Just Remembering…

 Early Service Stations:

 

For today:

Remember the traditional pack of ‘chewing Gum?’ Nickle a pack, 5 sticks.

 

 Sherry used a small piece of aluminum foil this morning to heat biscuits for our breakfast and seeing it when I started to wash dishes kicked in a memory of my childhood.

 

 

Each stick of gum was wrapped in a piece of foil that was lined with paper. If you were very careful you could peel the paper off. Then taking the foil and placing I over a coin and rub it well you could get nearly a duplicate of the coin. If you took scissors and trimmed it well and placed it on a table or the floor it looked exactly like a coin. We kids had a good time with such a practical joke.

 

Mercury? Have you ever even seen real mercury? Here is what a drop of it looks like:

 

 (On  flat surface like a table  it looks just like those drops above, rounded edge but it is like a controlled liquid. If you were to drop that big blob above it would split into namy little droplets and look the same.)

I am not sure if you are old enough, but there was a time when we could get our hands on some ‘Mercury’ we were really cool.  With our fingers we would use it to shine a silver coin. A fifty cent piece, quarter or dime would shine like no body’s business.

 

This is the warning we did not know about:

Direct contact with elemental (liquid) mercury can cause irritation and chemical burns. Possible immediate effects may include dizziness, vertigo, flu-like symptoms, burning or irritation, pale or clammy skin, irritability, and emotional instability.

 

I cannot remember where we got the mercury. Except for one time me ‘n Vondale broke a thermometer and got a small drop.

 

Funny how the old statement, “God over looks our ignorance and protects us when we are stupid.”  That might just apply here. ;-)

 

Love you guys,

Thanks for allowing me to just be old and remember silly things.

 

                               Nite Shipslog