Descending Ashtray

When Sarah and I first moved to Portland, we had an apartment on SE Belmont. It was a great location, and had a great backyard for parties, with a raspberry bush within arm’s length of the picnic table I built (my first real woodworking project, and one that is still doing good service today).

One year, it occurred to us to have an outdoor party right around horse-racing season, and with the Belmont Stakes coming up, it seemed a natural fit to call our BBQ the “Belmont Steaks.”

A few days before that first party, I was at Music Millenium on Burnside, and saw some little toys on the counter near the register, a bucket full of “ramp walkers” for a couple bucks apiece. There were horses, cows and pigs that would all “walk” down an incline … it seemed only natural to race them, and with the party coming up … Racing Cows were born. I built a simple ramp with a starting gate, and much fun was had (the pitchers of mint juleps didn’t hurt, either).

The cows, however, were lost to history, but the horse racing party lived on in our new place, modified to a Kentucky Derby celebration since we were no longer on Belmont Street.

Earlier this week, I found the cows again with some slick Google sleuthing. They’re made by a company called Rocket USA, and 12 new racing cows arrived yesterday morning. They were all the same color, so I ended up re-painting most of them.

To re-start the tradition, I also felt the cows needed a little more than just a piece of plywood and a starting gate, so yesterday I souped up the old track. I give you … “Plywood Downs.” Place your bets.