My late father-in-law, Joe, was born and raised in Los Angeles, growing up during the heyday of hot rod culture. When I knew him he drove Corvettes and Camaros. In high school, Joe and his brother built Soap Box Derby racers. I recently came across an essay about Soap Box Derby racing that Joe wrote in 1957 when he was a student at Los Angeles High School. His teacher wrote, “This is one of the most *interesting* reports I’ve ever read!” He received a C+, though, because his spelling was atrocious (It was bad when I knew him, too – I think he had undiagnosed dyslexia) and he neglected to add footnotes or a bibliography. Here’s a PDF scan of the essay.
