I originate, design, and build Science Exhibits in the fields of Physics, and Visual Perception

On a post graduate school lark I got job as a deck hand on a towboat on the Illinois River coal run. An easy to get a job as no one in their right mind would take that particular run. But I loved the life and ended up on many pleasant but always occasionally dangerous runs mostly from Saint Louis to Saint Paul on the Upper Mississippi, with occasional trips up the Ohio , and the Tennessee Rivers as well as trips all the way to New Orleans. With large parcels of off time mandated by the employment system I was able to visits other parts of the world.

Nantahala School is tucked in near lovely Nantahala Lake in the Smokey Mountains. While it is not a one room school house it was served by seven teachers for twelve grades and combining two grades in a class did not overburden class size. As a result I was able to teach something to all these grades while mostly teaching grades 7-12. The school served an "underprivileged" area and thus qualified for the National Teacher Corp Program. The students lived in a natural paradise, and only realized they were poor when their families got their first televisions and saw wall to wall carpeting for the first time. This was happening during my time there.