Frank Crocker, Chemistry, and Mr. Blasner

by Linda Baker, VHS 1969

Part 1  (June 2020 – Vic High Archives, preparing to close)

Practical Chemistry. Fundamental Facts and Applications to Modern Life. Seemingly just another in the pile of old textbooks and novels awaiting examination, numbering, and adding to the Archives and Museum of our extraordinary Vic High. A yellowing sheet of paper tucked inside its pages. A name, a division, a school’s initials stamped inside its cover. And curious things written in pencil beside them. I turn a few pages. Published in 1930 in Toronto. Penned by two Harvard Associate Professors, it was ‘Adapted for Use in the High Schools of British Columbia’. Well that’s impressive.

The yellowing sheet is precious, scribbled calculations on the outside undecipherable, at least by me. Careful, the edges are brittle with small tears in places. One more unfolding and a hand-written poem reveals itself.

Five years have passed, five summers with the length

Of five long winters! and again I hear

Those waters, rolling from their mountain springs

With a soft inland murmur.  Once again

Do I behold those steep and lofty cliffs.

There’s more lines to read. This is good! But for the moment, I am distracted by that name and those curious pencilled notes. And what other secrets this greyish linen-bound book might reveal.

Who is this Frank Crocker, Division 6, V H S?  He’s stamped those words into this book.  Permanent.  Non-transferrable to another student.  Did they own their school books back then? Or was this textbook returned and the next student that used it got to add their name, got to read Frank’s poems, too. In my day textbooks were borrowed by a new student each year, returned, stored, and lent out again until the life ran out of them.  Each year a new student received them in anticipation (or dread!), read what was required, gleaned what they could from their pages, and returned them at year’s end. (Do students even use textbooks nowadays?)

Apparently this first little stanza is just the beginning in a series of clues, a scavenger hunt of sorts, inside a chemistry textbook. (Was Frank bored in chemistry class? Was he yearning to be in English class penning more rhymes?) It starts…

If this Book Should

Happen to Rome

Box its Ears

And send it home.

And on the adjacent page, under a number – H30 – and a price – 1.50 –

If my name you wish to see

Turn to page 103

More pencilled lines, right above “HOW TO WRITE EQUATIONS”

Now you’ve come so far to look

Turn again to the back of the book.

Someone’s got a sense of humour, leading us on a merry chase.  And there inside the back cover:

Oh you fool you couldn’t find it

So close the book and never mind it. 

And pencilled in underneath:  Frank Crocker

Well, I have to find this chap. A few steps away, pale yellow acid-free boxes march down the shelves. Old Class Registers, organized by year and division. But wait.  65+ years worth. And I have no idea where to start looking. The task looms large. And there’s so many more items to be accessioned into the Vic High Collections before Vic High closes for its upgrade. I can’t take the time to search now.

I number the book, document it and its condition, take a photo of the cover, and set it aside for now. With so much to do, I musn’t be distracted. This magnificent school, built in 1914 and standing today as proud and strong as ever, is being torn apart on the inside, about to be brought into current times. And all the old treasures in these Archives must be sorted and listed and protected, and in a few months, packed in cartage boxes for careful storage during the upheaval.

I set Frank’s book aside for another day.

Part 2  (June 2024 – Vic High Archives is now open again)

I find the story I’d started four years ago about Frank Crocker and his chemistry book, and I go searching for the book. So many questions. Who is Frank Crocker, Division 6, VHS?  Was this his book, or did he just add his thoughts to one loaned to him that he failed to return?  Do you think he’s still alive?  How long ago did he donate these books to the Vic High Archives?  I’d noticed his name in other books as we first sorted the big pile of old books in the , choosing which ones to keep and which ones to pass along to the school district’s archives. Of course we kept Frank’s books, clearly identified with Frank’s stamp as ‘V.H.S’.

Or maybe it was his descendants who brought them in, a daughter or son going through their dad’s things and finding all these books stamped with his name, stopping and wondering if they might be valuable somewhere? And taking the time to bring these precious memories here.

Ah, Chemistry. I remember that Grade 12 science requirement well. Ron Blasner, teacher extraordinaire. Paul Wyle. Smartest kid in the class. Thankfully he and I were partnered up or who knows what kind of a mark I’d have gotten. (Chemistry was not my choice. I couldn’t imagine cutting up frogs or who-knows-what in Biology. And Physics just seemed too hard. So there you go. Chemistry.) I’m glad Practical Chemistry hadn’t been my textbook. Way too many words! And such small type. Oh my.

But Chemistry class was the source of one of my most vivid high school memories: Chemistry class without a second spent on Chemistry! Ron was one of the most positive, engaging people you could ever meet. The fact that he landed in teaching was a huge gift to so many of us over the years. One day, as we all settled onto our stools, he greeted us with ‘Did you hear about……’  And the next thing you know, we were busy feeding him questions about the current affair he found fascinating that day, anything to keep him talking and us not doing chemistry. No, I don’t recall what that current affair was, but clearly some students knew a lot about it, and the rest of us paid attention and learned a lot, right up until the bell went to end the class. I didn’t learn any chemistry that day, but Ron Blasner’s respect for students, his approach to engaging us, and our clear ability to understand and debate the issues of the day, has stuck with me all these years.

But I digress. Frank Crocker. I found him! (Remember those handwritten cards we had to fill out every September, with contact information on the front and our class schedule on the back? The Archives has them all – from 1916 through to the mid-1980s. They’re an invaluable resource.) So Frank Herbert Crocker started at Vic High in 1929, grade 9. He lived on Clare Street, and registered for Grade 11 on September 14, 1931, Div. 6. So Practical Chemistry was his textbook in Grade 11. There’s a note on the card that says he left Vic High in April 1932. Maybe the muse was just too strong and he left for a life writing poetry. Or more likely, he got a decent paying job and left school to make his fortune. Thanks, Frank. I hope you had a great life!

PS I wonder what Mr. Blasner would have thought of Frank Crocker in his Chemistry class? In Frank’s day, I’m sure his sense of humour would have been brought strictly into line! But Mr. Blasner? He’d have found Frank’s quirky humour engaging.