Ninth grade science class in 1964. Earth Space science. Any Mr. Eginck was a heck of lot more intesested in earth than space. Mid sixties they were doing the first deep core drilling. Continental drift was on the edge of becoming respectable. Scientists were looking at the map and it sure did look like North America and South America once fitted together with Europe and Africa but didn't understand the how. More on that later. Now the earth may be about 4.5 billion years old but most of the rocks in Oregon are only approximately four hundred million years old. And the rock map of this state looks like a crazy quilt.
The map. And the keys. Looks kind of like an abstract painting doesn't it? If half the words don't make a lot of sense to you that make just a little more sense to me. A little.
My strongest memory of that class has to do with the rock identification unit. Some sedimentary rocks have a limestone base. Rocks like that react to acids such as hydrochloric and nitric. We were informed that if any of that acid got anywhere near our faces that the head was going in the sink, hairdos be darned. And those were the days of teased hair and hair spray. Nobody got near drowned that year. And it was a great class.
He taught eighth grade science too. Tall man and his voice started out down around his big toe. Spent about a week or so scaring the daylights out of us. Then we discovered he was really a big teddy bear. Most of the time. There were weekly quizzes in the earth science class and one week just about everybody flunked. His reaction was earth shaking. It didn't affect me quite so much. I spent that previous week out with the mumps and I had the extra weekend to study, think I C'd that one.
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