03-14-2010
( Reply#: 5124 ) |
Bill Bucko |
Yes, the name is familiar to me. Several times before I was ten, my family drove out there to the mysterious, unmapped Far East Side to buy a jar of honey. I stayed in the car with a book, and never saw any of the family.
Bill
Warren G. Harding Class of '63 |
03-14-2010
( Reply#: 5127 ) |
wvcogs |
I do remember Harold, but not the rest of the family. He was a member of the Morton class of 1960 that I was in.
Ken |
03-14-2010
( Reply#: 5129 ) |
HassoBenSoba |
One of the sons that you mention, Darrell, is a few years younger than me and played trumpet in the Morton High Band when I was there in '68 and '69. My younger sister used to have a crush on him. More recently, I've re-met Darrell at local political meetings; he ran (unsuccessfully)against the incumbent for a seat on the Hammond City Council in 2007, but is still hanging in there. He stopped in at my brother Mike's wake in Janaury. A good guy.
LR |
03-15-2010
( Reply#: 5135 ) |
MrRazz |
I do remember Darrell toting that trumpet case around and marching with the Morton High band. He attended both of my mom & dad's funerals and was very supportive...meant a lot to me during those difficult times...though I had not seen him for several years. Last I knew he lived in his folks' house where he grew up.
Ken, I think Harold dated ...was it Carol Schlesinger back then? Her brother Mort was in my class. They lived in a neat house facing Lost Park. Were one of the first in the neighborhood to have a "bomb" shelter in case the big one hit...fortunately it never did. Went roller skating once with them and others at the skating rink. Can you believe back then they wouldn't allow you into the rink with blue jeans on...would be an empty place now days. |
03-15-2010
( Reply#: 5139 ) |
Bill Bucko |
quote:
Originally posted by MrRazz
... Ken, I think Harold dated ...was it Carol Schlesinger back then? Her brother Mort was in my class. They lived in a neat house facing Lost Park. Were one of the first in the neighborhood to have a "bomb" shelter in case the big one hit...fortunately it never did. ...
I was a buddy of Mort's during elementary school, and visited his house a few times. We both were model rocket enthusiasts. While I followed the safety rules (mostly), he was fortunate to survive such dangerous experiments as cramming matchheads into a spent CO2 cartridge. Mrs. Schlesinger was very nice. I've asked elsewhere on this Forum if anyone knows what became of the family ... I can find absolutely nothing on the internet about them or their realty business.
Bill
Warren G. Harding Class of '63 |
03-16-2010
( Reply#: 5143 ) |
MrRazz |
quote:
Originally posted by Bill Bucko
quote:
Originally posted by MrRazz
... Ken, I think Harold dated ...was it Carol Schlesinger back then? Her brother Mort was in my class. They lived in a neat house facing Lost Park. Were one of the first in the neighborhood to have a "bomb" shelter in case the big one hit...fortunately it never did. ...
I was a buddy of Mort's during elementary school, and visited his house a few times. We both were model rocket enthusiasts. While I followed the safety rules (mostly), he was fortunate to survive such dangerous experiments as cramming matchheads into a spent CO2 cartridge. Mrs. Schlesinger was very nice. I've asked elsewhere on this Forum if anyone knows what became of the family ... I can find absolutely nothing on the internet about them or their realty business.
Bill
Warren G. Harding Class of '63
|
03-16-2010
( Reply#: 5144 ) |
MrRazz |
You'd think I would have figured out this reply stuff out by now, but I'll get it. Bill, I looked up Mort in my old Top Hat...his middle name was Lee. Then I did some checking on various people search engines and kept coming up with a Mort in Minneapolis or Bloomington, MN, age 60-61 range (be about right). Also, saw some stuff on Google about him as an inventor applying for some patents. That sounds like him, an entrepeneur...as I remember,he was quite intelligent.
I used to dabble in rockets myself. Would stop at a chemical supply house on the way home from Morton High, I think just east of Kennedy on 169th, buying potassium perchlorate or chlorate to make my rocket fuel until the owner got wise and wouldn't sell me anymore. Sent a rocket airborne down about a half of block, and it landed on a roof of a house and was still flaming. Laid low for awhile, praying that house wouldn't catch on fire...thank God it didn't. After that scare, I gave up being a rocket scientist. quote:
Originally posted by Bill Bucko
quote:
Originally posted by MrRazz
... Ken, I think Harold dated ...was it Carol Schlesinger back then? Her brother Mort was in my class. They lived in a neat house facing Lost Park. Were one of the first in the neighborhood to have a "bomb" shelter in case the big one hit...fortunately it never did. ...
