My Background - Part 2

In Part 1, I recounted the informal beginnings of my science interests.

As I stated yesterday, as with other kids, I had an interest in dinosaurs and volcanoes (I am not sure how many youngsters were into volcanoes).  But these events were contributing factors to my lifelong interest in science.

Mastodon Teeth

One of the "landmark events" occurred when I was in the 3rd Grade.  Perhaps when we were talking about fossils one day, our teacher mentioned that her husband's road construction crew had found some Mastodon teeth in Florida and he had brought back 3 of them.  As she only lived a block away from the school, several of us expressed a desire to see them.  So she secured permission for us to walk over to her home during recess.

Aside from the size of the teeth, another point-of-fascination was; "if there were elephants running around in Florida, they were probably running around in Georgia, too".  [As there hadn't been any announced discoveries of dinosaur bones in Georgia, at that time - to my knowledge - elephants would have to make do.]

Mt. Vesuvius Clast from the 1944 Eruption

Another "landmark event" occurred when I was probably in the 4th grade.  One of my paternal grandmother's neighbors had been a U.S. volunteer with the RAF during the "Battle of Britain", prior to our entrance into WWII.  (I sued to sneak away from Sunday family visits to hang out with him and hear his stories.)  After Pearl Harbor, I don't recall if he returned here or if he enlisted in the U.S. Army, while still in England.  

Regardless, he was with the U.S. Army in Naples, Italy when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 1944.  He picked up a cooled clast of basalt from one of the flows that entered the city.  One Sunday afternoon, he gave it to me and I was overjoyed.  [I still have it, I will try to insert a photo of it.]  Sadly, one morning as I came down to the kitchen from my upstairs bedroom, I heard my parents talking in hushed tones.  [At that time, he had also been the teacher for my Sunday School class.]  They had to tell me that he had died of a heart attack.  

His was the first funeral I had attended outside of an elderly grandfather or an uncle.  My fellow members of our Sunday School class sat on the front row pew of the church.  I don't remember crying, but it sure would have been easy.  [I am hoping that one of my grandsons will hang on to this chunk of basalt, as well as I did.]

The Eccentric Science Teacher

In the 6th Grade, we had an eccentric science teacher, but he had a way of making science interesting to those so disposed.  There was a hardwood forest adjacent to the school and we often took class field trips there.  Though we didn't understand the reasons yet, he was a fanatic about NOT PICKING WILDFLOWERS (as that interrupted the plant's life cycle).  Usually, the penalty was 6 swats from his paddle for picking wildflowers.  

One time, one of the boys, who was well-liked by his classmates, couldn't restrain himself and earned this penalty.  Several of us quickly formed a "committee" and called it "The Hot-Tail Treaty", in that 5 of us would each take a swat, so he would only get one, instead of 6.  I think the teacher was so impressed that we 6th graders understood the concept of a treaty, that he went along with it.  (One swat didn't really hurt that much.)

High School Geology - Senior Year (1971 - 1972)

When it came time to plan my Senior year of high school (at a private Catholic North Atlanta high school), I had a choice of Physics or Geology.  Though I had sort of drifted away from rock collecting (except for gold panning), I figured that I would regain my interest during the class (I did).  Besides, I had heard that the Physics teacher was very eccentric, to the point of being labeled as "weird".  Also, my struggles with Math were another reason I avoided Physics (as long as I could).  

Georgia Southern - Geology, Geography, Photography (1972-1976)

After my Senior Year Geology class, I knew I was going to major in Geology in college.  No doubts.  My parents and I searched through college catalogs and found a medium-sized college (Georgia Southern), with a Geology Department.  [I didn't want to go to a huge college, e.g., the University of Georgia - about 50 miles away - and I wanted the independence of being further away from home - about 200 miles.]  

As other students did, once out of my parents' influence, I fell into a few temptations and some of my grades weren't what they should have been.  (Especially the Trigonometry course, 2 Calculus courses, 3 Physics courses, and 3 Chemistry courses did quite a number on my GPA.)  It took a good GRE exam grade to make grad school a reality.  Beneficial courses taken at Georgia Southern included Geography, Photography, Land Surveying, History, and Drafting.

As mentioned elsewhere, summer western travels in 1973 (with my parents and sister) and in 1974 (with my then-roommate Dave) were my introduction to the American West and a very important part of my non-classroom education.  And these introductions "paved the way" for my moving to El Paso for grad school in January 1977.  [Those travels, especially the 1974 road trip, are the subject of a writing project.]  

Another life-influencing endeavor I "picked up" upon at Georgia Southern (ca. 1974) was beer can collecting, which has been fairly continuous during the subsequent 45 years.  Perhaps I saw my previous hobbies of coin and stamp collecting as "too nerdy".  The newly-acquired hobby has since been responsible for some 30+ year friendships and travels to diverse U.S. locales.

More to follow ...