# 19 - Sci-Mo

In Seventh and Eighth Grade I had a friend named Marv Benson.
Most of the kids never knew his real name, we all called him Sci-Mo. Sci-Mo fancied himself a Scientist and loved his nickname. While the rest of us were playing outside, Sci-Mo was cloistered in his room with his Chemistry Set or some book, or experiment. He had a broad forehead and horn rimmed glasses and he really looked the part of the proverbial egghead. For Christmas his Mom actually made him a lab coat. He often wore it, even to school. He took a lot of ribbing from the guys, but he was so lost in concentrated thought, he never seemed to notice.

Sci-Mo was expected, by all of us, to grow up to become the absentminded professor. There is no question that Marv was smart, but he didn't think things through very well. Like the time he wanted to make a Geronimo Line from the great Cottonwood Tree in his back yard to the garage behind his house. He secretly bored a hole in one of the roofing members of the garage. (Secretly, so his folks wouldn't find out.) He tied a length of rope through the hole and ran it high into the tree about 30 yards away. He even used a Come-Along to tighten it up. Sci-Mo had threaded a pulley onto the rope and had things all set up for the ride of his life.

I wish I could have witnessed what happened next, but Marv was a loner when it came to his Science. Probably, it was good that I was nowhere near the place. At least I got no blame for what happened next. Marv climbed the tree and got into position to ride the line to the ground. He had a short piece of rope attached to the pulley for a handle. At this dizziing height he must have wondered if he could hold on to the rope for the whole distance. As a "safety" precaution, he tied a loop in the handle rope and placed the loop around his neck, in the event his grip gave out. The only reason I knew anything about it was because my grandmother was his next-door-neighbor and Marv's mom and she were close. Mrs. Benson cried on Grandmother's shoulder over Marv on more than one occasion. Grandma frequently counselled Mom and Dad to keep me away from that disturbed boy.

Anyway, Sci-Mo was all set for his ride. I'm not sure what he expected. I can't imagine he anticipated what he got. His experiment completely and utterly confirmed Newton's Laws of Motion, with a strong emphasis on the effects of Gravity. He fairly flew down that rope and at full velocity, bashed his body into the side of the garage. This knocked him unconscious and so his hands let go of the rope. This left him dangling by the neck from the pulley. Fortunately, his feet were on the ground and the loop didn't cinch up. His poor Mom heard the bang and looked out the window over the kitchen sink, where she spotted Marv committing, what she thought to be, suicide. It was clearly self inflicted, but hardly intentional. Sci-Mo limped to school for the next few days.

Another time, and this incident may have precipitated the Benson's departure from Himni, Sci-Mo made a bomb. Can't tell you how. It must have been a pretty good one though, it took a backhoe to fix the damage. Apparently, after constructing his explosive device Marv was hard pressed to find a place to detonate it. He didn't really want to destroy anything and he'd been restricted to the yard, for his own protection. There was a mysterious four inch pipe sticking out of the ground out back and he figured that was perfect. Down in the ground, what damage could it do?
Hopefully, that pipe would muffle the sound, while doubling as a cannon barrel. Sci-Mo cut off a six inch piece of lodge pole to serve as a projectile and was hoping to shoot it into orbit. He lit the fuse on the bomb and dropped it into the pipe. Quickly, he followed it with the chunk of wood, and stepped back a few feet.

What we know is; Mrs. Benson was standing at the sink doing the dishes. How she failed to see Marv drop something into the septic tank vent, remains a mystery. It is clear, though, that the projectile stuck in the pipe and the septic tank backflushed into the house with considerable force. It emerged in the toilet and every drain in the house, including the kitchen sink!

The Benson's moved away that Summer. Sci-Mo went on to college and graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He took a job with Boeing and contributed to the design of the Space Shuttle.