Monday, August 18, 2008

The derby

Once again, this year's Soapbox Derby draw a huge crowd and nasty heat to the Rondout Waterfront in Kingston.

In its 14 year, Sunday's event had 52 entries, the most so far.

And the winners were:

* In the youth category, which children built by themselves:

1. "Free Willy" by the Children's Home of Kingston
2. "Pirate's Fear" by Austin Luker of Kingston
3. "The Bicycle" by Jorel Lalicki of Tivoli

* In the family category:

1. "The Giant Toaster Coaster" By Steve Proner with Aiden and Josh Proner of Woodstock
2. "Olympic Wars" by Charisse Haruta of Hyde Park
3. "The Cat Sails Back" by Andrew Kehr of Red Hook

* In the adult category

1. "Tripping the Light Fintastic" by Keith Buesing of Gardiner
2. "To Go Cart" by Bob Johnson and Carson Parks of Stone Ridge
3. "Beatles' 'Yellow Submarine' 40th Anniversary" by Glen Pepe, Stephen Pepe and Jude Sapp of Pleasant Valley.

Derby notes:

* The Freeman's Bonnie Langston wrote about the Proner family "toaster" a week ago as the family was finishing the winning entry.



* Local politicians were around doing their usual politicking. So no, you can't escape them, no matter how hard you try.

* Most of the crowd, estimated in the thousands, was cleverly located in the shadow. There was, thankfully, plenty of water to go around. And this year, no mayor was ran over. There was also no Mayor's Cup, which is fine with me.

Here are some of my images (Full disclosure: I'm a writer, not a photographer, so judge accordingly):