This is Throwback Thursday #30. 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 past, many of the issues of our newsletter Earth Science News ended with a poem from a member. You might recall that we've run a few in our previous Flashbacks and Throwbacks. There was a poem about a collecting trip in November 1950, Diamond in the Rough from Jun 1952, Ode to a Blob in 2002, and even the ESCONI Class Song in 1967.
Today as we stand on the precipice of winter, we have a poem called "Winter's Field Trip" by W. H. Allaway first president of ESCONI. This poem appeared in the newsletter in March 1952.
Winter's Field Trip
When the winter winds are blowing
And the snow is swirling round
That's the time to dream of summer
And the many rocks you've found.
So you dig into your bookcase
And lift out a massive tome
Whereupon the wings of fancy
Take you many miles from home.
You will climb into the mountains
Just to breathe the clean fresh air
You will enter darkened caverns
Just to see the wonders there.
Then your restless mind will take you
Down a lonesome desert trail
In the shimmering heat the rattler
Fiercely wags his clacking tail.
From the desert you will journey
Thru the Mid-West prairie land
Pushed up from the inland ocean
By a giant's mighty hand.
On you go down winding river
And thru fields of golden grain
Waving bravely in the sunshine
Bowing low before the rain.
As you wander on in dreamland
Viewing things of yesterday
At each place you take a sample
Of the rocks along the way.
But your pack does not get heavy
Nor your knees begin to sag
As you stuff a few more geodes
In your old collecting bag.
And your legs do not get tired
As the miles go reeling by
You just wander like a cloudlet
Riding in a summer sky.
So you see it's fun collecting
On a lonely winter's nite
Sitting in a cozy armchair -
Dozing in the fire-lite.
-- W. H. Allaway
