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Pinewood Derby Stories and Photos from Maximum Velocity
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Scenes from a Weigh-In
Four events that actually happened at our weigh-in over the past few years:
Scene 1 - The boy seemed to be holding the car in an odd way and there were pieces of paper between the wheels and the shiny, slime green car body of "The Green Machine." But I was in 'weigh-in mode', and was not allowing these warnings to affect my behavior. I grabbed the car and put it on the scale. In that instant, the boy spoke up and I realized my mistake. You guessed it, the paint was still very wet. Now the paint was on my hands, my hand print was on the car, and the Green Machine had become the Green Smear.
Scene 2 - The wheels didn't really spin well. In fact, they seemed to spin slower than untouched wheels and axles.
I said to the mom, "You probably should put some graphite on the wheels and axles."
She replied, "That isn't needed, we already lubricated the axles."
"If you don't mind my asking, what did you use?"
"Ivory bar soap."
"That's a new one," I said. But I was really thinking, "Ivory may float on water, but this car is sunk."
Scene 3 - The little girl brought the car to the scale. It looked like a last minute job. That was confirmed when I saw that the molding spikes were still on the Awana wheels. The car wouldn't even roll. (We fixed that problem.)
Scene 4 - When the car was taken off the scale I noticed some liquid had been left behind. I wiped it with my finger and said to the dad, "What is this stuff?"
He replied, "It must be the 3-in-1 oil we used to lubricate the wheels. Maybe we put on too much."
No doubt about that. It was losing oil faster than the Exxon Valdez.
Randy Davis Editor
From Pinewood Derby Times Volume 2, Issue 6
A pinewood derby memory is an occasional part of the Pinewood Derby Times Newsletter. To subscribe to this free e-newsletter, please visit: www.maximum-velocity.com/subscribe.htm