Nostalgia

I was watching CSI on Spike TV this evening. One of the people on the show, Katherine, was running some experiments to determine how fast paint would dry. She would write down the results as the test progresses.

That reminded me about using scientific methods for recording and testing unknowns. That got me thinking about the days of my Chemistry Labs. I then thought back to one year when my Chem lab was from three to six o’clock PM on Friday.

Many people didn’t like to have a lab that late on a Friday. I didn’t like it at first, but soon I fell in love with it. As most people were in a hurry to finish and leave the lab, it would make it so there were no lines waiting to use certain shared equipment items. I wasn’t slowed down by other people.

I spent my time calmly working through my experiments and just relaxed. Then when I was done I would walk from Fulmer to the Roto for dinner. It was still relaxing as the spring was moving into warmer weather. People were scarce on campus as they had all left to go home.

But for me I was just relaxed. I would have dinner at the Roto. I would pull out my newspaper and read through it from front to back. I would get lost in my own world. People would come and go. Crowds would come and go. I would just ignore it all and read my newspaper.

I came to realize that there was no big hurry to be ready to go at six o’clock on a Friday night. Nothing really got going until later. So I wasn’t missing anything. I was able to relax as others were doing the old “hurry up and wait” routine.

Those were some good times. Sometimes I wish I could go back to them, but at the same time what makes the special is that you don’t do them anymore. If I was still doing that stuff after a decade it might not mean very much to me today.