Proud of my Jamey

I'm sure proud of my Jamey and it's not because he won first place in the Pinewood Derby last night, although he was pretty excited about that. As they were weighing in the cars, our Assistant Den Leader noticed that James was putting liquid lubricant on Ethan, Ian, and Jamey's wheels, and mentioned that it was written in the rules that liquid lubricant wasn't allowed. James didn't know that or else he certainly wouldn't have used it. James wasn't sure what to do, but the leaders said that the boys could go ahead and race anyway.

Jamey's car was quite a bit faster than the other cars and only the 2nd place car came anywhere close to beating his. There were 21 cars in all. Jamey never lost a race. The twins never won a race. They had the same liquid lubricant on their wheels that Jamey did. I am not sure if the rules forbid liquit lubricant because it gives the car an unfair advantage or if the reason behind it is that it might harm the derby track. Whatever the reason, James was pretty worried about the situation, especially since the Assistant Den Leader who noticed the problem also happens to be the father of the boy who won 2nd place (and who really had his heart set on the race and he and his dad had put a lot of time into their car -- it looked like a car you would buy at the store).

James felt bad because he was the one who had put the lubricant on the cars, not the boys, and so it wasn't Jamey's fault that he was technically not following the rules. This morning James told Jamey that they needed to decide what to do about it. Jamey instantly said, "I'll give my first place to Bridger." Being the Mother Bear that I am, I told him that I thought his car would have won 1st place anyway and that he didn't have to give up his 1st place slot. James said that we'd all know that Jamey was really 1st place, but that Bridger might always wonder if his car might have been first if we had really fully followed the rules, and that it would have meant a lot to Bridger to win. I saw him cuddled up next to his mom during the final races, closing his eyes because he was too scared to look. It is too bad that every boy can't get first place. They all really put their hearts into their cars. Ultimately Jamey decided that he would give Bridger first place so I'll print off a new First Place certificate and Jamey can write him a letter explaining why he thinks he deserves the First Place slot. The 3rd place car didn't have regulation wheels, so we certainly weren't isolated in the rules category, and as far as I know no one is complaining about it or wanting this 3rd place boy to give up his title (and his car also won both the Cub Favorite and Audience Favorite awards).

Jamey is such a good boy and has such a wonderful, giving, generous heart. I just love him to pieces and am so proud and feel so lucky to be his mom. He obviously has more of his dad in him than his mom because he's so quick to do the right thing even in a tough situation.

I felt bad because one of the boys was in the hall crying because some of the boys had made fun of his car. This boy comes to everything by himself. I don't know why his parents don't come. It is easy to be critical of them, but I don't know all of the circumstances and maybe there is a reason they can't come to see him receive his awards at Pack Meetings. He usually rides his bike to and from den meetings, and often Pack Meeting, and once when I substituted in Webelos he was going to walk home alone in the dark and I insisted that he call his mother to come pick him up. His grandma ended up coming to get him. I really don't know the full situation in their home, but I do know that the last thing this boy needs is to have other scouts making fun of his car. I am afraid that my twins may have been 2 of the boys teasing him about it, although of course they say they weren't. James and his Webelos Leader tried to comfort him, and actually I think he did have someone there with him (I don't know if it was his dad or grandpa or who - I never saw him, but James told me that there was someone there to support this boy) but for some reason he didn't go to him for comfort when he was upset about the teasing and the fact that his car did not do well in the races.

The Pinewood Derby is so bitter-sweet because it's probably the boys' very favorite Pack Meeting of the year, and yet it is so sad that there has to be "losers" and that the boys put so much work into their cars and some of them never win any of the races, as in the twins' case. Ethan was upset and crying at one point, but that's how Ethan always is -- he is so ultra sensitive, especially lately. The other day I was playing the piano and the sliding door was shut but I could still hear Ethan wailing in the back yard. I went in the back and asked what was wrong. He yelled at me that he was trying and trying but just could not figure out how to ride his wave board. So you can imagine how upset he was about the derby results, although he did receive the award for the "Most Realistic" car and I think he was happy about that. Ian won the award for the "Most Futuristic" car. His car was silver. Ethan's car was red and shaped like a truck (the shape might not have helped his results, but he chose it and each of the boys cut out their cars themselves and decorated them themselves).

Cameron and Micah got to help carry the cars back and forth. I think they were as excited as the boys who were actually racing in the derby.
Ian and Jamey's cars. Jamey's car was bright yellow and earned the nickname "Sunshine," although "cheese" was really what he was going for.

James helps Jamey and Ian make final adjustments to their cars. They drilled holes and filled them with bb's and glue until the weight came out right.

Ian is the one showing attitude in this photo, although I think it was mostly just because I made him pose for the picture. He seemed pretty proud of his award and even asked me to frame it after we got home. I told him I'd put it in his scrapbook (frames last an average of 1 day in their bedroom before there's broken glass all over the place). He was satisfied with that. Both of the twins smuggled their cars to school. I would have stopped them, but I figured it wasn't that terrible to let them show off their cars to their teachers and friends. They did a lot of work on them and may as well get as much mileage out of them as they can, right?

So the derby is over for yet another year. James realized that this will be the last year he'll need to help with 3 cars because next year the twins will be too old for the derby, and we only have little Teancum still to join Cub Scouts. That is a sad thought for me. I love scouts. Maybe I'll have a lot of grandsons.....

Here are a couple of Jamey's races. I think this was an earlier race because I taped the final races with the camcorder instead of my camera. As you can see, Jamey's car had a pretty wide margin over the other cars he raced.

Another of Jamey's races. The twins' races are on their blog.