Winner's Circle

Part of the legacy of the Watson clan is a strong sense of fairness, kindness and compassion. You’re taught to try your best, play fair, be a good a sport and think of others first. We aren’t an overly competitive crew, which comes in handy considering we aren’t exactly athletic powerhouses. So, it was simply a nostalgic heart of remembering his own Boy Scout days that Mark signed the kids up for the Pinewood Derby at the YMCA.

Leah’s dad, “Pop-Pop” was in town the weekend before the big event and we charged him with the task of taking these blocks of wood and turning them into race worthy machines. Pop-Pop admitted his pinewood derby skills were a bit rusty, so he asked his brother for a few tips and set to work with the kids. Ben and Clara were proud of their cars and started counting down to race day.

Every day we would stress that the main point of this was to have fun and prepped the kids that their cars wouldn’t win every race (secretly praying that they would each win at least one round). Driving to the Y that morning we practiced the art of lowering expectations, lectured on good sportsmanship, the whole drill.

Let’s just say there were some very competitive dads on race day. The other race cars were souped up, streamlined and weigh-in was serious business. Ours were strong, simple, sturdy— reflecting good Scottish sense. We did a few rounds of test racing Ben against Clara, with Ben always just beating Clara out in the end. With our eye on the fancy racers and serious dads we smiled and prepped ourselves for disappointed kiddos.

But then the race bracket began and our cars kept winning— EVERY SINGLE TIME. Car after car they left in the pinewood derby dust. We were totally amazed and everyone else was totally frustrated. Pop-Pop had engineered speed machines. The only time Clara lost was in the final round to Ben. This was after they both had beat out a multiple-pinewood-derby-champion.

It was great. We cheered, we jumped, we text messaged updates to Pop-Pop the whole time. And here’s the thing— even nice guys like to finish first once in awhile. Every now and then, your team just needs a win. And a win that comes so unexpectedly reminds you what grace feels like and you want to share that lavish joy and love to others. 

But we won’t be sharing our pinewood engineering secrets— those are reserved solely for the Smith/Watson tribe, that's only fair. XOXO