NO SOAPBOX, NO DERBY — by Steve Nadis
When I was a kid, I remember making balsa wood cars with my dad and winning some races with them. This year I took my daughter to school to sign up for a similar kind of race and get the kit. The next night after dinner, we pulled the kit out and started to work on it. The first step, according to the directions, was to tap the axel gently with a hammer until it popped into position. I tapped it gently but it didn’t go in, so I tapped it a bit harder. And it still didn’t go in. So I tapped it even harder, repeating the process for the second axel. Finally both axels were in and I slipped on the wheels to see how it might run. That’s when I realized that in the process of all that tapping, I’d bent the axels. And the thing didn’t run worth a damn. I told my daughter that I’d get another kit the next day, and this time we’d have better results, but she said to forget it. Two nights ago, they had the race at school while we were home eating dinner, with the kit upstairs in her bedroom–untouched since our first botched effort.
And that was the end of our grand racing experience, which I’m sorry to say was nothing like my memories of racing those balsa wood cars with my dad. On the other hand, at least my daughter has learned a valuable lesson about failure.
Posted by
at
04:45:59
My father made me one of those when I was in Cub Scouts, and we won the first race but then the axle broke. My friend Jonathan’s father was an engineer so naturally he ended up winning the whole tournament. One poor kid had to make his car by himself. In the long run, what’s fun about those races for kids is just seeing all those different cars run, and what they look like. It doesn’t matter who comes in first.
That’s a good attitude, GM. I was disappointed about wrecking the thing w/in a few minutes. Maybe that rubbed off on my daughter. But soon neither of us wanted to do it… –S
If it makes you feel better, I couldn’t have done it either, Snake…
thanks GM, I’m feeling better already. In fact I’m close to forgetting the whole thing–until next year’s race rolls along… –S