REMINISCING
Most of our classmates are now well into their 60s and, if you are like me, you think about the good old school days when we were young and didn't have a care in the world.
I thought it would be fun to post some high school incidents that may occupy a special corner of our minds, that maybe weren't funny then, but now may bring a smile to our faces. If any of you have something you want me to include here, just send me an email message and I will post it.
I'll start off with one that I think about often. It could have had disastrous results. But it didn't, thank God.
I believe I was in my Junior year when this happened, which would have been either in the fall/winter of 1954 or the spring of 1955. This happened in Ed Rundstrom's Chemistry class. I shared a work table with a very cute and popular female classmate. It seems that one day Mr. Rundstrom had to leave class for whatever reason and we were supposed to keep ourselves busy with our chemistry projects. Well, my work table partner and another cute and popular female classmate decided that they were going to take a copper penny, heat it with a Bunsen burner until it was red hot and then place a drop of every liquid chemical we had in our reagent trays on that red hot penny. Needless to say, the smoky fumes that were given off started to make some of us cough. Not only that but some of us were afraid that an explosion might result. Fortunately, nothing happened. The girls managed to cool the penny down and put things in order before Mr. Rundstrom returned to class. I don't believe he ever knew what transpired that memorable day.
If you think you know the identities of these two adventurous souls, send me an email. Here is a clue. One of them had a father that was well known. At least in Livermore.
If you have any interesting stories, send them to me and I just may publish them.
I've got another one that I will publish soon. Stay tuned.
**************************************************************** Well, I didn't get any response to this one so I will reveal the culprits in that Chemisry class. The young lady who shared my worktable was Betty Sabin. And her cohort was none other than the Principal's daughter, Carolyn Wattenburger. I sometimes wonder if they remember this stunt. I know I always will!
**************************************************************** Here's another one. As I recall, there was a new building constructed in the area between the main school and the old gym and the new gym. This housed classrooms and the school library. In the hall of that new building was a candy machine. In those days candy bars cost a nickel! Anyway, a very enterprising male individual got a brilliant idea. He took a nickel and drilled a hole near the edge of the coin. Through this hole he tied a piece of thread. Then he took the nickel and inserted it into the machine and pulled the knob for his favorite candy bar. The idea was to get his candy bar and then pull on the thread to retrieve his nickel. Well, the thread got wound up in the machine's mechanism and he could not retrieve his nickel. However, students soon discovered that all you had to do was pull the various knobs for your candy bar selection and out would come a candy bar without paying for it! Well, it didn't take long for the word to spread and the machine was soon empty. When the candy vendor came to collect his money he discovered the thread wrapped around the mechanism and his machine empty including the coin repository! Ralph Wattenberger, the Principal, was hopping mad and put out a notice threatening to remove the machine from the school if it every happened again. Needless to say it never did to my knowledge. Think you know who the culprit was? Email me if you think you know. I will reveal his identity soon.