1 January 2024
Welcome to 2024. It’ll take me a while to get used to writing that date. I’ve already addressed some birthday cards for January where I forgot and put 2023. For some reason, it used to take me longer to make the adjustment. Perhaps with the use computers it doesn’t take as long to adapt. I usually drop the ball when writing a check – the very few times a month I do that these days.
This is my 75th year. For a while there in 2023 I didn’t know if I would make it. Stubbornness does have its good points. I would probably do pretty well on the reality TV show Survivor.
The black-eyed peas are cooking on the stove. With the temperature, I’ll also probably make some hot chocolate today. The beef stew I made last night was really good and I have a chicken to do something with but Michel and Nancy plan to bring over some pork and sauerkraut sometime today. I won’t be hurting for food anytime soon.
When I checked the weather this morning, there was an air quality alert for most of Southern Florida. Apparently, a lot of fireworks were discharged last night. I’ve gotten to where I can sleep through most of it. I did wake up around midnight when it hit its crescendo – and then promptly went back to sleep. There was definitely a smell of gunpowder in the air.
Speaking of gunpowder, I remember the time Archie and David Earl Walter tried their hand at making it. When we lived in Morton (where the town library is now) there was a shed out back that those two confiscated and used as their laboratory. They apparently found the formula and started making it. It calls for potassium nitrate (saltpeter/saltpetre) charcoal and sulfur. I think they stole the saltpeter and sulfur from the chemistry lab. I’m sure Leon Tadlock, the chemistry teacher didn’t give it to them.
Their plan was to make solid fuel rockets. At least, that’s what they told my Dad. In reality, I think they wanted to blow something up. They later moved on to trying their hand at nitroglycerin. When Dad found out, he shut the “lab” down and padlocked the shed. I would like to tell you that put a stop to their mischievousness but I can’t. That little personality characteristic has never left my brother.
For years, it was rumored that the cafeteria on college campuses put saltpeter in the food (it was referred to as soft peter). It was supposed to decrease the sex drive of students. If so, it didn’t seem to work. Back then, at Ole Miss, women students had to sign out of the dormitory and write where they were going, how long they would be gone and when they would be back. One daring young lady wrote down she was going to the Education parking lot for the night.
The same saltpeter rumor followed me to the Coast Guard. You’d think that if these rumors were true, the market futures for saltpeter would be astronomical. Saltpeter is used as a food preservative and additive. I suppose that’s where the urban myth began.
I used to tell my students about my brother’s antics to illustrate points. For example, most explosive substances are put together in cold rooms. To make nitroglycerin, you have to work with ice baths in addition to cold rooms because it is so unstable. The idea is based on the Arrhenius theory. Roughly, for every 10°C you increase the temperature, you double the rate of the chemical reaction. For every 10°C you drop the temperature, you halve the rate of reaction. I think that’s how Dad caught Archie and David Earl – when they kept bringing ice blocks into the shed. He probably thought they were making cocktails.
Anyway, I wove the idea of Arrhenius theory and chemical reactions to my brother and David Earl trying to make nitro. Even if they didn’t learn the concept, I kept them entertained with my stories. One student wrote on my evaluation that I told the best stories. They probably didn’t learn any content but at least had a good time in class.
Here’s hoping the New Year brings health and happiness – and for me some opportunities to go hiking again. There are still a lot of waterfalls out there I want to see.
Stay tuned!
