My favorite thing about fall...

I consider myself to have somewhat sophisticated taste when it comes to entertainment. I like Broadway shows, orchestra concerts, art galleries and museums. So it may surprise some to know that my all time FAVORITE thing to do during September in Idaho is attend the demolition derby.

For as long as my family has lived in Blackfoot we’ve gone to the derby associated with the Eastern Idaho State Fair. Some may say that this is a redneck activity, and they would be absolutely right, but until you have experienced the thrill of a derby, you just wouldn’t understand the appeal. Those of you who have never been to one just can’t see that it is more than cars crashing into one another until only one is running. That is a large part of the excitement, of course, but there is so much more. There is serious drama--i.e. when two cars get stuck together and can’t get apart...you wait with baited breath until they finally pull free or another car comes to their rescue; or when your favorite car stalls and sits for several minutes until it is about to be eliminated and then, out of nowhere, the engine comes to life again. The audience is actually very involved in what they are watching, there is yelling at the stupid cars that “showboat” around the arena avoiding all hits, or the referee who eliminates a car that hasn’t had enough time to get started again. There is cheering at the hard hits or the last minute rescues. It’s an emotional rollercoaster, happy one minute, angry or anxious another. You get a break from the craziness in between each round, when tow trucks have to come remove all the non-running cars from the arena, and then it all starts again. In the end there is one winner, going home with a rather sizable cash prize, and hopefully the cheers of the audience. It is really something you just have to experience. This year I went to three different derbies, three Saturday nights in a row. The BEST was in St. Anthony, mostly because the competition was less structured than at the fair. Girls drove in the same rounds with the boys, there were passengers, they didn’t wet the track as much and they gave prizes for the hardest hits, which meant some EXCELLENT crashes. They even had a round of pickup trucks! I also saw the truest rednecks there, mullets and Wranglers included. If you ever get the chance to go to a demolition derby, please take it. I’m not promising you’ll love it like I do, but I do promise you’ll have fun, and life is too short to pass that up!