There were words that I remember hearing when I was a little girl between six and eleven years old. Some of the words, I understood. Some I didn't but I love these words for the memories I have of hearing them.
Ultraviolet, infrared, frequency, transmission, antenna, seismic, radiation, vacuum tube, semiconductor, resistor, capacitor, binary, sine waves, diffraction, microwave, radar, and Doppler. Are your eyes watering yet? These are not your usual vocabulary words for a little girl, are they? Can you believe that I have untold stories about the words 'binary' and 'sine wave?'
I had asked my dad why the sky was blue and I learned the word 'defraction' when he actually explained it to me instead of brushing me off. I'd only been trying to be silly in asking that. I didn't really want to know. Another time, he caught me singing the sound of a passing car and he explained the Doppler effect, the sound waves in front of a car piling up and the car moving faster than the waves behind it.
I liked the word 'ultraviolet' the best. My mom said that my dad never paid any attention to colors, that he'd always have worn brown if she hadn't bought him some clothes of different colors. I remember those brown suits. He wasn't color-blind. He just wasn't interested. Then one day, he came home talking about colors. I remember that day.
Somehow, he got to explaining to me that there were colors that our eyes couldn't see at either end of the rainbow, ultraviolet and infrared. Now, that got my attention.
"I love the rainbow," I remember saying. I realized I was losing him and that in a minute he'd probably go off to his den to get some work done. I wasn't allowed in his den most of the time. It was stacked high with equipment - oscilloscopes, another junk television, radios that never worked, soldering irons, microphones, boxes of wiring, vacuum tubes, resistors, and capacitors. Sometimes, he let me stay in his den to sort resistors. To this day, the numbers for resistor values still represent those colors to me. I liked sorting them. Maybe I was bored with watching what someone else had chosen on television. Maybe I liked the colored stripes on the little wires. Maybe I just wanted to be my dad's special girl. But usually, I wasn't allowed in his den with him so I didn't want him to leave just yet.
"Why isn't it ultrared or infraviolet," I asked him. He looked at me. I didn't just ask questions like this to be annoying. I wanted to keep him talking.
"I like ultraviolet better," I said quickly.
"Well, I like infrared," he said. "You can do more with infrared." I liked ultraviolet since violet in the prism he showed me was so pretty. So we actually argued about which was better. Can you imagine arguing with a nine year old girl about liking purple? But he did. He said that infrared was easier because it was slower.
"Since when is a color slow?" I asked him. I assumed that he'd made some kind of mistake. Then, he started talking about waves, diffraction, and frequency. Somewhere in all of it, he'd lost me. I tried to understand. I really did. Then, when I knew I couldn't understand, I tried to look interested anyway. I liked hearing him talk, especially because these strange words made him so happy. But eventually, he could tell he'd lost me again. I think he was trying to keep my attention for just a little bit longer.
Thank you for listening, jb
Ultraviolet, infrared, frequency, transmission, antenna, seismic, radiation, vacuum tube, semiconductor, resistor, capacitor, binary, sine waves, diffraction, microwave, radar, and Doppler. Are your eyes watering yet? These are not your usual vocabulary words for a little girl, are they? Can you believe that I have untold stories about the words 'binary' and 'sine wave?'
I had asked my dad why the sky was blue and I learned the word 'defraction' when he actually explained it to me instead of brushing me off. I'd only been trying to be silly in asking that. I didn't really want to know. Another time, he caught me singing the sound of a passing car and he explained the Doppler effect, the sound waves in front of a car piling up and the car moving faster than the waves behind it.
I liked the word 'ultraviolet' the best. My mom said that my dad never paid any attention to colors, that he'd always have worn brown if she hadn't bought him some clothes of different colors. I remember those brown suits. He wasn't color-blind. He just wasn't interested. Then one day, he came home talking about colors. I remember that day.
Somehow, he got to explaining to me that there were colors that our eyes couldn't see at either end of the rainbow, ultraviolet and infrared. Now, that got my attention.
"I love the rainbow," I remember saying. I realized I was losing him and that in a minute he'd probably go off to his den to get some work done. I wasn't allowed in his den most of the time. It was stacked high with equipment - oscilloscopes, another junk television, radios that never worked, soldering irons, microphones, boxes of wiring, vacuum tubes, resistors, and capacitors. Sometimes, he let me stay in his den to sort resistors. To this day, the numbers for resistor values still represent those colors to me. I liked sorting them. Maybe I was bored with watching what someone else had chosen on television. Maybe I liked the colored stripes on the little wires. Maybe I just wanted to be my dad's special girl. But usually, I wasn't allowed in his den with him so I didn't want him to leave just yet.
"Why isn't it ultrared or infraviolet," I asked him. He looked at me. I didn't just ask questions like this to be annoying. I wanted to keep him talking.
"I like ultraviolet better," I said quickly.
"Well, I like infrared," he said. "You can do more with infrared." I liked ultraviolet since violet in the prism he showed me was so pretty. So we actually argued about which was better. Can you imagine arguing with a nine year old girl about liking purple? But he did. He said that infrared was easier because it was slower.
"Since when is a color slow?" I asked him. I assumed that he'd made some kind of mistake. Then, he started talking about waves, diffraction, and frequency. Somewhere in all of it, he'd lost me. I tried to understand. I really did. Then, when I knew I couldn't understand, I tried to look interested anyway. I liked hearing him talk, especially because these strange words made him so happy. But eventually, he could tell he'd lost me again. I think he was trying to keep my attention for just a little bit longer.
Thank you for listening, jb
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