"Miss Wicker"

Herman M. Heyn

December 3, 2012

It was in Miss Wicker's 8th grade general science class at Baltimore's Garrison Junior High School, circa 1945. One day she drew the Big Dipper on the blackboard and instructed us to find it that night. I found it (the first time I'd done my homework in weeks), thought it was the most beautiful sight I'd ever seen, was immediately hooked and, with a few ten-year lapses along the way, have been hooked ever since! Today, I remain hooked as "Baltimore's Street Corner Astronomer". hermanheyn.com

Comments:

JP: 12/05/2012 03:22 CST

My interest in space came from science fiction (which I still love) and from TV. I grew up in the time of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs and was enthralled by the telecasts of these launches. Back then, when I was in early grade school I would pretend to be sick so that I could stay home and watch the telecasts and listen to Walter Cronkite. I thought I was being very clever with all this until my mother told me that she knew I was interested in the space program and that it was OK for me to stay home from school to watch the broadcasts, I didn't have to pretend to be sick. Those launches got me hooked and I've never looked back.