Benjamin Totals His Car.

Over the weekend, my nephew Benjamin smashed up his car almost beyond recognition. However, he walked away from it completely unscathed. This despite the fact that it was completely his fault. It was all intentional.

Yes, Benjamin competed in a demolition derby at the Van Wert County (OH) fairgrounds. I had never been to one before, so it was kinda cool. It's pretty simple. You start your cars and just start ramming everyone else. If there's any strategy, it's do back into the other cars. Hitting from the front puts one in danger of blowing their radiator. There were some pretty aggressive drivers. Some cars got airborne, climbed up on other cars, and got smashed against the concrete barriers. All in good fun of course. As a participant, this would have to surely fulfill some sort of little boy fantasy of causing as much destruction as possible but not getting in trouble for it. Benjamin went out fairly quickly the first time around, but the second heat, he was in the top 10 (of about 20 drivers).

I was there with my wife and Cameron. Anna stayed in South Bend with her grandma. She wouldn't have liked it. Cameron liked it a lot. When we got back, he was in his toy car having his own demolition derby. Oh boy, here we go.