Photo of me in the Soap Box Derby racer I built. I Dreamed of racing in the national finals at Akron. I think I won my first race in Carroll, Iowa, lost the next one, and took my race car home. It was clear to me that most of the other race cars had been built by adults and not by kids. I couldn't believe that this obvious cheating was going on. It was like everyone was in on it. I felt like a chump. I lost interest in my race car, left it outside behind my parents' Dry Cleaners, and eventually some other kids took it. I didn't care. Years later when the big cheating scandals erupted at the National Soap Box Derby in Akron I wondered why it had taken so long.

© 2005 Allen Bukoff