We got off the bus near the main gate to Rice and I asked th

We got off the bus near the main gate to Rice and I asked the den mother what was inside the gate. Her answer was something like, ‘That’s Rice Institute where the really smart boys and girls go.’ My response was, ‘Oh, cool, I’ll go there.’ Her response: ‘you are probably not smart enough.’ I guess I showed her.

In my family there was no question of whether the three kids were going to college; the question was which college.

Neither mom nor dad had gotten a degree and they experienced the holdbacks in opportunity for those folks without degrees.

I was interested in the service academies. There were a series of youth novels about guys who went to West Point, Annapolis and the nascent Air Force Academy. These were gungho books probably commissioned to drum up enthusiasm for the service academies. I really had no thought about what happened after the academy experience, just that the academies were very competitive and provided a great education.