Pinewood Derby is another rigged piece of Americana: The kids rarely work on the cars, with parents paying auto mechanics, body shops and engineers to refine the block of wood so that their (grand)child can make it to pinewood "Worlds" in New York City. The (adult) child gets to bring home a trophy for their hundreds of dollars of inve…
Pinewood Derby is another rigged piece of Americana: The kids rarely work on the cars, with parents paying auto mechanics, body shops and engineers to refine the block of wood so that their (grand)child can make it to pinewood "Worlds" in New York City. The (adult) child gets to bring home a trophy for their hundreds of dollars of investment along with bragging rights about how they whooped the other 8-year olds.
In our local pack the decent families who did this, in shame, refused to even go to the leagues: They realized that it was a cheat. Even more interestingly, some of the families that came to this realization: That the game was rigged, also kept themselves unjabbed even to the point of losing employment rather than take the experimental mRNA Gene Therapy. So maybe there is redemption in pinewood derby, or scouting.
Pre-lockdown, there were many scouting units. On the tail end most of them shut their doors and the one that I have led for years is struggling to recover scouts, meeting space and volunteer adults. The lockdowns broke scouting too. If it were just Pinewood I'd have few regrets, but to lose out on all of the other skills experience, leadership, outdoorsmanship, survival, family and friend memories plus campfires is just one more unkind cut for the US and Canada.
The scouting presidents of the NorthEast US Councils will be meeting in person for the first time in years to discuss the cratering situtation of scouting and try to rebuild. The local president spoke about how he's driving for more inclusion. When I suggested a local hispanic who was an Eagle Scout, just won a county political office, had a young scout and loved the scouting program, it was as if I hadn't spoken. Hetero hispanic male didn't seem diverse enough.
Another hard hit, Mark - though that pinewood box also included the numbers 0-9. Scout on
My husband helped my sons to craft cars that could win without cheating by engineering within the limits of the written rules. Thus if Pinewood Derby teaches young boys any lesson, it is that boys don't stand a chance of winning against boys whose fathers help engineer the car. It still makes me sad.
I would apply what I learned from Pinewood Derby to say that those who got help to avoid the shots win, easily, and some of those who naively followed the public health rules to get the shot have had the wheels come off and it shouldn't be that way. Life or death shouldn't depend on who you know. It shouldn't depend on who your dad is and what he knows about the shot.
Fewer and fewer people are getting boosted, so more and more people are engineering a winning response to the public health rules.
As for Scouts... when I saw the young girl in a Boy Scout uniform selling kettle corn outside the grocery store last weekend, I said "Is this for Scouts? No."
There's so much to unpack in what you wrote - people like Pinewood like they like watching football games and having tailgates. I guess it's something of a tradition that I find curious but not much more, just the human aspect of being together. (Sad note: We ran Pinewood via remote camera connection a year and a half ago.)
About the shots - even families in the know were torn up by people who "knew more better" because they got their info from (Fill in: Fauci, the hospital, their doctor, the talking heads on TV)
As for girls in scouts, I'm for it: The local girl units (Cubs and Scouts BSA) are beating the pants off the boy units in scout spirit, advancement, participation. Scouts are going back to the origins as Lord Baden Powell wanted kids building skills in the outdoors - though even Scouts BSA is going woke.
Girl Scouts went corporate, and has a large corporate structure that needs to be fed with high revenue, thus all the magazines and cookie sales with the girls getting the crumbs (less than a dollar on a $5 box).
With popcorn (which a lot of troops avoid) the packs are getting 30-37%, the council and national get another third and Trails End gets the last portion for the product and packaging. Not totally sure who pays to ship, though sometimes there are free shipping offers.
Popcorn sells itself because people like to support scouting, and it's a good thing to see kids in uniform working towards goals and learning leadership and communication skills. Scout on!
Pinewood Derby is another rigged piece of Americana: The kids rarely work on the cars, with parents paying auto mechanics, body shops and engineers to refine the block of wood so that their (grand)child can make it to pinewood "Worlds" in New York City. The (adult) child gets to bring home a trophy for their hundreds of dollars of investment along with bragging rights about how they whooped the other 8-year olds.
In our local pack the decent families who did this, in shame, refused to even go to the leagues: They realized that it was a cheat. Even more interestingly, some of the families that came to this realization: That the game was rigged, also kept themselves unjabbed even to the point of losing employment rather than take the experimental mRNA Gene Therapy. So maybe there is redemption in pinewood derby, or scouting.
Pre-lockdown, there were many scouting units. On the tail end most of them shut their doors and the one that I have led for years is struggling to recover scouts, meeting space and volunteer adults. The lockdowns broke scouting too. If it were just Pinewood I'd have few regrets, but to lose out on all of the other skills experience, leadership, outdoorsmanship, survival, family and friend memories plus campfires is just one more unkind cut for the US and Canada.
The scouting presidents of the NorthEast US Councils will be meeting in person for the first time in years to discuss the cratering situtation of scouting and try to rebuild. The local president spoke about how he's driving for more inclusion. When I suggested a local hispanic who was an Eagle Scout, just won a county political office, had a young scout and loved the scouting program, it was as if I hadn't spoken. Hetero hispanic male didn't seem diverse enough.
Another hard hit, Mark - though that pinewood box also included the numbers 0-9. Scout on
The lockdowns have broken many group's rhythms. Terrible.
Yes, I remember the numbers. I put one on.
My husband helped my sons to craft cars that could win without cheating by engineering within the limits of the written rules. Thus if Pinewood Derby teaches young boys any lesson, it is that boys don't stand a chance of winning against boys whose fathers help engineer the car. It still makes me sad.
I would apply what I learned from Pinewood Derby to say that those who got help to avoid the shots win, easily, and some of those who naively followed the public health rules to get the shot have had the wheels come off and it shouldn't be that way. Life or death shouldn't depend on who you know. It shouldn't depend on who your dad is and what he knows about the shot.
Fewer and fewer people are getting boosted, so more and more people are engineering a winning response to the public health rules.
As for Scouts... when I saw the young girl in a Boy Scout uniform selling kettle corn outside the grocery store last weekend, I said "Is this for Scouts? No."
Wow, thank you for taking the time to share that.
There's so much to unpack in what you wrote - people like Pinewood like they like watching football games and having tailgates. I guess it's something of a tradition that I find curious but not much more, just the human aspect of being together. (Sad note: We ran Pinewood via remote camera connection a year and a half ago.)
About the shots - even families in the know were torn up by people who "knew more better" because they got their info from (Fill in: Fauci, the hospital, their doctor, the talking heads on TV)
As for girls in scouts, I'm for it: The local girl units (Cubs and Scouts BSA) are beating the pants off the boy units in scout spirit, advancement, participation. Scouts are going back to the origins as Lord Baden Powell wanted kids building skills in the outdoors - though even Scouts BSA is going woke.
Girl Scouts went corporate, and has a large corporate structure that needs to be fed with high revenue, thus all the magazines and cookie sales with the girls getting the crumbs (less than a dollar on a $5 box).
With popcorn (which a lot of troops avoid) the packs are getting 30-37%, the council and national get another third and Trails End gets the last portion for the product and packaging. Not totally sure who pays to ship, though sometimes there are free shipping offers.
Popcorn sells itself because people like to support scouting, and it's a good thing to see kids in uniform working towards goals and learning leadership and communication skills. Scout on!