After the war, dad spent a lot of time in Ne Jersey, and finally was transferred to the Camden, NJ RCA plant. We moved in May, 1946.
I was a midyear student – advancing from one grade to the next in January. Moorestown Jr High did not have that system, so I had to move forward or back half a year. Mom and the school decided to move back. A bad decision, I think. From then on, I felt that school was something you just had to endure – if you learned something, that was ok. I kept that attitude through college.
I went to Moorestown Jr. High and High School. There were 20 students in the senior year honor group. I was #21.
I abandoned chemistry in favor of electronics and astronomy. I built many oscilloscopes, using war surplus cathode ray tubes and paras I begged dad to bring home from work.
I spent a summer going daily to the Franklin Institute (museum) in Philadelphia where I ground an 8″ mirror for a telescope. I finally devised a way to finish it at home. Dad arranged to have an aluminum coating applied. Also at the institure I built an equatorial mount for the telescope that I made for the mirror. Dad and I pooured a concrete block to set it up outside. In those days you could see the milky way on a clear night. No longer – way too much stray light and pollution. I made some photos with the telescope of Jupiter. I designed and made a very good motor drive for the telescope so that it would remain on one object while I either observed it or photographed it.
Beginning in Indianapolis I was an avid short wave radio fan. It was exciting to listen to the BBC or to a station in some remote country. That interest continued until the internet made it no longer a big deal. I wanted to get an amateur radio license, and built a 50 watt transmitter. But I could not conquer the Morse code at the required 13 words per minute, so I never applied.
During high school years I was an active Boy Scout. We did an annual canoe trip down the Wading River in the pine barrens of New Jersey. And camped out in the pine barrens.. And I attended summer at camp Lenape.
As a shop project, I made a wooden lamp as a areplica of a ceramic lamp that we had bought in Panama and later was broken. And I made a big cabient for out huge 16″ color television.
I geve up Boy Scouts to become a girl scout – I had a girl friend in my seniour year. Nancy Tucker was two years behind in school. We were a thing until I left for college. But we are still in loose contgacs.