Scoopin' Weekend

(Taken at Scoopin' Genesee 7/13/07).

I once owned a car just like this one that I won at a raffle, say, sometime back in the late nineties. A friend was selling tickets for the owner who became paralyzed and was unable to drive the car anymore. I remember the tickets were $10 each and I bought two because all I had was a $20 bill at the time. A few weeks go by and a knock comes to my door. Sitting in front of my house was this muscle car and a guy telling me I had just won it. After picking up my jaw from the floor, I went out for a ride in it with my dad.

I'm not sure what exactly happened to it except for the fact that my mother ended up selling it a few months later. The only way I can justify my sadness for getting rid of it was to think that the money probably got her through another month's rent, or put food on our table. It makes me feel better. But darn!

Scoop was fun. I wasn't sure what to make of the event's new look, but it seemed well organized. The new scooping rule of no cars made on or after 1980 was a nice change, but it seemed like it was the same cars over and over- not much of a variety as in past years.


The weekend ended on a nice note with about 15-20 people attending my annual picnic at Old School forest preserve. I knew it was going to be a rough day to get out for another party with it being scoop weekend and all. Still, it ended up being a good time with some good people.

The highlight of the picnic were the ice bucket wars that took place near the end of the day. I think it started when someone decided to pour ice water into a bucket and put their feet in to cool off. It ended up being a contest as to who could stay in the longest before toes were lost. I think I survived about 1 minute and 24 seconds before my brain started to freeze. The max was an impossible 20 minutes or more!

Check out some of my weekend photos on my Flickr here...