D. Aaron
by Joe Stout
Mr. Aaron taught only one year and Greenfield High School. This was during my freshman year in 1944 and 45. He taught the science subject’s, general science, biology, chemistry. During this year I was taking general science under him. Mr. Aaron was one of those teachers that you wonder how he was ever hired. His IQ did not go to the top of the elevator or anywhere near it.
The desks in the science room were those types that were built in a row similar to theater seats but had the writing top to the right side where your arm rested on it and the writing table curved out in front of you.
One day while instructing and reading from the science book John Ben was sitting to my right and Perry Brock was sitting in the row directly behind us. Perry was leaning forward and we were talking during his instruction. He had already called us down for talking about two times.
While we thought he was looking down we began talking again. Suddenly John Ben started kicking my leg and the next thing I knew a book came flying through the air and hit the back of the seats falling onto my lap. Had it been three inches higher it would have hit Perry in the nose. Perry had already had his nose broken once or twice before. One time from my fist.
Mr. Aaron calmly walked over to us and I was half way expecting him to hit me. He picked up the book and returned to his desk and continued reading without a word. We quit talking for that day.
Another day several months after my experiment in the barn with nitroglycerine we were at the lab and were making hydrogen gas in a tall glass beaker with a top. We had used a zinc canning top with sulphuric acid to produce the hydrogen and I suggested to Mr. Aaron that we make a torch out of the gas by using a glass tube, bent at a right angle, that had been heated with a Bunsen burner and pulled apart to leave a small hole for the gas to escape. After preparing this we took a trusty zippo lighter and lit the gas coming out of the tube. After the explosion and disrupting all the other classes at school the real truth was kept quiet by Mr. Aaron and the rest of the class. Years later there was glass particles in the celotex ceiling in that classroom.
I decided to give up chemistry!
The desks in the science room were those types that were built in a row similar to theater seats but had the writing top to the right side where your arm rested on it and the writing table curved out in front of you.
One day while instructing and reading from the science book John Ben was sitting to my right and Perry Brock was sitting in the row directly behind us. Perry was leaning forward and we were talking during his instruction. He had already called us down for talking about two times.
While we thought he was looking down we began talking again. Suddenly John Ben started kicking my leg and the next thing I knew a book came flying through the air and hit the back of the seats falling onto my lap. Had it been three inches higher it would have hit Perry in the nose. Perry had already had his nose broken once or twice before. One time from my fist.
Mr. Aaron calmly walked over to us and I was half way expecting him to hit me. He picked up the book and returned to his desk and continued reading without a word. We quit talking for that day.
Another day several months after my experiment in the barn with nitroglycerine we were at the lab and were making hydrogen gas in a tall glass beaker with a top. We had used a zinc canning top with sulphuric acid to produce the hydrogen and I suggested to Mr. Aaron that we make a torch out of the gas by using a glass tube, bent at a right angle, that had been heated with a Bunsen burner and pulled apart to leave a small hole for the gas to escape. After preparing this we took a trusty zippo lighter and lit the gas coming out of the tube. After the explosion and disrupting all the other classes at school the real truth was kept quiet by Mr. Aaron and the rest of the class. Years later there was glass particles in the celotex ceiling in that classroom.
I decided to give up chemistry!