Pinewood Derby—chapter two

In case you didn't remember or didn't care, Bertha wrote about the experience of making a Pinewood Derby car a couple of weeks ago. Well, she is going to get a little more “mileage” out of the subject. It got better as it went along.

I started on my car early enough, but it still took two weeks to get it finished, and we were doing the last minute things the day of the race. It is kind of like an art project. You never know when it is finished. But it got “finished” just in time to race it.

The delay was caused in part by the fact that my real car, the Grocery Getter, was experiencing some difficulties of its own while we were building the race car. It couldn't seem to make it up the hill to home without sputtering, and missing, and I do live quite a long way up the hill.

Mr. B. began to give the problem due recognition when it was his turn to drive the car over the weekend. He came home with renewed interest in fixing it. Since I had already been driving the car for a few weeks with the same problem, I gave it no more attention than I usually did. Consequently, the Grocery Getter with its problems was on Mr. B.'s mind while the Pinewood Derby car was on mine.

So with that background given and that stage set, here are a couple of our more interesting exchanges:

Me: Are you going to work on my car today?

Mr. B. I don't know what I'm going to do with it. I hope I don't have to put a catalytic converter on it.

Me: I don't think it needs anything that fancy. Just a rusty air cleaner is all it needs, other than one of those flashing lights on the top. (I was trying to build a quasi-faithful replica of Tow Mater)

Mr. B.: What are you talking about? It already has an air cleaner which I already checked once. That isn't what it needs.

Me: Well where is the catalytic converter going to go? And what will it do? Take the place of the weights?

We finally established that Tow Mater did indeed need a rusty air cleaner, but we were still wondering about the needs of the Grocery Getter.

A couple of days later, Mr. B. switched roles on me. He sent me to the box store to find some parts for my car.

“You're sending me to buy a winch? I thought you didn't like to buy parts there. You usually make me go to the parts store to get them.

“I don't think you are going to find a winch at the parts store.”

“Well, what do we need that for anyway? I don't think I can find one at the box store.”

“Yes you can. Just go in the toy department and look for a little tow truck. We'll use the winch from it.”

The word “toy” was what finally got us looking for the same part in the same parts manual.

On the day of the big race, there were still some finishing touches to apply to Tow Mater. Mr. B. was going to add the flashers and the lead weights for me. So early in the morning, I woke my son up and asked for his help.

“Will you bring my car down to me when you come to town? Dad still has to drill the holes in it.”

“What? What is he drilling holes for?”

Now my son and his dad don't always agree on the proper methods for reapiring an ailing vehicle. In fact, quite often they each wonder what on earth the other is doing. But it certainly got my son's attention when he thought that his dad might, at that very moment, be trying to find his drill and his bits in order to drill holes somewhere in the Grocery Getter.