 I’m traveling. The artist in me has been screaming to get out all day. No, I haven’t been wanting to throw paint at passing cars…I’ve just been marveling at the landscape whizzing by and the architecture of the towns. It’s Americana begging to be painted. There was one moment, however, that sent me hurtling into the past with a giggle. You know how music or sounds bring moments to mind that occurred simultaneously with the music or sounds? Well, sights do that for me too and today, I was transported back to Mr. Gibson’s 3-D design class at Middle Tennessee State University. I wasn’t the most engineering design oriented art student in the world. To me, design was just about what looked good. Who cared if it could hold a couple of Sumo wrestlers? That attitude was not appreciated by Mr. Gibson, my professor, and I quickly learned that he was very serious about his students’ work being able to hold a couple of Sumo wrestlers. We students were each given a very large bag of popsicle sticks and told to purchase tubes of Duco Cement. Do you know how out in space you can get using Duco Cement?? But that was back before the FDA cared whether college students lived or died and it was the mid ’70’s when I am almost certain that college students were using hallucinogens equally disastrous. Anyway, we were instructed to build a tower that was structurally sound enough to hold 10 pounds of weight. (OK, so I exaggerated a little. Not quite Sumo wrestler poundage.) Structural soundness would be the main grade. Appearance would be secondary and minimal in determining our grade. Now, I freely admit that I wasn’t the most motivated student either and things like football games, concerts by Chicago, Elton John, Elvis and The Pointer Sisters and watching one of the male fraternities streak across campus seemed much more important than tackling a project that sounded like a summer of Vacation Bible School crafts. After all, who couldn’t put a bunch of popsicle sticks together and come out with a tower? It was the day before the project was due that I finally decided I needed to get busy. At 4 o’clock the next morning, I finished my monstrosity that measured 3 feet tall and had not one similar angle throughout the entire piece. In fact, about three quarters of the way up, the tower was relatively straight, but then an imperceptible angling began and the top fourth leaned ever so slightly – just enough to drive you crazy wanting to reach over and straighten it. The popsicle sticks were glued to each other in all kinds of wierd directions to create a sort of tall cylinder around empty air. I was so tired, I didn’t even go to bed because I had to be up and in class with my project by 8 that morning. Mr. Gibson was not a stupid man and he had a way of figuring out when one of us had waited until the last minute to do our work. He had a mean smirk on his face as he looked at my ‘leaning tower of haphazard’ and saved it for last so that the humiliation of watching it explode into a shower of popsicle sticks, when he placed the weight on it, would send me running to Shakey’s pizza parlor for solice in extra cheese. One by one, my classmates paraded their engineering marvels (did I mention that I was the only girl in the class?) before our artistic genius professor and one by one most collapsed under the weight of Mr. Gibson’s metal ingots. A few survived and the creators smugly returned to their seats ready to design a new Empire State Building. And then it was my turn. I feel pretty sure that I was sweating and that I didn’t appear all that self-assured, but I managed to drag my very heavy wooden tower to the front of the room for demonstration. Mr. Gibson placed one ingot onto the top of my “statue”. It didn’t move. He placed another and another and still it stood firm. I held my breath. Obviously frustrated, my professor placed another weight and, I am sure wished my tower to disintegrate to teach me a lesson, but it didn’t even creak. Ten pounds of metal perched atop my mess of popsicle sticks. I jumped up and down and clapped my hands. Not to be outdone, my professor continued to pile metal on top of my tower. At 15 pounds, he stopped. I passed with flying colors. But I gained a new appreciation for those who design and build the bridges, tunnels and architecture that we all take for granted. So today, when I crossed the Mississippi River and beheld the magnificent span of the bridge that has gotten millions and millions of cars from Arkansas to Memphis and back, I had to take pictures. The criss-cross of metal made me think of my popsicle stick project and I just had to say a quiet ‘thank you’ to the very smart people who not only made the bridge stand up under incredible weight, but made it pretty to boot. And I bet they didn’t wait until the night before it was due to build it!!      |
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Hi Mary Beth! Saw your contest on MJF and had to hop on over to your blog, I just printed your apple butter recipe too- going to try that this weekend. Thanks for the opportunity to win such a great giveaway! Love your blog!
Farmgirl Smiles,
Laurie
FG Sister#1403
Thanks Laurie and you are entered!
And you were in Memphis when? We went through there on Sept. 9 and if you were on the road that day, we might just have been passing ships on the freeway….we were on our way to Louisville Ky (or New Albany, In) to visit our kids…..
No, that was yesterday. Had to go to my parents who are moving to a retirement center and have sold their house. Kind of a hard trip. Change is always hard!
Thanks for giving us a good reason (we thought it was old-age) for missing our turn just over the bridge when we went through Memphis last summer. We must have been lost in admiration of the structure, not just plain lost. I enjoyed the pictures and reading about your art class triumph!
Yes, change is hard, and we came through Memphis yesterday, too. Hopefully, your parents will settle in and find they enjoy retirement community living. I know your peace of mind will improve knowing they have round the clock help available, but it is a hard pill to swallow, realizing our parents are aging and are no longer able to care for themselves, and we are not in the position to care for them ourselves. I had to place my mom in a nursing home many years ago because she needed more skilled help than I could give her. It was not the greatest solution, but the only one availabe to us 35 years ago. Just remember to lay the hurt on the Lord, and let Him carry it for you, and let Him be the primary caregiver for your parents.. Love and prayers winging your way…..Judy
Hi Mary Beth,
This article had a lot of points of intersection for me.
First, I live in Tennessee now, and you were in Tennessee.
Second, I live only a few blocks from MTSU where you went to school.
Third, I went to college in the 1970s (’70-’75 to be exact).
Fourth, I majored in Civil Engineering so I had to learn how to build structures and bridges and tunnels, etc.
Fifth, I believe that I am the person who unintentionally invented “streaking” when my fraternity brothers pushed me out of the fraternity house naked and threw my clothes across the street (which I went to retrieve just as a fully loaded city bus was passing by).
Sixth, when I graduated college I worked for a company that had a factory in Pocahontas, Arkansas (not far from Fort Smith), so I used to fly into Memphis regularly, rent a car, and cross that bridge on my way to the plant and back.
Seventh, my cousin (who lives in Chicago) introduced me to the band “Chicago” before they were actually called “Chicago” (they first went by the name “Chicago Transit Authority”). I was fortunate to hear their music before most people living outside of Chicago heard it. [And as a side note, I had an uncle who drove a bus his entire life for the Chicago Transit Authority.]
Eighth, as a teen I used to build models so I am well familiar with Duco Cement.
Ninth, I’ve built stuff out of popsicle sticks.
And tenth, I LOVE pizza with extra cheese!
I’m glad you were victorious in your tower building.
(:D) Best regards…
I also read about your contest on MJF and had to hop over here to enter, plus signed up to follow you. Thanks for having this giveaway! Got lost by rambling all over your blog. I learned about Chili Cheese popcorn, a National Canning Day and how to can bacon so far. You have a very educational, informative and tutorial type way of making things clear. All the pics help too of course. 🙂
Well, thank you Patsy!! So glad you joined us!! And you are entered.
Points of intersection, Hawkeye? giggle. Yep, it’s a small world.
Thank you, Judy. Very good words of encouragement!
Thanks Beth, and I am sure it was your admiration that got you sidetracked!!! 🙂
and sign me up……
Will do!
Great story! and I am so proud of your stick tower!
Thanks Marsha. 🙂