When I was in high school I got to visit Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. I can’t remember exactly how I was chosen, but it must have had something to do with my grades. While I was very good at math, I can’t remember what my physics’ grades were. Of course, it might have been who actually made the selection. I know if it were my math teachers then I was a shoo-in.
Anyhow, it was going to be my first airplane ride. I think I even wore a sports jacket and tie. I flew out of Pittsburgh in a Constellation turbo-prop. I think it was American Airlines. My parents drove me to the airport. I don’t remember being afraid of flying then. It was more a feeling of excitement as I remember.
The reason I was going was to see what they did at the laboratories. We had already launched our Telstar satellite to counter the Russian’s Sputnik. I was going to see the satellite in one of the labs. And I did. It was the one thing I remember. I don’t remember very much more. Not where I stayed, or where or what I ate. I don’t remember any of the other students. I don’t have a memory of anything other than seeing that Telstar satellite.
I don’t even remember if I had to do a written paper or give an oral report on it. I would have thought I had to do something. I just can’t remember. The two things that stand out are the airplane ride and seeing the Telstar satellite.
When I returned from my trip I don’t even remember I had to give an oral report. I know I didn’t because that would have scared me to death and I would have remembered that. I didn’t get motivated to study physics, though I did keep my love for mathematics.
This happened about 1960. In 1987 I retired from the Army and moved to within 15 miles of the Bell Lab site. Another circular pattern of sorts; or as James Burke called it in his books and his TV show of the same name, “Connections”.
(Book Antiqua 12)
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