The Day Freddie's Concoction Blew Up!
Freddie got a chemistry set one Christmas back in the 1940's. It was one of those wonderful Gilbert sets that opened up like a book and had rows of powdered chemicals in nice little wooden containers and vile looking liquids like acids that you would NEVER find in today's anemic sets. It also had a bunsen burner and scales and a whole row of test tubes that sat in a wooden or metal holder. There were lots of little tools like pincers, a test tube gripper and assorted other lab equipment. I can't forget the glass tubing that you could heat over the bunsen burner to bend into the shapes you needed for different experiments. I think there was litmus paper in one of the little drawers too.
I thought this chemistry set was the BOMB! I wanted one too! Of course I wasn't old enough for anything like that. Besides, it was considered a boy's toy, which put it out of my reach. Nonetheless, I often hovered around Freddie when he was adding this and that to a test tube and watching it bubble and fizz and stink up "the workroom." I loved it!
The workroom was my Dad's workshop. Some years before, Dad had enclosed our back porch and made it into a room with lots of windows for good light and there he kept his saws and hammers, screwdrivers and nails. The workroom was the only place in the house where Freddie had permission to do his experiments. After doing all the interesting experiments in the instruction book, you can bet Freddie probably decided on some interesting experiments of his own.
One afternoon, my mother was busy upstairs. I was in the dining room playing near the window that faced the workroom and I could see Freddie in his la-bo-ra-tory hunched over his various test tubes, mixing stuff that wasn't recommended in the instruction book. All of a sudden there was a BOOM! Flames shot up in the middle of the workroom!
My mother, a very timid woman, heard the roar and came racing down the steps, brandishing her ugly old brown sweater with the zippered pockets! She was so quick that she reached the door of the workroom before I did! She tore open the door, leaped inside and beat out the flames with that ugly old sweater! Freddie was probably trying to do the same, but all I remember is my mother putting out that fire. Freddie was unhurt and the only damage the fire caused was a burnt floorboard that ever after reminded us of Freddie's escapade.
I eventually inherited the chemistry set but by then all the "good" chemicals had been used up so I was very limited in the experiments that I could do. The ugly brown sweater was singed so badly that it could no longer be worn and ended up in the ragbag. I eventually cut one of the zippered pockets out of the sweater and kept it for many years as a momento of that exciting day!
I thought this chemistry set was the BOMB! I wanted one too! Of course I wasn't old enough for anything like that. Besides, it was considered a boy's toy, which put it out of my reach. Nonetheless, I often hovered around Freddie when he was adding this and that to a test tube and watching it bubble and fizz and stink up "the workroom." I loved it!
The workroom was my Dad's workshop. Some years before, Dad had enclosed our back porch and made it into a room with lots of windows for good light and there he kept his saws and hammers, screwdrivers and nails. The workroom was the only place in the house where Freddie had permission to do his experiments. After doing all the interesting experiments in the instruction book, you can bet Freddie probably decided on some interesting experiments of his own.
One afternoon, my mother was busy upstairs. I was in the dining room playing near the window that faced the workroom and I could see Freddie in his la-bo-ra-tory hunched over his various test tubes, mixing stuff that wasn't recommended in the instruction book. All of a sudden there was a BOOM! Flames shot up in the middle of the workroom!
My mother, a very timid woman, heard the roar and came racing down the steps, brandishing her ugly old brown sweater with the zippered pockets! She was so quick that she reached the door of the workroom before I did! She tore open the door, leaped inside and beat out the flames with that ugly old sweater! Freddie was probably trying to do the same, but all I remember is my mother putting out that fire. Freddie was unhurt and the only damage the fire caused was a burnt floorboard that ever after reminded us of Freddie's escapade.
I eventually inherited the chemistry set but by then all the "good" chemicals had been used up so I was very limited in the experiments that I could do. The ugly brown sweater was singed so badly that it could no longer be worn and ended up in the ragbag. I eventually cut one of the zippered pockets out of the sweater and kept it for many years as a momento of that exciting day!
posted by mary ann at 10:06 PM
2 Comments:
THIS was the limburger cheese!
Freddie was experimenting with it even then! Later on, he finally got it right! HA!
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