Thursday. Feb 4, 1965

   Another thing I like is to work. I've had a money-making chore every since I first picked dandelions at nickel a dozen for Scooter's grandfather. Since then I've mowed grass, shoveled snow, and served newspapers.
   Last fall, I got my first paying chemistry job. Mrs. Brewer wanted an oak stump in her front yard removed. She offered me five dollars to do it.
   I mixed a batch of high test gunpowder. Then I took my old model of the US Explorer and packed it with the gunpowder. When Mrs. Brewer went to the A & P, I blew up most of the stump.
   To finish it off, I set the base on fire. Naturally I used this chance to test all my flame-coloring chemicals. Lithium chloride for lavender, azurite for green, and strontium nitrate for crimson.
   When the remaining wood was burnt level to the ground, I soaked the embers.
   The next morning I returned to get paid. Boy, was I surprised! Mrs. Brewer stood in her front yard, directing a

 

heavy stream of water into a hole where the tree stump use to be. I walked close to see what she was doing and the earth sank beneath my feet.
   The roots underneath the ground had been consumed by a smoldering fire overnight!
   I learned a lesson in careful work from that. I also learned that people don't pay you when you do the job wrong.
   Another lesson I'm just starting to understand happened this past Christmas. My parents don't talk much about politics, but my mother's brother Nathaniel has opinions on everything.
   Uncle Nate argued that Goldwater's statement 'extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice' was perfectly logical. I argued against that quite vigorously, until I realized that just a week before in Mr. Royal's class I had argued the opposite way.
   Why do I tack against others?
   Why don't I have opinions on my own?
   Why don't I have opinions that I believe in?
   To top it off, Mom took me to task for upsetting a pleasant holiday celebration. Not having had enough