I was a buddy of Mort's during elementary school, and visited his house a few times. We both were model rocket enthusiasts. While I followed the safety rules (mostly), he was fortunate to survive such dangerous experiments as cramming matchheads into a spent CO2 cartridge. Mrs. Schlesinger was very nice. I've asked elsewhere on this Forum if anyone knows what became of the family ... I can find absolutely nothing on the internet about them or their realty business.
Bill
Warren G. Harding Class of '63
|
03-17-2010
( Reply#: 5152 ) |
Bill Bucko |
Thanks, Tim, that's good to know. Several years ago when I searched for the Schlesingers I found absolutely nothing. I remember Mort's dad manufactured rectifiers in their garage.
As for rocket fuel, I worked with: Linlox-A (from Central Rocket Co., Waupaca, Wisconsin, one of the early pioneers); lengths of safety fuse packed as fuel; that old standby S, C, KnO3 (probably the proportions I used differed from traditional gunpowder; I produced plenty of smoke, but never an explosion); KnO3 + sugar; and powdered zinc + sulfur. Setting fire to a pile of the latter once filled my basement with smoke, and coated my hand with colorful exhaust products (fortunately not hot enough to burn the skin)--guess that was my closest call. "What are you doing down there?" "Nothing!"
My rockets with homemade motors didn't go far; once I started using commercial motors from Estes and other companies, my rockets usually went too far; most flew out of sight and I never saw them again. Most launchings were on the prairie south of the IHB yard, or where the nature preserve is now. Maybe somebody will stumble on a rocket with my name on it!
Of course, before I graduated to rockets that burned fuel, I had great fun with little vinegar + baking soda missiles (made of empty candy containers), and those pump-up water rockets invented in the later 1950s. Hey, and let's not forget those little spring-launched plastic Nikes, Honest Johns etc. that came in specially marked packages of Cheerios! I currently own a battery of 3 of them, bought on Ebay.
Bill
Warren G. Harding Class of '63 |
03-18-2010
( Reply#: 5153 ) |
HassoBenSoba |
I remember Mort Schlesinger from the spring of '68; he played trumpet in the Hammond Area Youth Orchestra, of which I was a member, for a concert or two. A nice guy; intelligent and very personable. And I recall his father was a local businessman---was it in insurance?
LR |
03-18-2010
( Reply#: 5154 ) |
nitti |
quote:
Originally posted by MrRazz
You'd think I would have figured out this reply stuff out by now, but I'll get it. Bill, I looked up Mort in my old Top Hat...his middle name was Lee. Then I did some checking on various people search engines and kept coming up with a Mort in Minneapolis or Bloomington, MN, age 60-61 range (be about right). Also, saw some stuff on Google about him as an inventor applying for some patents. That sounds like him, an entrepeneur...as I remember,he was quite intelligent.
I used to dabble in rockets myself. Would stop at a chemical supply house on the way home from Morton High, I think just east of Kennedy on 169th, buying potassium perchlorate or chlorate to make my rocket fuel until the owner got wise and wouldn't sell me anymore. Sent a rocket airborne down about a half of block, and it landed on a roof of a house and was still flaming. Laid low for awhile, praying that house wouldn't catch on fire...thank God it didn't. After that scare, I gave up being a rocket scientist. quote:
Originally posted by Bill Bucko
quote:
Originally posted by MrRazz
... Ken, I think Harold dated ...was it Carol Schlesinger back then? Her brother Mort was in my class. They lived in a neat house facing Lost Park. Were one of the first in the neighborhood to have a "bomb" shelter in case the big one hit...fortunately it never did. ...
I was a buddy of Mort's during elementary school, and visited his house a few times. We both were model rocket enthusiasts. While I followed the safety rules (mostly), he was fortunate to survive such dangerous experiments as cramming matchheads into a spent CO2 cartridge. Mrs. Schlesinger was very nice. I've asked elsewhere on this Forum if anyone knows what became of the family ... I can find absolutely nothing on the internet about them or their realty business.
Bill
Warren G. Harding Class of '63
The Supply House would be Lockwood Labs - corner of Alabama and 169th. I was a pyro myself. Bought there and from Fisher Scientific. Besides destroying a model or two, HasoBen and I occasionally built and torched model cities. Sodom and Gommorrah comes to mind. I think we even sunk Atlantis once in a homemade mud puddle next to my garage. Aaah - the good 'ol days........... |
03-18-2010
( Reply#: 5155 ) |
Bill Bucko |
quote:
Originally posted by nitti
... The Supply House would be Lockwood Labs - corner of Alabama and 169th. I was a pyro myself. Bought there and from Fisher Scientific. ...Aaah - the good 'ol days...........
