The 3^rd year in “Industrial Arts” was mainly “Metal Shop”. I liked this even better than working with wood. The main reason was I didn’t run the risk of cutting my fingers and/or hands off with power tools since I have always been very accident-prone. I did manage to cut my thumb pretty deep on the radial arm saw after the small piece of wood I was cutting “kicked back” into my thumb. I still have the scar intermixed in with all the rest of them, making my hands look like some bizarre piece of abstract art. Having always been a “Klutz”, I have ruled out such endeavors as brain surgery, bomb diffusing, or hauling nitro glycerin. In fact, I’m such a “Klutz”, that if I were hauling anvils, I would risk breaking some or all of them! (Alas, more subject matter for future missives). We first started out with heating metal strips and bending them, this would give me a basic background in later years when I attended The Oklahoma Horseshoeing School (Yet another subject for a future story!) I remember that my first project was some kind of “scroll” thing (see sketch below), but I don’t recall just what I was making. Knowing me, it was probably nothing of any importance or practical use. We moved next into brazing and welding. The brazing with a torch was fun and cutting metal with an acetylene torch was fun too. When we got too close to our work, the torch would instantly go out with a big “SNAP” sound, something like a big heavy duty cap going off. When I was practicing with the torch, I heard this sound quite often (sometimes on purpose, heh heh). It was neat when all the sparks would fly all over the place, all of which really appealed to my pyromaniac streak, which many people said I possessed. In my later years, as I’ve aged, I’ve conquered at least one half of my pyromaniac tendencies, NOW I’m just a “Maniac”! When we reached welding, I really “dimmed”! They said you first strike the welding rod like a big match (now THAT came naturally to ME), beside ALWAYS welding my welding rod to the work, I NEVER could see what I was doing through that goofy very dark welding mask. I guess a professional welder has a choice, either to wear the mask and not seeing what they’re doing, or not wearing a mask and going blind! However, I’ve never to my knowledge met an ex welder with a guide dog, so I have to assume they can work without seeing what they’re doing! I certainly never could weld this way! By the way, do blind dogs have guide “humans”? (Just wondering). After managing to weld a few short lines, between breaking off the welding rod after welding it to my work, we closed out the year on the metal lathes. I made a small model of an old War of 1812 Navy cannon. For ONCE, after almost 3 years, I really thought one of my projects turned out fairly well. Even Mr. Gaich was impressed! The next day, just before I was ready to put to final touches on it, it was stolen out of the small lockers we stored our projects in! (I never got around to getting a lock). Oh well, such is life (i.e. me)! At least Mr. Gaich gave me a fairly good grade that year for “effort”!  My fascination for Navy guns was fulfilled when I was in the Navy and heard the 5-inch guns (“5 inch 54’s” as they were called); go off on one of the ships I was on. WOW, those things are LOUD! I also got to see the Phalanx System in operation too, which is a super fast “Gatling Gun” used for anti aircraft and/or missile protection. I’ve never heard a 16-inch battleship gun fire (although I’ve seen them), but I can’t imagine how loud they must sound!  All in all, in spite of my “Cattywompus” and “Ski Jawed” projects in High School “Shop”, it did help me to discover the areas in my life to avoid, such as building most ANYTHING that requires power tools or welding! I just don’t have a whole lot of room on my hands for any more scars!