When I was about 10 years old my parents gave me a chemistry set for Christmas. This was before Ralph Nader�s time so people hadn�t started worrying about kids having dangerous �toys.�
One of the first experiments in my chemistry manual was �How To Clean Coins.� Well, it so happened that I didn�t have any coins so I scrounged around until I just happened to find about three or four coins in a box that my father had stored away. I had heard him say they were rare and worth a lot of money, but these coins looked like they really needed cleaning. I thought my father would be real proud to see them all shiny again especially since they were rare ones.
Needless to say, when I began this experiment, my father was at work. My mother was real busy with a bunch of other old ladies in their late twenties who were all sitting around and talking at the same time and doing something called a quilting bee.
So I began my scientific chemistry experiment by carefully mixing up a neat solution in a fruit jar then dropped in the coins. The coins started jumping around and my cleaning solution began to foam and bubble real good. I thought �Golly, I may be onto a good thing here and can get rich cleaning old coins!� Before long however, the solution turned real dark and I couldn�t see the coins any more so I took the jar outside and carefully poured out the solution.
You know what? Those coins had disappeared! I finally solved that mystery when I re-read the instructions. One of the ingredients I had mistakenly added was a highly corrosive acid that would eat metal like water running off a duck�s back. My father however, never did solve the mystery of his disappearing coins.
My next experiment occurred at night when my parents and another couple were playing bridge again. (Yep, they played a lot of bridge). This time I followed the directions in my chemistry manual that said �How to Make Interesting Scents.� All of a sudden my father started yelling, �There�s a damn skunk under the house!�
While they were all discussing what they were going to do about it I slipped into the bathroom and flushed that skunk odor. Pretty soon they decided that the skunk had left. I think maybe that some of the odor stayed in my bedroom though because when I woke up the next morning my chemistry set had disappeared too!