When I was in the fourth grade, I became intensely interested in geography and I learned it well.

Young man, I am afraid you are wasting your time. If there were any more planets they would have been found long before this.

I guess the two things I was most interested in were telescopes and steam engines. My father was an engineer on a threshing rig steam engine and I loved the machinery.

I guess they just took it for granted that that was what I was interested in and let nature take its course.

I think the driving thing was curiosity about the universe. That fascinated me. I didn't think anything about being famous or anything like that, I was just interested in the concepts involved.

When I was in the fourth grade, I became intensely interested in geography and I learned it well.

I realized that I would have some very tough sledding, and I was very discouraged because I didn't see much hope of getting into the field I wanted to get into with no college education.