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Kansas City, Missouri, Alexandria, Virginia, United States
~ About: A 1961-65 Park College Diary ~ As a high school girl and then a college coed in the first half of the 1960s, I wrote nightly entries on the pages of one-year diaries. In January 2010 I began transcribing the entries into a blog and gave each one a title. I grew up on three farms within 30 miles of Iowa City and the University of Iowa with its Iowa Writers' Workshop. As the oldest of four daughters, in my diaries I sometimes referred to my sisters as "the kids" or "the girls." We helped our parents, but we also had good, wholesome fun - a characteristic I took with me to Park. Park is 300 miles southwest of West Chester, Iowa, in Parkville, Missouri, on the Missouri River 10 miles northwest of Kansas City, Missouri, and across the river from Kansas City, Kansas. In 2000 Park College became Park University. Today Park's flagship campus is in Parkville and there are an additional 41 campus centers across the nation. Park was one of the first educational institutions in the United States to offer online learning. My last post was on May 22, 2018. I may be followed on Twitter @BarbaraMcDWhitt.

An Interview with Dr. Carl Sagan - Tuesday, November 27, 1962

Today I interviewed a nationally famous astrobiologist, Dr. Carl Sagan, assistant professor of astronomy at Harvard, who's here today through Thursday to lecture on life in outer space! Since I'm so interested in the field, his first two lectures were fascinating and it was a thrill to talk to him. But, oh, I shake. If I weren't so insignificant in the whole of the universe (what happens to me doesn't matter that much) I'd be ready to punch the panic button for sure. We started bowling. I have to study history.

6 comments:

Bill said...

Wow! what a treat. Did he mention the "billions and billions" of stars out there?

Ron said...

I agree, Bill. How exciting. I really love a typical college day: talk to Carl Sagan, start bowling, study history.

Barbara McDowell Whitt said...

No, Bill, at least not that I quoted him as saying. He was not yet famous for that since he had not yet done his Cosmos series for PBS. In a very special coincidence though, tonight, Wednesday, November 28, 2012, on the NBC Nightly News, there was a feature on the possibility of life on Mars in connection with the Curiosity Probe, 50 years to the night after Dr. Sagan lectured at Park on evidence of life on Mars.

Barbara McDowell Whitt said...

Ron, it was exciting to talk with Carl Sagan when I caught up with him on the science building stairs. Probably on the way back from bowling.

Ron said...

Great coincidence on your response to Bill's comment!

Barbara McDowell Whitt said...

Ron, I thought so, too.