Slot car racing

I met a man who regularly plays foosball alongside his girlfriend. This made me smile. He described the local scene, where to play on a given night, and alluded to a surprising depth of strategy and organization. I smiled because he was smiling and because I have a soft spot for the niche scenes. I was having this conversation just off a roller derby track after all.

Foosball is a bar game, a fancy office game, a basement game, I'd never considered it a scene.

Of course it's a scene. Almost everything I've ever enjoyed is a scene and so are lots of things I've never enjoyed.

I happen to be looking for a scene right now. I'm still too hobbled to play disc golf let alone Ultimate.

I need a scene.

My dad used to race slot cars. I've thumbed through his neighborhood rules and he's always shared his track and cars.  Many times during childhood we commandeered the ping pong table to set up a wonderful track that he'd played with as a kid. A few times we've even found shops where they race cars by the hour. One of those shops happens to be an hour from here.

I've been meaning to get there, but the distance, the limited hours the shop is open, and life has been in the way. About two weeks ago, I ducked all those excuses and showed up to check things out. Other than the owner, I was the only one in the shop. He set me up with a car and let me go to racing. I zipped around the track, absorbed his helpful tips and smiled as my lap times sank. I crashed a lot, but eventually got down to just over six seconds. I felt like a kid and I wanted to share that feeling with someone.

The best way I could think to share that feelings was to get my family into the shop. I used some birthday leverage and brought the crowd by. It worked out wonderfully. We raced and crashed and crashed and raced, laughing all the way. My dad was delighted and everyone seemed pleased.

Is this my scene?

There are still several steps to make it so. I'm going to have to get my own car or cars. I'm going to have to find a way to the track on a regular basis. I'm going to have to meet new people, admit I don't know what I'm doing, and do it.

It all sounds exactly like something I need. I just have to find the slot and get racing.