This is Throwback Thursday #15. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc ...), please sent them to [email protected]. Thanks!
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In the early years of ESCONI, back in the 1950s, there was at least one if not more poems in each issue of the bulletin. They generally said something about family, collecting, rocks, fossils, or even club life. You can find a class song back in 1967 (sung to the tune of "Chicago") that we highlighted last year. Here is one in the vein of the classic poem "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe. It appeared in the July/August 1951 issue of the ESCONI bulletin. It's by Jessie Briggs, whose husband mounted his own cabochons... along with committing many of the same small oversights that all of us rock hounds do.
"THE RAVIN"
(Of the wife of a rock hound who mounts his own cabochons.)
1.
Once our home was bright and cheery
And I toiled till I was weary
Keeping windows bright and shining
And the dust from off the floor.
2.
Pantry shelves were all in order,
Lined with paper with a border;
Neither kitchen stove nor ice box
Had a smudge upon the door.
3.
Sink and table, cleared for working
Had no dirty dishes lurking
And quoth I, so proudly smirking,
"Twill be thus forevermore."
4.
When we sat us down for dining
Cloth and silver both were shining
And preparing tasty dishes
Did not seem to be a chore.
5.
Now I grieve in shame and sorrow
Hoping to some comfort borrow
From those days of gracious living
That have gone forevermore.
6.
For a brand new hobby beckoned
And without its lure I reckoned
When the different rocks and minerals
Took up space on chairs and floor.
7.
Morpheus, in my bed I'm wooing,
Wondering what my husband's doing
As the slicer and the sander
Keep me wakeful with their roar.
8.
Then at last, when sleep comes creeping
Up the stairway he comes leaping
Shouting "Here's a finer polished agate
Than you've ever seen before."
9.
"Stones I've left on dining table,
I will move when I an able. . .
Leave them just where I have put them
Or I surely will be sore."
10.
Home from work each day he hurries,
To the kitchen straightway scurries
Where his gas tank and his buffer
Both are sitting on the floor.
11.
On the table, metals jingle,
Pewter, gold and silver mingle
With his tools, in such a mess
As never was seen before.
12.
Pantry shelves hold jars of acid
And I'm feeling far from placid
As I scrape off wax and solder
From the sink and from the floor.
13.
On the stove some wax he warming
And in manner most disarming
Begs, "Come, move your kettles
Over just a little more."
14.
As he works with flame and solder
Soon he cry, "Let's have some fodder,
Put my lunch right here before me;
I'll have time to work some more."
15.
Tho so meekly I obey him
I would deem it joy to slay him
Or to feed him from a nose bag
Now, henceforth, forevermore.
16.
Such disorder makes me sputter
But tho loud and long I mutter
When the rocks make muss and clutter
From the front room to the back door.
17.
Yet my heart feels great elation
When I watch their transformation
As they're polished to a beauty
That will last ferevermore.
18.
I must say with deep conviction
In my rather feeble diction
That at last we have a hobby
That will never be a bore.
19.
For its daily new surprises
Bring what each of us most prizes
Interest in each waking moment
We'll be lonely ,- "Nevermore."
- Jessie (Mrs. W.W.) Briggs
