Perfectly splendid fall day with bright leaves, sweaters tied around our waists, and hot air balloons in the thin blue sky--just right for an afternoon of mother-son bonding over home repairs! With the help of my youngest, let's call him Igor*, I have replaced both the front and back exterior light fixtures. I have also installed a cover over the electrical outlet outside the front door which is stupidly positioned next to the automatic sprinkler head. Now my twinkly Christmas lights will be happy, and we will all be able to see the keyhole to unlock the door. Once again I have used my superpowers to benefit humanity.
*
My superpowers were revealed when I was about ten years old and enjoyed our school science unit about electricity. For my birthday I received The How and Why Wonder Book of Electricity. This amazing paperback by Jerome J. Notkin, Ed. D., and Sidney Gulkin, M.S. in Ed. was copyrighted 1960, and cost fifty cents. It included a chapter of "Activities for Junior Electricians". I also received a birthday dry cell battery, a white porcelain miniature socket with a flashlight bulb, and a switch.
My dad was available to counsel and advise the Young Electricity Girl as she worked through the Junior Electricians activities, if necessary. Activity number eight was "How Can We Make a Quiz Board?" I still have the quiz board I constructed on a piece of masonite pegboard. My parents brought it down here the last time they visited, along with The How and Why Wonder Book of Electricity. Due to recent housekeeping lapses, the Amazing Electricity Girl doesn't know exactly where she put the quiz board, but it's here somewhere! Superheroes can't always be bothered with little details.
Dad also exhibited saintly patience while I earned a Camp Fire Girl bead for changing a faucet washer. He was my technical advisor and transportation provider for fossil hunts and rock-tumbling when I thought my future might be as Young Lapidary Girl. He was also instrumental in my development as a patient, philosophic Young Fishing Girl.
Catching butterflies was the science hobby that really engaged our entire family. My dad made the frames for our nets, and my mom sewed them. We all raced around getting a lot of exercise and fresh air, and eventually learned to catch butterflies in our nets. We studied the field guides to identify our catches, learned their habits, and searched for their caterpillars and cocoons. My mom perfected the technique for using a carbon tetrachloride kill jar with minimal damage to specimens. Her eye for detail and perfectionism inspired us to further efforts. We all fell in love with swallowtails and sphinx moths. The names were poetry, and the fragile scales glorious. Mom was a model for perservering to master technique as she became expert at mounting specimens for display. She was very good. A lab or museum would have respected her skill.
Although we were hunters during the few years this hobby captured our imaginations, we became more attuned to nature, more respectful or its gifts, and ultimately far more protective of our fragile environment.
I didn't grow up to be an electrical engineer, but I did have a sense of my ability to reason out solutions to practical problems thanks to being Young Electrical Girl. I learned to apply liberal doses of perserverance and patience to problems, and to even consult the owner's manuals and field guides of life.
Complete the circuit. Smell the honeysuckle. Enjoy the energy.
*My superpowers were revealed when I was about ten years old and enjoyed our school science unit about electricity. For my birthday I received The How and Why Wonder Book of Electricity. This amazing paperback by Jerome J. Notkin, Ed. D., and Sidney Gulkin, M.S. in Ed. was copyrighted 1960, and cost fifty cents. It included a chapter of "Activities for Junior Electricians". I also received a birthday dry cell battery, a white porcelain miniature socket with a flashlight bulb, and a switch.
My dad was available to counsel and advise the Young Electricity Girl as she worked through the Junior Electricians activities, if necessary. Activity number eight was "How Can We Make a Quiz Board?" I still have the quiz board I constructed on a piece of masonite pegboard. My parents brought it down here the last time they visited, along with The How and Why Wonder Book of Electricity. Due to recent housekeeping lapses, the Amazing Electricity Girl doesn't know exactly where she put the quiz board, but it's here somewhere! Superheroes can't always be bothered with little details.
Dad also exhibited saintly patience while I earned a Camp Fire Girl bead for changing a faucet washer. He was my technical advisor and transportation provider for fossil hunts and rock-tumbling when I thought my future might be as Young Lapidary Girl. He was also instrumental in my development as a patient, philosophic Young Fishing Girl.
Catching butterflies was the science hobby that really engaged our entire family. My dad made the frames for our nets, and my mom sewed them. We all raced around getting a lot of exercise and fresh air, and eventually learned to catch butterflies in our nets. We studied the field guides to identify our catches, learned their habits, and searched for their caterpillars and cocoons. My mom perfected the technique for using a carbon tetrachloride kill jar with minimal damage to specimens. Her eye for detail and perfectionism inspired us to further efforts. We all fell in love with swallowtails and sphinx moths. The names were poetry, and the fragile scales glorious. Mom was a model for perservering to master technique as she became expert at mounting specimens for display. She was very good. A lab or museum would have respected her skill.
Although we were hunters during the few years this hobby captured our imaginations, we became more attuned to nature, more respectful or its gifts, and ultimately far more protective of our fragile environment.
I didn't grow up to be an electrical engineer, but I did have a sense of my ability to reason out solutions to practical problems thanks to being Young Electrical Girl. I learned to apply liberal doses of perserverance and patience to problems, and to even consult the owner's manuals and field guides of life.
Complete the circuit. Smell the honeysuckle. Enjoy the energy.
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