Mr. Wizard

The book was about the size of a magazine, perhaps a little bit thicker and bound better. On the front was a cartoon of a trio of scientists filling a cart in a supermarket. I think one of them was holding a smoking beaker, but I'm not sure. Along the top was the yellow title, Mr. Wizard's Supermarket Science. It was a fantastic collection of experiments you could do at home, making Rice Krispies dance or making a straw go through a raw potato or turning water into wine (sort of). I remember often flipping through the pages looking for something to try, do one of these things that seemed like magic, but were really just practical science.

When I started Youth Group at church, I had already had this book for a couple years, but it was still something I actively looked at. The youth group at my church was great. It was something every kid wanted to get into, they did all the fun things, went to Cedar Point, they sometime had lockins where they partied all night. Once I started, though, the thing I enjoyed most about the group is it seemed you were actually listened to. Up until that time, it seemed to me there was a clear delineation between me and the adults of the church. I was to listen to them, although rarely were they talking to me and they listened to the words I would say in a play, but they knew what they knew about me through my parents. Really, this is the way childhood is; children are not good presenters of their own thoughts and adults who work to get to know children who are not their own, are creepy. Jan, the leader of the group when I first came in, changed this. She listened, was interested, was invested in us. As it turns out, that was more significant that the many trips we would take to Cedar Point.

The other youth an I sat around the table listening to Jan as she talked about an up coming service project. Cleaning Silver. In my mind I think I tout is was hers, but in hind site I think it was the churches. Anyway, she was talking about brining in rags and cleaning solution and how much work it was going to do. While I listened my mind tingled. Mr. Wizard was talking, telling me we didn't have to do it that way.

"We don't have to clean the silver that way," I heard myself saying. Jan stopped and listened. "I have a Mr. Wizard book at home that says you can do it with tin foil and some other stuff. You can just dip the silver in and it comes out clean."

Jan said we could try it that way, but we would have the other stuff there just in case.

When we were doing the project we sat around the table with the pile of silverware, plates and cups in the middle. Many of the kids brought rags and started working in the spoons. I spent the first little bit lining the biggest pot I could find with aluminum foil. I half filled the pot with water and added a little baking soda. The group progress was slow. I hadn't done any and I didn't even know if this would work. I put the pot on the stove and turn it on high. The article said I needed to boil the water,

Jan, probably because I was working with hot water and a strange method, helped me. When the water started to boil we gathered up. A few of the pieces of silver and dropped them into the pot. Two minutes later we pulled them out, ran them under water and the tarnish just washed off. The looked like new. Cleaner than any of the hand polishing which was being done. Soon the whole group was in on the process. Left in the hot water for 90 seconds or so, pulling them out and rinsing the tarnish off. What started as a slow task was getting done very quickly.

In an hour, it was all done. The group satisfied. Jan happy, even saying she would be doing this at her home. Mr. Wizard had won the day.