Ed & Ray Hersman in WWII - Robert Marks.org

2.4. RETURN TO WEST VIRGINIA Ed & Ray Hersman in WWIIOne of Gibs and my favorite tricks was to step on the brake and turn thewheel slightly on icy roads. This turns the car instantly 180 degrees hencefacing in the opposite direction.During my senior year in high school I became interested in chemistry.The teacher pretty well gave me the run of the lab because “Ed knows whathe is doing”. I performed the regular work book experiments but becameinterested in the reaction equations and went beyond work ordinarily donein high school. I made explosives and bombs of various sort and would takethem out in the fields and set them off. One day I made ammonium iodide, aharmless explosive when wet but one which becomes very ticklish when dry.I sprinkled the ammonium iodide in the halls and rooms in the school. forday people walking around would step on it and it would go off with a banglike a cap pistol. Nobody could figure out what the noise was or where itwas coming from. Many times when a teacher was teaching he would stepon one and set if off but nobody ever figured it out.I was showing Taylor Kieth (killed in World War II) one of my concoctionsand it blew up just as a teacher walked in and my chemistry days in highschool were terminated.My interest in girls had increased. I dated two for a few weeks butsettled on number three and dated her more or less steadily for two years.It ended when I caught her dating another boy and I have never seen hersince. Following my graduation from high school I enrolled at Glenville StateTeachers College, which I attended for a year.I took scientific courses and found them very difficult due to my badschool background. Physics particularly was hard for me although I madevery good grades in such courses as chemistry, qualitative analysis, history,economics etc. I was actually very bored with college.19