Crazy Obo New Year's Bash

On New Year's Eve, we were watching Home Alone 2 with two adolescent girls living in the house with us, and they were complaining that their mom wouldn't allow them to go watch “their program” in town. Curious about this “program” and wanting to check it out ourselves, we tried to find their mom to see if the four of us could go together, but she was asleep. In order to keep the peace, we resumed the movie; then, when the girls had gone to bed, we headed out to see what was going on.

What we found blew my mind and my eardrums.

Kids had made something of soapbox derby cars, but without anything that much resembled cars. They nailed together any scrap wood and boards they could get their hands on, added broom handles and the like for axles, and then bought these small metal wheels from auto mechanics. Then they climbed the hill with their creations, had a seat, and rolled down the road at random, giving the whole thing an air of a sledding party.

The sound was deafening- there were about 50 of these carts, each with 4 bare metal wheel scraping against the asphalt. Sparks flew. Real cars weaved in and out of the kids, who wore no protective gear. Kids ran into gutters and fell off.

I asked Mus why the kids only did this on New Year's Eve. He said it's because everyone stays up all night, anyway, so they aren't keeping anyone up. I asked him why the kids don't sneak out and go down the hill on other days. He pointed out that, with the noise, there was nothing “sneaky” about this event.