PINEWOOD

It’s Pinewood Derby time. Back in the 1950’s, out on the west coast a kid wasn’t old enough to participate in the Soap Box Derby. So his dad, a Cub Scout Master created the Pinewood Derby. Everything the same as far as being gravity propelled, only smaller. Each kid gets a block of pine wood, 2” x 3” X 10”, 4 plastic wheels and 2 axels. They design and cut out a race car body, sand it, paint it and mount the wheels. Then on the big day, they race head to head, down a miniature ramp until the two remaining racers go for the championship. The first year, only the boys in that Cub Pack participated but soon, it was the alternative for too young-little brothers everywhere. Now it’s in every school, scout troop, Boy’s & Girl’s Club and church group.

Several Pinewood racers have taken shape in my wood shop over time and a new generation came through today. Granddaughters Mahala and Cecilia are first time, newbies. Son, Jon brought them over for lunch, sawing & sanding. For starters they choose pumpkin pancakes over soup and sandwich. Six hands breaking eggs, pouring milk, stirring and pouring batter; we took turns flipping cakes and when it was done, the sink was full of dirty dishes, we were full of pancakes and we headed to the basement.

They traced the profile onto the pine wood block and I ran the bandsaw. Watching them hand sand for the first time was as funny as it was awesome. Mahala wanted to wear my respirator and safety glasses. Lucky I have two sets. I loaded new sand paper on a couple of sanding blocks and they set straight to work with the tedious, hand sanding. So there they were, rubbing sanding blocks over edges and flat surfaces, making sawdust. Sawdust has a way of collecting on tools, bench top, floor and often needs to be collected and dispatched. The girls were as enthusiastic about sweeping sawdust as they had been about sanding. Jon polished axels with emery paper and the girls finished, taking turns running the shop vac. We got all the dust up and Celia asked if I had any pink paint. Jon told her that her mother was in charge of painting and that got us off the hook. 

Two hours later, getting ready to leave, we went through my wind-up toy collection, noting which ones were favored. The little mouse that does back flips appealed to Celia while Hala had trouble making up her mind.  Really nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon. We’ll do it again next year.