Pinewood Durby

- April 23, 2009

This whole Pinewood Durby ordeal stressed me out! I remember the day my son came home from cub scouts with a block of wood and four wheels! I thought how in the heck am I supposed to help him turn that into a car! I called his den leader, but didn't get the answer I wanted!

My girlfriend agreed to help him, but she herself had no idea what the rules were and had to take him to the scout store to find a weight and look at other items for the car. She decided to have him work slowly on his car doing a little each day. She knew it was too much for a child to complete all in one day.

Anyhow, my son nearly didn't get his car made in time for the Pinewood Durby! He missed three weeks of scouts and when he finally was able to go again he was told to have his car at the church by 7 pm that day, so it could be weighed! Talk about stress.

My girl friend had to hurry and help him complete his car. He wanted to re-sand his car and add another coat of paint and numbers. However, because he had to move quickly he only had time to sand his wheels and put them on his car!

His car proved to be pretty fast! My son's car ended up being the fourth fastest! Pretty good for his first time. It was nice to see his car beating all the cars you could tell dads had made!

To be honest with you...I don't agree with some things in scouts and it makes it hard to like my son attending. I only wish my son agreed!

Comments

Nancy said…

I work with the Wolf Cubs, and I know what you mean about there being lots of things about Scouting that can stress you (and your son) out! However, I have to say also that being involved in Scouting does definitely make a difference in a young man's life. All four of my sons are Eagle Scouts--I don't say that as a boast because I had very little to do with that! Our entire family got involved in their big Eagle projects, as well as those of other Scouts in our ward. (I told our only daughter once that she deserved an Eagle since she'd work so hard on the projects, so she'd better marry one!) Our second son learned after he was selected for the really great job he got after getting his degree that the deciding factor was that he was an Eagle Scout. Not all the rewards are monetary, of course, but that is an incentive.

May 12, 2009