Frank's Sketchbook Entry of the Day

I was in Kingston, NY, visiting my sister and we went to a sort-of soapbox derby. I have never been to one before. And I'm pretty sure I still haven't been to a real one, but this one was amusing. Different people or groups or organizations had vehicles that went down the hill that's on the main street. Often the vehicle, wagon, bicycle, or similar transport had one or two people (parents) walking behind the float, er, I mean the soapbox car, holding a rope attached to it to control how it slowly went down the hill (read: very), including steering. (One was a 6' tall beach ball. Sadly, no one was in it.)

Anyway, we arrived as it was starting, and I missed the first couple ones. We found a place to sit on the curb and watch the floa— the cars, um, speed by. Since this took a a significant amount of time per entry (only one at a time, as per standard derby rules I'm sure), I noticed a banana peel on the ground in front of us. I kind of obsessed over it a bit and had my sister take a picture of my foot about to step on it but the angle wasn't great. Then friends of my sister stopped by and were talking to her. I asked one if he'd mind pretending to step on the banana peel so I could take a picture. And he did, so I did.

I think it conveys the essential idea (without requiring anyone to hurt themselves). The banana-stepper mentioned that that peel was actually from one of the first entries. He was throwing them around, and a bicycle (intentionally and slowly) hit it and veered to the curb right were we were. Then I remember as we were arriving, one of the first entries had music playing from the Mario game and realized their "cart" was a Mario-cart throwing banana peels out to the competitor behind them. It all made sense until I explained it to the banana-peel stepper, who was not familiar with that game. It was all kind of like a smaller IthacaFest Parade that had a shorter run with a much higher vertical drop. Here's the full size image.