Chariots of Fire? Well, Maybe Chariots of Spark

It's been months since I posted to the Remlerville blog. In fact, I had to look up my username and password before I could update with this post. When I did, I noticed that my last post was about end of the school year Momdom. Then a whole summer went by, during which I taught summer courses and worked on a second novel and got my older son back to college and got my younger son started in high  school, and before I knew it, Halloween had passed me by, and we're looking at Thanksgiving.

But now Remlerville is back! And we recharge our online saga with a report on Lawson's most exciting high school venture to date:  the big chariot race.

Lawson takes Latin. His teacher, Shelly Roberts, recently assigned a group project for which the boys had to construct a chariot for a replica Roman chariot race. Of course, she didn't expect the boys' chariots to look like this:

But she did want them to show some creativity in their construction. As she gave her instructions, she showed her students some examples of projects that showed acceptable effort, and some projects that showed no effort. During her slide show, she said, "This is one of the worst examples I've seen."

Lawson immediately recognized that example as the chariot his brother used a few years ago. Knowing he had to outshine Davis, he immediately got to work. 

His group consisted of Mills, Zack, and Cameron. But all the chariot assembly took place at our house. The core of the vehicle was the body of a shopping cart, while the wheels came from a cart donated by Hogan's Marina. With some 2 x 4's, card board, spray paint, zip ties and one little hobby horse, the boys fashioned a chariot, which I  must say outshone Davis's by a long shot.

At race time, parents gathered for the big event. I was actually surprised that so many moms and dads took time off work to see the contest. But then I saw the chariots arrive, and I realized why everyone was so interested. There was some real creativity displayed on the track at Benedictine Military School:

Because of the size of the chariots and the number of competitors, the race had to be run in two heats. Lawson was in the second heat. One boy had to sit in the chariot and "drive" while the others had to push or pull. Zack was the charioteer (is that even a word?), while Lawson and Mills pulled. Cameron pushed. The parents cheered. And took photos. And laughed. One chariot came apart at the starting line. The boys took off, and the chariot stayed put. But Lawson's team's chariot--let's call it the Chariot of Fire--ran all the way around the track. They placed second in their heat, which I think was pretty remarkable, considering their back wheel fell off.

I still think Zac wins the prize for the best helmet. I wish I had a photo. They used a broom to make the brush on top. His tomahawk looks pretty menacing also, but I think that's from the wrong continent.

Even though Team Lawson had a horse for their chariot, another team had a horse head mask:

It creeped me out a little bit in a Godfather kind of way.

I still haven't learned what the winners won at the end of the race. But I do think all teams deserved an A for their effort in putting together their chariots of…well…spark.

Here's the race, for anyone who wants to watch it: