It was one of those Sundays where the kids wanted to do “something” and we couldn’t come up with a single thing to do. Finally Susan suggested we hit the Omniplex and so we did. We are members of the Oklahoma Science Museum something-or-other which allows us free admittance anytime we wish to go. So, we went.
When we arrived at the Omniplex — er, Oklahoma Science Museum — we were informed that a live demonstration of science was to take place in about ten minutes. We walked straight to the auditorium and found some seats on the second row. We were pretty sure we were in the right place as there was a guy in a lab coat standing on a segway just outside the entrance. The guy turned out to be Professor Chris.
At the beginning of the show, Professor Chris informed all the kids that it was okay to clap, yell, and “use their outside voices.” He said the point of the show was to “blow things up” and that during the show he would be asking for a few volunteers.
Let me stop right here for a moment. There’s something about me that causes me to ALWAYS get picked for things like this, even when I don’t want to be. On our honeymoon cruise, there was a comic performing on the boat who we had heard liked to pick people from the crowd. Because of this, we sat like 20 rows back from the stage. When it came time to pick people, the guy said, “where was that guy I saw earlier” (or something to that effect) and then came and found me and dragged me on stage. At any comedy club, if I’m in the front ten rows, I’m becoming part of the act. I had already pretty much accepted the fact that I would end up on stage.
The lights go out and Professor Chris is talking and he’s already done one minor experiement and then he says, “I need another volunteer.” So the kids start raising their hands and yelling and Professor Chris comes walking over by us and I’m thinking, “well this is it,” and when he gets to us he picks … Mason.
At least it wasn’t me.
Mason ends up on stage and the experiment has something to do with putting some explosive liquid in a big plastic water bottle and shaking it up. Professor Chris gives the bottle to Mason and says, “shake it up!” and they start playing the disco song, “Shake Your Booty.” Well of course, Mason does. The kid’s a ham (I don’t know where he gets it from). Mason is shaking his booty and wiggling around and hopping and the crowd is rolling. After the music ends the two of them attempt to ignite the bottle, but there’s no “boom”. That’s when Professor Chris informs us that the bottle had no oxygen in it — so, they use a new bottle, which again needs to be shook shook shook. Mason took the bottle and gave it another go ’round, shaking his little fanny all over the stage, causing even Professor Chris to chuckle once or twice. The music stopped once again and Mason and Professor Chris did indeed produce a giant fireball in front of the crowd.
The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful, at least compared to that. Susan said she wanted to show me “the new room” at the museum but it all basically looked new to me. The things I used to enjoy as a kid were pretty much shoved back in one dark corner of the museum. Cheap holograms and a shadow wall are no match for interactive computers, robotics, and a space shuttle simulator (that both kids rode in).