Thanks to Scouter Jim from Bountiful, Utah, who prepares this section of Baloo for us each month.  You can reach him at bobwhitejonz@juno.com or through the link to write Baloo on www.usscouts.org.   CD

Roundtable Prayer
CS Roundtable Planning Guide

We give thanks for the fun we have at our pinewood derby.  Help us remember to do our best.  Help us cope with disappointments if our cars do not  go fast.  Help us be thoughtful of the feelings of other if our cars should win.  Amen

Iron and Wood, Steel and Rubber
Scouter Jim, Bountiful, Utah

The automobile has changed the way we work, the jobs we do, and where we do those jobs.  My father was a carpenter as was his father before him and his father's father before.  Though steam powered machines were demonstrated as early as 1678, it wasn't until the invention and development of the combustion engine in the last part of the nineteenth century that this technology was available to the common man.

My great-grandfather built homes and water powered sawmills the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the first quarter of the twentieth century.  Though the automobile was in its infancy, it was not in wide spread production until much later. 

In 1876, Nickolaus Otto,  working with Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach developed a four stroke engine cycle which became known as the "Otto Cycle."  Three years later in 1879, Karl Benz working on his own, was granted a patent for a reliable two-stroke gas engine base on Otto's design of the four stroke engine.  Later Benz designed his own four-stroke engine and used it in automobiles, which he produced in beginning in 1888.  Most automobiles at the time were being produced and sold in Europe and were not available to the average American.  My great-grandfather traveled and worked by horse power. 

My grandfather learned his trade from his father.  By 1900 mass production of automobiles had begun in France and the United States.  Automobiles were only available to hobbyists and enthusiasts at first, and not the average American.  It wasn't until about the end of World War I that the automobile expanded to a wider enjoyment.  Cadillac and Oldsmobile were making thousands of cars, as was Henry Ford.   Ford began production of the Model T in 1908.  Ford was quoted as saying, "You could have it in any color you wanted, as long as it was black."  As automobiles grew in popularity, along with building homes, my grandfather also built "Auto-Courts," or as we know them today, "Motels."  These weren't modern multi-storied motels, but they were the old fashioned ones, where you parked your car outside of your room. The Motel was usually built in a "U" shape and sometimes had a swimming pool in the middle of the "U". 

In 1927, Ford Motor Company ended production of the Model T and started production of the Model A.  More than four million model A's were produced through 1931.

1927 was also the year my grandfather started working to help build the first lodge located on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  He also helped build the 100 standard cabins and 20 deluxe cabins that were built there at the same time.  This lodge was destroyed by fire in 1932 and the present lodge was built in 1936-37 on the stone foundation of the original.  It is an interesting point that the history of the first lodge on the North Rim parallels in time the history of Henry Ford's Model A.

My father spent most of his life building homes in the Utah suburb of Bountiful after his return from the Korean War in 1953.  The technology of automobiles was expanding at a phenomenal rate with more power and speed than ever before.  Cars became sleeker and more aerodynamic.  The 1950's and 60's saw the introduction of "muscle cars" like the Corvette in 1954; the Ford Mustang and Pontiac GTO in 1964; the Dodge Charger in 1966; and the Chevy Camaro in 1969.   Not only did automobile production increase, but the desire for new homes also increased with the creation of the Suburbs.  This need was created as the veterans of World War II and Korea were returning home and wanted to own a place of their own outside the crowded cities.  This trend continued for several decades as children of those veterans, the "Baby Boomers," also wanted places of their own.  Most of the homes in Bountiful were built between 1940 and 1980 by which time the town was nearly completely "built out," with very little open land.  As the housing market began to slow down in the 1970's, my father found himself moving the historic "Pioneer Village", a monument of  buildings of the pioneer era of the West to Lagoon, an amusement park 17 miles north of Salt Lake City in Farmington, Utah.  He spent the last twenty years of his career taking care of the village and building concession stands or whatever a destination amusement park needed built at the time.

I am not a carpenter, but I do live in the suburb my father helped to build, and I commute each day to the Salt Lake City to work.  My children commute to the  city to go to the University of Utah and for amusements and shopping, all by means of the internal combustion engine.  Our world would be a smaller world without the widespread use of the automobile,  but its use, has come with a cost.  The internal combustion engine brings with it pollution and depletion of natural resources.  We are on the edge of a new revolution in automotive technology, looking forward to new ideas that will be create cleaner and more efficient automobiles.  Let us celebrate our automotive past as we create a vision for change in our Cub Scout charges.

The Pinewood Derby Prayer
Pack 169, Egham, England
Pack 52, Morgantown, West Virginia

Hey God, we ask you to draw near
And bless the boys who gather here.
This is the day they've waited for
Their blocks of wood are blocks no more.
Plastic wheels and dime store nails
Become the stuff of sporting tales
Of finishes too close to see!
You're here for every victory.

You bless the winners in their joy
But there's another kind of boy
Whose handiwork is blessed by you
Because his hands tried something new.
You smile upon the crooked wheel,
The paint job done with boyish zeal,
The splintered car, the sloppy glue.
You love the work that Your sons do.

But there is one here in this place
Who shows the greatness of Your grace.
He is the boy who hasn't won
But when he hears the starting gun
He's there to cheer his fellow scouts
His are the loudest victory shouts.
And when his brothers haven't won,
He's just the one to say "well done,
You've tried your best and you've had fun,
There are more races to be run."

And so, dear God, we hear you say
Upon this happy Derby Day,
"Remember, whether best or worst,
Remember, you are brothers first."