At times, Antonio has every right to place sticky’s with “Don’t Touch Mom!” around the house. He has long known that I can be an impediment to his goals.
The reason THIS sticky ended up on THIS cardboard box is because Antonio found me laying prone on the floor taking a photo of his pinewood derby car. Pack 384 is having their Pinewood Derby race on February 26 at Woodlake Lutheran Church in Richfield.
Antonio was steaming. “I don’t want the WHEELS to touch the floor!” Picking up his car, he said sternly, “Don’t touch it, Mom Beth!”
“Antonio, really, I just gently set it down. I didn’t bump the wheels at all.”
He was not dissuaded. The next time I looked at the car it had a sticky note.
I wasn’t trying to sneak a picture of his car. Heck, I could have just waited until he wasn’t home if I thought it was going to be an ISSUE. I wasn’t thinking of THOSE WHEELS and anyone worth their pinewood moxie knows that you don’t mess with the wheels.
Antonio made his first pinewood derby car when he was seven years old. Even though I was a den leader the most I could do for him was take him to a PWD racing workshop and have him use their tools to make his car. I am totally inept about making things but I am good at asking for help. So that is why his Uncle Marty and Crystel came along: for support and to make a car for themselves.
Artistically, I’m a wash, too. So, it helps that this is supposed to be the Cub Scout’s project because I will not be painting any car. It is out of the question.
When you are seven years old, Chuck E. Cheese is a pretty big deal. Antonio had just been to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese and thought it would be pretty cool to glue extra Chuck E. Cheese tickets onto his car. I was doubtful. I squinted at him. I screwed up my face. But, I didn’t say a word. Then he found a puke green color and painted his car.
I didn’t have any hopes for that car. I tried to tell him that not everyone wins. As winners kept being announced, I told him that it was okay, maybe, next year. He ended up placing fifth which meant that he was able to go to the Metro Lakes District competition with his Chuck E. Cheese car. Uncle Marty, Crystel, and Antonio would have more bonding time.
After the race they came home with Antonio carrying a trophy bigger than I have ever won in my life. He had placed FIRST at the District. “How did that happen?” I asked Marty. “I don’t know,” he said. “It just happened.”
His next race would be the Northern Star Council race held at the Mall of Amercia. It was weeks away and I put the date on the calendar. The Sunday of the meet I looked up where to find the competition at the Mall of America. I couldn’t find it listed. Slowly, scanning websites, I started to comprehend that we had missed the event. The race had been the day before on Saturday.
Antonio has raced a pinewood derby car the last three years and has placed and won a trophy each time.
Last year Antonio, Marty, and Crystel all placed with Crystel winning fastest sibling. This has become a family event with Mama Beth continuing to thwart Antonio’s chances at the big win.
In 2012, having placed 2nd at the pack level, Antonio again was competing at Metro Lakes District. Shortly before the match, I told Antonio, that I noticed one of his wheels wasn’t touching the floor and we bent it down until it did.
Four wheels on the ground make a car go faster, right?
Immediately before we were to hand the car in for the race I learned from another den leader that only three wheels were supposed to be touching. Antonio and I hurridly made adjustments. But I was left to wonder, How fast would that car have gone if I hadn’t touched it? It ended up being tenth overall. Oh, Uncle Marty, where were you?
This year I want to tell Antonio that maybe they won’t let him keep Red and King Pig as drivers in his car, and that the drag might slow his car down. But really, what do I know?
I feel fortunate that even though I can’t make things, can’t paint, and don’t understand anything about wheels, and that we missed the biggest race of all at the Mall of America when he was seven, 
I still got top billing on the bottom of his Chuck E. Cheese winning pinewood derby car.
5 responses to “The Unintended Consequences of Random Acts of Kindness”
I loved this story! Your mother’s reaction was priceless. I believe in random acts of kindness. I have done a few and would not be offended if a few came my way – I promise not to be offended.
This was fun to read. Very relate-able, I think, for people who are used to giving. I could picture my mom doing the same thing. Thanks for posting.
Surprising too
Ellen, my father had a similar experience. He rides the bus to the U/M every week where he has an office in the Geology Department as a professor emeritus. Born in 1922, he grew up during the depression and will fix a shovel with duct tape and epoxy instead of buying a new one. He also values comfort over style–or he used to until someone mistook him as an old homeless man. While standing beside the bus shelter on Washington Avenue on a cold winter afternoon, he was offered a hot cup of coffee from a convenience store employee just getting off work. No explanation, just a kind gesture–given with large sympathetic eyes. Convinced that the good Samaritan mistook my father for a an old homeless man, my father went out that evening and bought a new snazzy down coat to replace his battered, patched and faded–but still usefully warm–12-year-old parka.
Wow! That’s surpising–thanks