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The story that inspired
"WE SELL THINGS THAT INSPIRE"
Copyright © 2016 SUNGREEN
One day in July of 1977 in Ocean City, NJ. I was sitting at the kitchen table with my friend Barbara in her house. She poured each of us a glass of COKE. As we talked, condensation formed on our glasses. Barbara moved her glass a few inches to her right and looked at the condensation that had come from her glass and was now on the table. She lowered her index finger into the condensation. A few seconds later as she slowly move her index finger through the condensation she said "Mark, what does this test show?" I said "I do not know." She said “This test shows that water molecules like each other.” I did not understand the test, but made a mental note to one day understand the lesson behind it. The summer came to an end and Barbara and I said our goodbyes.
One day in Chemistry class our teacher explained how molecules hold on to each other. One of the examples he used was water.
My mind lit up. I said to myself. “Now I understand the test Barbara was showing me on the kitchen table on that hot summer day."
Fifteen years later as I was writing the story about the water condensation test on the kitchen table in a letter to Barbara, the periodic number H-2-O for water popped in my head. I realized if I arrange the code a certain way, I would get