A Spam Can, an Urchin and an Eyeball: Handmade Cars Race Down McClaren Park
b"It's a sunny afternoon in McLaren Park in San Francisco's Excelsior District. Throngs of people are gathered on either side of a roadway that snakes down a steep hill. As they watch, a person riding what looks like a giant black Converse sneaker whooshes past. Coming up close behind it, a cast-iron bathtub whizzes by on what could\\u2019ve been the frame of a lawn mower. Then another driver \\u2014 this one clinging for dear life onto what looks like a torpedo \\u2014 hurtles by, inches off the ground.\\n\\nThis was the first Artists' Soapbox Derby held by the San Francisco Museum of Art \\u2014 what we now know as SFMOMA \\u2014 on May 18, 1975. It was a race for homemade cars. No engines! You just needed to be able to roll, steer and stop.\\n\\nOn April 10, SFMOMA is reviving its Soapbox Derby in McLaren Park. Homemade cars that can coast under the power of their own gravity will have their turn in the spotlight, careening down an 800-foot hill. It\\u2019s free and open to the public.\\n\\nThis week, we\\u2019re airing an episode from KQED\\u2019s Bay Curious that takes us back to the first Soapbox Derby in 1975 and it\\u2019s surprising twists in the road."