Category: Family

Video Flashback – Pinewood Derby

Family

Here’s a flashback from the Casey video archives, the 2002 Pinewood Derby. Over the years I’ve participated in a half-dozen or so of these scouting events. Some kids show up each year with finely crafted hot-rods that their fathers have obviously put many hours of work into. I’m not that Dad. Even if I put many hours into it, I’m just not a woodworking type. And so typically, a night or two before the race, when the the task couldn’t be put off any longer, my son Will and I would hack our pine block into some kind of shape, get some paint on it, glue on the wheels and some weights and hope for the best. But in 2002 we found some inspiration by decorating Will’s entry with a sponsorship from my company, casey.com, and maybe that was what was needed (or maybe it was the well placed bolts in the passenger seat), because our close fourth place finish was our best ever in a Pinewood Derby, and only Ludwig Von could capture the feeling. Please excuse the herky-jerky camera work, the adrenaline was flowing strong and I just couldn’t keep still.

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Screaming Delivery

Diversions, Family

Here’s a flashback from the home video collection. It’s September 28, 1990, and we are a young couple in the hospital, awaiting the arrival of our first child, and using our new video camera to record the event. We had already been at the hospital since early morning by the time this clip was taken, and our daughter would not arrive until the very early morning of the next day. But it was a different story in the room next door.

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It’s a Web Page!

casey.com, Family
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Colleen turned 10 last week, and it was an occasion for thinking back over 10 years of wonderful memories. I recalled that I had built an ‘It’s A Girl’ web page in advance, ready to use it to annouce the news of our new baby on the web (a blue ‘It’s a Boy’ page was also ready), and I wondered if I could possibly locate it.

And poking around old photos and files on my web server, I found it! Old web pages never die, they just become harder to find.

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St. Nicholas Snow Day

Diversions, Family, Guide to Life

st_nick.jpgAs a kid, there were a few holiday traditions brought over from the old world family roots in Bohemia. Some were food related, like the braided Hoska bread, or the Kolacky pastries. But the other meant gifts, and that’s why I enjoyed the fact that we celebrated St. Nicholas day in our house.

St. Nicholas of Myra lived in the 4th Century in what is today the country of Turkey. According to Wikipedia, he was known for secret gift giving and “is revered by many as the patron saint of seamen, merchants, archers, children, prostitutes, pharmacists, lawyers, pawnbrokers, prisoners, the city of Amsterdam and of Russia.” Happily, as a child, I fell into the child category and so was glad to celebrate his feast day on December 6th.

Although I’m not sure we really celebrated it as they did in the the Czech Republic. To me, celebrating St. Nicholas day meant an early visit by the historical predecessor to the coming visit by Santa which followed three weeks later. We’d get some toys and some candy (always a Lifesavers Sweet Storybook). That’s all that mattered.

St. Nicholas was known to travel with some less appealing companions. Good children would receive gifts from St. Nicholas, while bad once received beatings. My mother recalls that her Grandfather would dress as Black Pete to scare his siblings and later his children. Presumably they were beaten.

Yesterday we had enough snow that today the schools were closed and my wife and kids enjoyed a bonus day off. There was candy and gifts in their shoes (thanks folks), as there had been in mine. And while, like me, they know little more about the day than I did, I’m glad to carry on the tradition. Maybe this year I’ll try and make a Hoska. Next year, I’ll be Black Pete.

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RISK

Family, Guide to Life
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At the front end of our long Thanksgiving weekend, I was determined not to let it all be lost to mind-numbing hours of the Cartoon Network, or the isolation of our laptops. And so I found and dusted off one off my old favorite board games, RISK.

My older brother Sean really enjoyed this game, and I remember him teaching me to play on the set we had with armies made of small wooden blocks of different colors and shapes. It’s a great mix of strategy and luck. My current set dates to my college days, where many a battle was fought. But it’s been a real long time since my generalship has been tested on the RISK board.

Colleen and Will were quick to take up my challenge to fight over the world. We’ve played two games so far this weekend. I won the first, but was the first to go in the second, and I’m typing this now as they engage in the final battle. There’s a special sort of fatherly pride to hear my daughter shout, “I’m coming into Irkutsk from Kamchatka with three!”. And she did.

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