a teenager he helped me build a car that we took to the state championships and either took 1st or 2nd place? Funny part is I told my buddy about it a few weeks ago right before his boy had thier pinewood derby. He didn't rent but read about Glenn's technique and ended up blowing everyone out of the water as well.
Mark
I don't think Rob had any idea—National champion?!?
What!? I am SHOCKED that Rob would spend that kind of cash. He is usually SO frugal...unless it's food...anyway, crazy. So funny!
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