Why chemistry? Who needs it?

I was in the fifth grade when my father gave me a chemistry set for my 10th birthday.  My set, which was made by A. C. Gilbert Co., came in a bright blue box that contained nearly 20 small amber bottles filled with different chemicals, two test tube racks, a dozen test tubes, and an alcohol lamp.  No safety goggles, no protective gloves; but it did have a chemistry manual and a copy of the periodic chart!

Gilbert was the inventor who, in 1913, struck it big with the Erector Set, a child's construction kit that I would receive on my 11th birthday, and he was eager to expand his toy business to include selling science.  There were ads in kids' and science magazines, marketing their chemistry set as a path to a future career.  World War II brought a rush of scientific research and booming times for American companies such as DuPont and Goodyear.  Following the success of the Manhattan Project in the development of the atomic bomb, science became a part of America's identity as a world superpower in the years after the war.

A few of my friends also had chemistry sets, so I was eager to get started with some experiments in our kitchen.  My set was well stocked with cobalt chloride, sodium nitrate, sodium ferrocyanide, potassium permanganate, ammonium chloride, and ferric ammonium sulfate, just to name few of the chemicals at my disposal.  Mom would help me start the alcohol burning lamp, and would look over my shoulder as I performed various experiments when I got home from school.  She loved to tell me the story how she had taken chemistry in high school, and just hated it.  Her teacher took pity on her, and said that he would give her a passing grade if she promised not to take any more science or math classes.  'It's a deal', she told him.  Mom was brilliant in art and literature, but in actual fact she really liked helping me 'play' with my chemistry set.  She was a great cook, and perhaps helping me in her own kitchen was more like cooking.  Dad was mainly interested in the periodic chart, and he took great pride in the fact that he had memorized the symbols for all of the elements, i.e., C for carbon, O for oxygen, Na for sodium, etc., as a school boy in Minnesota.

A few months later I watched my teenage 2nd cousin, Johnny Brownlee, generate hydrogen by dissolving aluminum foil in a solution of sodium hydroxide in a bottle.  Johnny had a make-shift lab in the basement of his house in Lebanon.  He placed a balloon on the bottle, and as the hydrogen was generated by the reaction it inflated the balloon.  To end the experiment with a bang, Johnny lit the hydrogen with a flame, causing a small explosion!  That's when I realized that chemistry could be fun and exciting, and that it also could be dangerous.

The safety-conscious 1960's brought a quick end to the chemistry set's popularity.  I guess that kids started watching a lot of TV about this time too.  You can buy new chemistry sets today, but they contain chemicals such as sodium chloride (salt), calcium carbonate (chalk or limestone), and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda).  Can you imagine the liability Target would have if some child accidentally ate a full bottle of cobalt chloride from a set that was purchased at their store?  Not quite like the good ol' days.

I really enjoyed math and science in school.  My parents were totally involved with me when I worked on the required science projects in junior high.  As a senior in high school I took my first chemistry class.  Mr. Hale, our teacher, was quite proud of the fact that a 'B grade' in his class was equivalent to an 'A' in any other class at South Eugene High School.  I had gotten more A's than B's going into my final semester in my senior year.  At a time when a 'C' was an average grade, I was determined to get through high school without a single 'C'.

Dale Christensen was a great friend of mine from school, church, and Boy Scouts.  Dale and I were taking chemistry together, and his father, who owned a local pharmacy near the U of O campus, offered to help us with our chemistry problem sets.  I would go to their house once a week in the evenings for our tutorial.  Dale and I were pretty excited that we were starting to understand this stuff with his dad's help.  As an added bonus, Mr. Christensen offered me a job delivering prescriptions around town after school.  Once a week I would use the company car, which was a 1959 Triumph TR3A, providing their 'Free Delivery' service.  For me it was fun, not work, and I got paid to do it!  Over time, I was also assigned some other routine tasks at the pharmacy.  Mr. Nelson, who was a long-time pharmacist at Christensen's Pharmacy, was eager to show me how he compounded prescriptions using a mortar and pestle.  This was fun too!  He encouraged me to apply to Oregon State, where he had obtained his pharmacy degree.

I missed four weeks of school in the spring of my senior year due to pneumonia.  I was on the golf team, and I got soaking wet and cold during a practice round after school in early May.  The following day I felt horrible, and soon I was 'down for the count'.  When I finally got back to school in June, I made up all the exams, but I wasn't allowed to do the chemistry experiments that I missed while I was ill.  Mr. Hale told me that I did great on his test, but that I would get a 'C+' for a final grade since I had not completed all of the lab assignments.  I was pretty discouraged, and vowed that I was done with chemistry.  Who needs chemistry anyway?

Just before graduation, I got word that I was accepted to both Oregon State and Pacific Lutheran University.  I was done with chemistry, no pharmacy school for me, so I decided to attend PLU in Parkland, Washington.  During the summer I had to make a tentative decision on which courses I would take as a freshman.  I showed my father my list, and he immediately said, 'what about chemistry?'  Oh no, I didn't want to hear the benefits of taking chemistry.  Dad, too, had helped me with some of my chemistry problem sets.  He recalled how to 'balance equations' from his high school chemistry class taken 27 years prior, and he made sure that I understood how to do this important exercise.  Pretty impressive when you realize that he never studied chemistry beyond the high school level.  He told me that I was good at chemistry, in spite of my 'C+', and that this might be an important course for me in the future.

Professor Anderson handed back our 'blue books' from our first exam in Chem. 101.  I had studied hard and I felt that I had done well.  I got a 91.  Anderson then tabulated the results of our exam on the blackboard by score, not by name, and 91 was the top score.  Wow, I can do this.  Needless to say, I kept studying chemistry for many more years.  Thanks Dad!

I've kept in touch with Dale over the years, and visited with him at our 50th Class Reunion in 2011.  He received his degree in pharmacy at Oregon State, and then obtained his Ph.D., and was a Professor of Pharmacology at the University of North Carolina for many years.  Not too bad for a couple of kids that took Mr. Hale's course, and that were trying to be 'above average' in chemistry.