Alumni
Reflections from John Wolfe '42
I was in the graduating class of 1942, a war year, a long time ago.
The sharp recollection is of “5-A,” the 11th Age/Fifth Grade, with Edward G. Huey as teacher - an absolutely remarkable person. He had even written a Fifth Grade science book the year before called What Makes the Wheels Go ‘Round, and it was fascinating.
But, in that school year, he took the entire boys’ class on a steam train field trip, all the way to Philadelphia, to spend a day at the Franklin Institute.
It was a hands-on museum of science and included exhibits on Nikola Tesla’s man-made lightning bolts across a small room, a self-operated gyroscope, and a full size operating steam engine. We kids could climb up the tall ladder into the driver’s seat, and, quite literally, drive that gigantic machine several feet, forward and back.
On the way back to Baltimore, [Mr. Huey] showed us how to calculate the speed of the train by timing the clicking sound of the rails with a stopwatch. [He also taught us] how the steam engine scooped up new water from a long pool of fresh water set between the railroad rails while never slowing down or stopping.
Absolutely the very finest, most interesting, fascinating day that I ever had during my whole six years at Calvert (1936 - 1942).
Calvert School is a coed independent lower and middle school.