HMM! I wondered about that. I paid several happy visits to Lockwood Labs on 450 Indiana Ave., near downtown. Lots of nice crowded shelves. An old lady sold me chemicals. I still love a whiff of powdered sulfur or charcoal on the air. They must have moved. I never knew of the new location.
Bill
Warren G. Harding Class of '63 |
03-19-2010
( Reply#: 5157 ) |
nitti |
quote:
Originally posted by Bill Bucko
quote:
Originally posted by nitti
... The Supply House would be Lockwood Labs - corner of Alabama and 169th. I was a pyro myself. Bought there and from Fisher Scientific. ...Aaah - the good 'ol days...........
HMM! I wondered about that. I paid several happy visits to Lockwood Labs on 450 Indiana Ave., near downtown. Lots of nice crowded shelves. An old lady sold me chemicals. I still love a whiff of powdered sulfur or charcoal on the air. They must have moved. I never knew of the new location.
Bill
Warren G. Harding Class of '63
Actually, we finally solved the "it won't explode" problem by switching to magnesium "flashpowder" - exactly the same stuff used in old time cameras. Our gunpowder would fizzle and leave the "delicious" sulfer/charcoal odor that you describe - but it wouldn't explode or push rockets.We bought M-80 casings and underwater fuse and the results were quite acceptable. When you lit it without putting it in a casing, the flash was bright enough to turn off streetlights with light sensors on them. We'd also reuse "Estes" rocket engines - plug the clay nozzle and reverse them. We'd strap 2 to a Lionel flat car and lauch them up a ramped track! |
03-19-2010
( Reply#: 5162 ) |
MrRazz |
Thanks, Frank...it was Lockwood's; the name escaped me. It was kind of a "dumpy" place, but they had the "stuff", and I think I got some "stuff" from Janc's too. I can see, you guys were a little more advanced than myself...jeez, Bill, I only tried to burn down the garage...not the house.quote:
Originally posted by nitti
quote:
Originally posted by MrRazz
You'd think I would have figured out this reply stuff out by now, but I'll get it. Bill, I looked up Mort in my old Top Hat...his middle name was Lee. Then I did some checking on various people search engines and kept coming up with a Mort in Minneapolis or Bloomington, MN, age 60-61 range (be about right). Also, saw some stuff on Google about him as an inventor applying for some patents. That sounds like him, an entrepeneur...as I remember,he was quite intelligent.
I used to dabble in rockets myself. Would stop at a chemical supply house on the way home from Morton High, I think just east of Kennedy on 169th, buying potassium perchlorate or chlorate to make my rocket fuel until the owner got wise and wouldn't sell me anymore. Sent a rocket airborne down about a half of block, and it landed on a roof of a house and was still flaming. Laid low for awhile, praying that house wouldn't catch on fire...thank God it didn't. After that scare, I gave up being a rocket scientist. quote:
Originally posted by Bill Bucko
quote:
Originally posted by MrRazz
... Ken, I think Harold dated ...was it Carol Schlesinger back then? Her brother Mort was in my class. They lived in a neat house facing Lost Park. Were one of the first in the neighborhood to have a "bomb" shelter in case the big one hit...fortunately it never did. ...
I was a buddy of Mort's during elementary school, and visited his house a few times. We both were model rocket enthusiasts. While I followed the safety rules (mostly), he was fortunate to survive such dangerous experiments as cramming matchheads into a spent CO2 cartridge. Mrs. Schlesinger was very nice. I've asked elsewhere on this Forum if anyone knows what became of the family ... I can find absolutely nothing on the internet about them or their realty business.
Bill
Warren G. Harding Class of '63
The Supply House would be Lockwood Labs - corner of Alabama and 169th. I was a pyro myself. Bought there and from Fisher Scientific. Besides destroying a model or two, HasoBen and I occasionally built and torched model cities. Sodom and Gommorrah comes to mind. I think we even sunk Atlantis once in a homemade mud puddle next to my garage. Aaah - the good 'ol days...........
|
03-19-2010
( Reply#: 5164 ) |
Bill Bucko |
Wasn't trying to burn the house down. And at least I was never foolish enough to play around with perchlorates! Those are too energetic to mess with!
I still remember buying a graduated cylinder, condenser, Erlenmeyer and Florence flasks at Lockwood Labs. Thanks to EBay, I now have the exact same Gilbert Microscope and Lab set (No. 20) I had in the 50s. Don't have exactly the same Gilbert Chemistry set, but at least a reasonable facsimile.
Bill
Warren G. Harding Class of '63 |
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