"War Stories" (or Dr. Brown as a Wee Lad on the Farm!)
When I was a little shaver and had not yet started school, I visited my grandparents a lot and I am sure they tried long and hard to think of ways to keep me occupied (and keep me from asking so many questions!) One thing that stands out vividly in my memory is a dirty 'ol rock that they kept just for my visits. This was a wondrous rock! It had all kinds of special abilities that just any plain 'ol rock did not have.
It could pick up a nail. I could use it to "pull" some of my toy cars across the linoleum of their living room and I could spend a lot of time (and energy) just playing with this amazing rock.
Of course, I now know this was magnetite and my grandparents called it lodestone. I am sure that I followed in the footsteps of countless generations of young children who have been amazed and amused by this natural magnet.
Sparkly Rocks in the Creek
At the back of our farm property runs a large creek. Around this area is a lot of rocks that contain all types of pretty crystals. I have found that these rocks are quartz crystals or geodes.
As a "wee lad," I especially enjoyed splashing around in the creek during the summertime and very quickly noticed that there were a few of these sparkly rocks at the bottom of the creek. At this point, however, a mystery arose. I would look down into the water and the pretty, sparkly rock would appear to be in a particular spot. HOWEVER, when I reached into the water, lo and behold, the rock seemed to be a little bit away from that area. Why???
As I learned more about refraction and diffraction of light in later years, this mystery was solved. However, I still cannot look into a steam and not remember this experience of a Tennessee farm boy wondering at the sparkly rocks not being quite where they seemed to be.
Cows and the Comet
One of my most vivid memories of growing up concerns milking cows. This was a duty that had to be performed morning and night. In the early hours of the morning, my father would get up and go round up the cows for milking. This was usually well before daylight.
One morning he came back into the house and woke me up. He told me he wanted me to see the comet. I had no idea what he was talking about, but I do remember that I was very excited. After seeing this comet out in the country with no city lights I had to know more. I asked all the teachers in the small school that I attended about comets and checked encyclopedias and any other source to find out where they came from, how often they visited, etc.
And even now when I have seen numerous comets, I am still excited. Hale Bopp was marvelous! And I did get to see this from the farm in Middle Tennessee where I was shown that first comet.
De ja vu can be great!
Northern Lights
In Middle Tennessee the winter nights are cold and crisp. In the rural area where I grew up the stars and winter constellations are especially sharp. There are no city lights to dim and blur the brilliance of the night sky. There are even some rare occasions when the Aurora Borealis (or Northern Lights) is visible.
Again, my father made sure that I experienced one of those occasions when I was in early elementary school. It made quite an impression on me. What was causing those long flowing clouds of light??
I later learned about the earth's poles, ions, magnetic disturbances on the sun, solar flares and I have experienced the Northern Lights further north, but no experience compares with my vivid memories of that cold night on the TN farm with my father gazing toward the heavens in awe of such a wondrous spectacle.
Frogs Under the Back Porch
On a recent trip home to the farm, I was impressed with the evening serenade of frogs...large frogs, small frogs, tree frogs...all kinds were joining in harmony on that spring evening. Frogs make great pets for farm boys because they like to splash in water and generally are not hostile creatures. Of course, there is always the admonition (usually disregarded) by moms not to handle frogs because they can cause warts!
I never did quite understand that and can honestly say that in my 'scientific study of the handling of frogs' (and I have done my share as a kid) this would appear to be a myth (at the 0.05 level of probability!). What an injustice to innocent frogs!
More (yes there is more!) to follow!