MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

So, here is my story:

Edit 4/14/2019: Replaced outdated link with a link to the master index, which always contains the most recent versions:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7ckZ ... nFYVDJSRW8


Carl

Carl -- That is an awesome story and one that I can personally identify with. I got the idea in my head that I should be taking photos through a microscope (actually a friend had mentioned this some time ago). So, at around the age of 50 (must be a magical age) I managed to buy a microscope I could afix my Nikon to. And the rest is... A vast learning process!

I'm very much like you as when I was a kid I had a toy microscope that I was supposed to share with my brother. Luckily, he had very little interest it. So, it became mine. And then my parents bought me my Swift Eleven-Ninety for Christmas. So, rather than sports that is what I did. I discovered various protozoa in the pond and I even cultured bacteria. So, midlife crisis or not I'm quite happy I bought my new one. And then there is the streroscope I bought recently as well.

I suspect these stories are far from unusual. And it is really awesome you have a supportive wife! Thanks for sharing your story with us!

Great story Carl, thanks for sharing it with us. As Pat says, this really does ring-bells for a lot of us - the 50-something age does indeed seem to be some sort of watershed, perhaps the time when we are able, if lucky enough, to look at what we actually enjoy doing a little more rather than those necessary task that face us all everyday my friend.

Forums such as this one (the only forum that I'm a member of or visit - this one has it all for me) are so very valuable - a means of sharing our hobby and adventures in virtually real-time. Not to mention the vast knowledge-base that the folk here comprise.

Very inspiring tale Carl, one that so many of us recognize!

Thanks Carl, John B.

Thoroughly enjoyed your story. Very entertaining and well written.

Great story! Very much like my own story! I just bought back my first microscope. Not the exact same one, but an identical one. In wooden box, all metal. I remember the included slides and that the quality was amazingly good. Let's see how I feel now when I try it out 40 years later... I will for sure post some pics when I have tried it.

hk'!
Lovely little item - you really must show us some of it's images if possible!

Thanks, Carl, for your recount of paths to current microscopy. I am a US 'child of Sputnik '57 (?correct year??) 'space and science race'..so my cohort ( similar to your age group I sense) benefitted from marketed science education kits...tellie shows...low cost books sold at the food stores!...and yes, yes..the hoard of 'toy microscopes'...some quite functional for a 10-12 yr old explorer of the micro worlds.

Due pressure of time..I guess we all pushed microscopy back during life work cycles...but I keenly wonder if you ( it was the lucky situation for me) ...I wonder if you did not have an excellent 'microscope experience' in high school?

I too had the toy scopes as a ten year old..marvelous use by kerosine lantern at our summer rural holidays. Ahh, my high school teachers permitted me to use a quite excellent student microscope after school hours...in our 'biology club'...and let me take a great binoc scope home during summer recess...thank you, Mr.Nick Colleto, and Br. Tim Ford!


Oddly enough, Carl, I for $100 cash...purchased my first monoc stand from a dentist in Bronx/NYC/NY...I was still a high schooler..it was cash from my after school jobs. The dentist had an ad in the NYTimes classified to sell this excellent stand.

Too bad you taint your current path to a wonderful stand with the realities of folks in our vast society...for me it makes no possibility of finding the prior work-life of the stand you recently purchased.

Circa 1982 I purchased a trinoc Steindorf/Berlin system from a former professor (and a dentist!)...by this time I was back in microscopy as an enchanted hobbyist. Thank you, Dr. A.Bedrick for this stand, more recently...thank you Phil/ apochronaut for opening my eyes to understanding of these Steindorf/Berlin stands...for their 'ho hum achromat systems function'.

I thank you Carl for the intrigue of your now having a microscope repair shop in your home...thanks for your shared path to microscopy, Carl. charlie guevara

It's good to hear from others, and to learn that maybe my story is not quite as unusual as I originally thought.

Charlie - my interests gradually moved from biology, and I ended up with a fascination with electronics, to the exclusion of just about everything else, by the time I was in High School. I guess it worked out, because I'm an electrical engineer now. One thing this whole thing has taught me is that the quickest way to ruin something you enjoy doing is to make a career out of it. I added this missing bit to the story.

I do know something about the original BHTU stand. It came with a VA Hospital asset tag form West Virginia. So, I guess it had a pretty good career of its own, before I got It from the felonious dentist.

Carl

I made a few minor edits to the story.

Carl

Hi Carl,

Somehow I missed your story when you first posted it.. I just read it with great interest... What a wonderful story!... Thanks for sharing!...

BillT

Nice story, I honestly think we should all post our own story. Not just little tidbits as comments but an honest story like this one. I will start working on mine tonight, after my microscope work is done.

I'll be in KCMO in September, you can buy me lunch.

lorez