Shenanigans: The Curious and Romantic Experiences of a Young Chemist A True Story

With self-effacing, amusing stories and lively detail, “Shenanigans, The Curious and Romantic Experiences of a Young Chemist” is the author’s personal story of growing up in a small agricultural Iowa town. While his second grade teacher’s prophecies foretold he would become a scientist, the author was far from his childhood hopes and dreams. Stuck in a town whose fame and employment opportunities were merely pigs and tractors--a destiny he didn’t want, he pursued his dreams, and a way out. Fulfillment did not come easily.
Determined to lead a better life, the aspiring scientist enrolled in college chemistry while also finding fulltime laboratory work on the graveyard shift of a nearly defunct, ramshackle, and once famous pork processing company. The laboratory, the total antithesis of his dreams, was more like an 18th century alchemist’s nightmare. Leaving work at 7 a.m. and smelling like a hickory-wood smoked pork sausage with BO, he attended chemistry classes at a local university. The pace was grueling and bordered on desperation for lack of time and sleep.
One morning, after thirty-six hours of wakefulness, he approached his professor to discuss the situation. “Dr. Kerchall?” he announced his name with all the fear and trembling of meeting the mighty Wizard of Oz. Momentarily he wondered if he should fall on his knees. The professor slowly turned around in his chair and looked at Craig with a “how dare you” glare as if any student really must have balls to interrupt him. His response to Craig’s plight was simple and uncaring, “You can either work or go to school, but you can’t do both.” Undaunted, Craig set a course to accomplish both.
Eating two rib-eye steaks each night and spiking his coffee with caffeine to stay awake, he managed to press through lab work at night and study during the day. Observing that a large amount of the chemical silver chloride, a waste product from analysis of hams, was being dumped down the sewer each day, he came up with an idea. Knowing that carp at the river’s outfall ate much of this discharge along with pig entrails, and that, “you are what you eat,” he figured these fish were mostly pigs with fins--filled with valuable silver. He devised a plan to recover this expensive metal.
Intertwined in this story are various exploits and shenanigans. From climbing water towers, exploding sodium bombs, and high-on-the-hog dining experiences to flying lessons and underwater adventures to recover lost shotguns, Craig is constantly, “up to something.” With various girlfriends thrown in the mix and the frustrating bittersweet tales of young love, romances that almost budded but never flowered, the story is ever on the move with reflections of life at the time.
Success comes after years of double duty and finally graduation. The new scientist is awarded a US Patent for the process that he developed and used to recover all the silver thrown to the river carp. Includes 13 color photographs.