Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Dad's influence, part 2

A few days ago I wrote about how some of Dad's magazines influenced me. Reading was a normal activity in our family. I remember that Mom and Dad were always reading something when they went to bed at night. There were always books around, and they weren't for decoration. I thought it was normal to read for entertainment. I always read something when I went to bed, too. When I was less than 10, but old enough to read, we had a few comic books around. I didn't like reading them more than once, though. The only magazine we got back then was National Geographic and I at least looked at the pictures and read the captions. Often, though, on my way to bed I would stop at the bookcase in the hallway outside my room. The World Book Encyclopedia was on the bottom shelf. I would pick a letter I hadn't looked at for a while, or one of the yearly updates we also got. I would read some entries but most seemed pretty dry to me. I did absorb a lot. How many 8 year olds know who Nikita Kruschev is? I did. How many know what a hologram is? I did, even though I didn't have a source of coherent light with which to view the hologram that came in one of the yearbooks. I knew what the letters in LASER stood for. I guess I was one of the original uber geeks. I didn't know it, though. I was always surprised when one of my friends didn't know something that I thought was common knowledge. I didn't say anything about it, though, because I didn't want to embarrass them about their ignorance.


I remember going into my parents closet once and discovering a treasure trove of National Geographics; issues they had gotten before I could read, even before I was born! I spent hours on the floor of the closet, looking through those magazines. At times I felt overwhelmed, thinking I would never be able to look at them all. Then one day, in the back of the closet, I discovered two more huge stacks. They weren't National Geographics, though. Same size and shape. I think they might have even been yellow. No picture on the front, though, just lots of words. I can't remember the title, but it was something like "Geophysical Review". I know now that it was a technical journal, with papers written by researchers. Those magazines contained cutting edge information on geophysics. I didn't know that then, though. I knew they didn't have many pictures, and the pictures they did have were not very interesting, but I doggedly pushed my way through 10 or 20 issues. I didn't read much. Too many big words. I tried to understand the graphs, and was able to make sense of some of them. (In college, I was astonished to encounter people that couldn't understand simple graphs. Didn't they have anything besides comic books to read when they were kids???) I did read enough to realize that a lot of the articles discussed plate tectonics or continental drift. So I knew what those terms meant long before most people had ever heard them. Why am I not a geophysicist? Well, most of those articles were very boring. That and Dad discouraged us kids from having anything to do with the volatile petroleum industry. I got involved in semiconductor electronics instead. Ha ha! Talk about ups and downs.


Anyway, because of the example that Dad set, I've always had a thirst for knowledge. I've accumulated quite a bit of it, and some of it is even useful sometimes. It's very rare that I look at something and wonder how it works or what processes led to its existence. Thanks to Dad, I understand the world in which I live.

2 comments:

Lauren said...

You know what's funny is I remember finding the STACKS AND STACKS of National Geographic magazines laying on the floor next to your bed and wishing that I could read them all! I also mostly looked at the pictures and read the captions. I generally only read the articles that had something to do with the ocean. Like father like son, huh... =) Love you Dad.

Skid Plate said...

I did a research paper in high school. It was 1986 and there was an article I wanted from a National Geographic from the 50's I believe. The school's library didn't go back that far. I mentioned my frustration to Mom. She said we have it. I thought she must have misunderstood me. She said it's in the closet. Sure enough it was there. I'm not sure how far back their collection goes but it is complete for that long duration. She is wondering what to do to get rid of them so let her know if you want them.