STREET RACING IN THE DALLES

     I didn’t even know that the Soap Box Derby still existed and yet there they were blocking off the street just below our house while a bevy of young Danica Patricks hurled down the grade on Court Street, stopping just short of the steady trucking traffic on 3^rd.

     In truth it appears to be some distance from the old derby cars built in one car garages and rolling on stolen baby buggy tires but it is still a simple race run by gravity and against another competitor… good, clean fun on a sunny autumn afternoon (disregarding the occasional scandal involving devious parents and surreptitiously placed electromagnets…)

     Of course there are signs of the times; the aforementioned cheating, races like today’s with girl drivers, an advanced division with adult hands in the construction and drivers up to 20 years old and something called the Portland Adult Soap Box Derby which I will assume means sophisticated engineering and not X rated sexual content.

     Long gone are the days when the derby attendance was in the top five of sporting events in the nation. The one I observed this afternoon had an audience of very few, like myself, not directly involved and was a painfully slowly paced affair with youngsters having a load of fun amongst a contingent of very serious-minded adults who were more interested in times and standings than in keeping the wind in your hair and the bugs off your teeth.

     Oh, and a side parking lot full of motor homes, fancy trailers and very pricey looking soap box accessories.