Conference quark::mennotes

    
    
     My Father was an adventurous sort, always chasing wind mills. This 
    spirit was passed onto his children in the form of inventing. Sometimes
    we would come up with winners and sometimes not. On one particular
    occasion I and my 5 brothers decided that we too could build a
    spacecraft and go to the moon. The following items were gathered 
    and assembled.
    
    1.) Spacecraft.( wooden box on top of a trash can)
    2.) Folgers 5 pound coffee cans
    3.) Tubing, plastic
    4.) Gas can
    5.) Full can of Moms hair spray.
    5.) Duct tape
    6.) Gyro and string
                    Some Assembly required
    
     First you put holes in the gas can and the Folgers can. Then you run
    the plastic tubing from the gas can(stored in the spacecraft)to the
    Folgers can stored in the inside of the trash can, this was made
    possible because the bottom of the trash can was rusted out and was
    easy to run tubing through. You secured your thrusters( folgers can)
    with Duct Tape and aluminum foil, the foil would deflect the heat
    from the thrusters.Then you would hook tubing up to the aerosal can
    to the gas can, upon pressing the aerosol can you would pressurize
    the fuel cell sending gasoline with hair spray as a booster into the
    thrusters. Manaveuring was accomplished by a hand held gyro that you
    would spin up with a string as needed for course and speed changes.
    Ignition was a simple match tossed into one of the holes on the side
    of the trash can. As always the older brothers( me included) were NASA
    ground controllers and my brother Terry ( now a succesful Manager for
    Chubb group of insurance) was the test pilot. With his leather jacket
    and white crash helmet secured he boarded the the spacecraft, t-minus
    30.....20......15.... suddenly the screech of breaks and the pitter
    patter of grown up feet, 10, 9..  " Jesus, Mary, Joseph boys what in
    Gods name are you doing " my Father yelled. We explained the logic
    of our machine to our engineering Father, all the while my Father
    looked at us with amazement for our initiatve and pity for what would
    have happened. My Father cancelled the flight of the Apollo 7 but
    not without a demonstration.  He had us pull our spacecraft out into
    a deserted field,and with some fusing he had from his Estes Rocket
    kit he showed us just how far we would have gone/ T-minus 5,4,3,2,1
    
     Kabbooooooooommmmm...... The Apollo spacecraft was, in my Fathers
    words " Blown to hell "....
    
    
 David

    falling on my head from the 3rd floor when i was toddler.
    
    dont worry iam ok, someone just cought me last minute by my feets
    so the hit was not as bad as it could have been, plus my head
    hit a soft spot on the ground.
    
    i was in coma for 2 weeks after that they told me.
    
    thanks heaven i did not die or something.
    
    \nasser

 That explains a lot.

    I managed to resist it... but you didn't.  Thank you.
    
    Jeff

    I remember being my father's driver/field tech when he was taking soil and
    water samples all over the state of Colorado.  I probably learned more
    about relative humidity, quick-sand, and potential radiation problems
    from my days off from school than anything taught in a biology/earth
    science classroom.  
    
    Miss ya Dad.
    
    Meg  

    I remember grandma's happy smile when dessert was being served and she
    had the biggest portion...  She used to catch a funny little cough if
    she thought someone was being served more than her...  we used to look
    at each other and make little faces when she was not looking...
    
    Ah, those beautiful days, without TV!! just plenty of conversation and
    family interaction!

    
    i remember my gramdma teaching us younguns how to make
    kolacky and halusky. great stuff!

    I had 13 years' worth of positive experience: Quaker School from K-12
    (Moses Brown School, Providence, RI).  Taught me everything I needed to
    know about how to be a good person.  Began taking French in 4th grade,
    German in 11th, and English always was very rigorous, and all this
    turned me into a languages major at Lafayette College later on.  Tried
    out my French again this past weekend, and it still worked -
    incroyable!  :-)
    
    Also, living in Providence and being exposed to so much rock 'n' roll
    at the Brown University frat parties, Brown's Meehan Auditorium, and
    the Palace Theatre led to a short but highly-enjoyable detour into a
    professional music career in the '70s.  
    
    Finally, I will never forget our golden retriever "Reetie," best dog
    ever, my companion for many years as a child.
    
    Oh yeah... and taking my grandmother's Rambler American out for a spin
    in the early-morning hours around the tiny back roads of Narragansett,
    RI when I was 15.  When I took driving lessons, the instructor kept
    asking me how come I was so good with the clutch from the first time I
    turned the ignition switch.  During those two weeks of driving lessons,
    we just drove around doing his errands.  I think he was a bookie,
    'cause we used to stop in some pretty shady places...
    
    - craig
    

    Two incidents come to mind.
    
    1. After getting my license my brother (14) and I decided that I
       was now qualified to teach him how to drive. He ....of course...
       managed to hit the accelerator instead of the brake at a crucial
       point and we ended up going through a wooded area into a big ditch.
       I remember two very frightened people walking home and trying to
       fiqure out just how we were going to get out of this one.
    2. I had a boxer dog who loved to toboggan. He wore his own
       'sweatshirt' with hood. He always wanted to ride up front and
       he loved going down the hill all alone on 'his' tobaggan. The
       best part is that he was also great at pulling the tobogann back
       up the hill!
    
    Paula 

    When folks of my age... cough cough! talk about the 60's and the
    happening in Hate-ashburry and where were you. I smile at them, tell
    them I hung out in a small town listening to CCR and drinking Mountian
    Dew and swimming in, riding on, rivers of southern NH.;)
    
    One of my more memorable times was Halloween time and the great Pumkin
    wars of the time. Where you had sevearl waring factions of tribal
    groupies competing against each other over bragging rights of "who has
    the most pumkins in the end wins."
    
    I guess the most funniest part was when my kid brother was trying to
    put the old love moves on one of the local women of the high school at
    a party. He had a couple of the guys storm troop in, grab him, take him
    to a store in Lee NH called 'Liars Paradice', removed of all clothing
    execpt skivies, socks, shoes, and a nickle to call home.
    "Hello mom.... you'll never guess where I am.... Please bring cloths!"
    
    It was very late at night and this store seems to be in the middle of
    the woods if any locals understand what a cold New Hampshire night is
    like in the fall.:) And the where abouts of this fable'ed store is
    located.:) 
    
    

    RE: 103.9   So how DID you talk your way out of the car crash incident?
    
    Jeff