Monday, November 23, 2009

Stray Thoughts

I'm not upset about the fix the mento's gotten himself into, so much as disappointed. I don't know if he'll ever succeed, but I'd rather he didn't fail. I also know that joyriding is a classic American tradition - which doesn't make it right.

Reading A Wind in the Door, which is a Young Adult novel. (Sue me.) One of the characters just announced that he was going directly from a meeting to Brookhaven. I smiled at that, because, in the most minor way, I know Brookhaven.

When I was in high school, we took a field trip out there. I remember almost nothing about it, but I was impressed enough that I talked my parents into letting me go back by myself. A high school kid, no especial yearning for or achievements in, science, going out to Brookhaven National Laboratories. Yup. I don't know why they agreed to let me go. I do know that it would probably have been a good idea to call them before coming out, just to see if one-person tours were even possible. For that matter, it would have been a good idea for someone to figure out that the Long Island Railroad didn't so much go to Brookhaven as go near it. But there I was, all alone on the train station. I called them from the train station, and, somewhat bemused, they sent a car down to get me. I can only imagine what they thought they were getting. Who the hell is this kid? But they gave me a personal tour, I met some smart people, and at the end of the day, they drove me back to the the train station.

I wonder how many other people think of their youth when they think of a government research facility?

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