Caltech

I’ve wandered around the campus with some of my friends who are smart enough to be here.

Cool place…Perhaps in my next life I will have the smarts to go here.

Visit if you have a reason to (like the arts performances at Beckman Auditorium, or because you care something about science/technology/research)

and so periodically we would go together. My dad’s problem was how to keep a little kid busy while he did whatever it was he had to do, pick up papers and mail, set up meetings, whatever. So, what he did was find things for me to do.

One big thrill of my young life was eating Eggs Benedict the first time in the faculty club, the Atheneum. I’d also hang around his office and play with his old, huge calculator.

I spent a lot of time in the bookstore, which at that point was in what had been the student union. I always spent a fair amount of time looking for the “Klein” brick that dad had bought when they were putting up the building. Also, the capitals of the pillars on one walkway were NOT the usual classical figures. And there was looking for the red caps from one of the eucalyptus and the bay laurel which smelled so good.

If I’d known about the fireman’s pole in the windtunnel, I probably would have stayed for days (which is almost certainly why my Dad never took me there).

I have a couple of funny stories about the fireman’s pole anyway, one of these days I may post them.

So, my experience of Caltech is that of a small child, not a student or faculty member. You CAN find things for a small child to do here, but you’ll have to work at it!

jkd