My first trip to the Phage Meeting (1977)

[Bob Zivin]

I think it was 1977; I was a graduate student at the University of Chicago and was attending my first CSH meeting (Phage). I was in awe of the what I considered the birthplace of molecular biology, DNA, and everything else a naive graduate student could comprehend (as well as getting to hold the big stick, perhaps the same big stick, that pointed out the structure of DNA in 1953). Despite this sense of reverence, my Advisor, Dr. Lucia Rothman-Denes, considered my preparations for my first major scientific meeting talk somewhat sub-par (I think her words were: " if that's the best you can do, I will give the talk myself"). I wandered out into the woods, and gave my talk to a shrub, then a tree, then a rock, then anything else which did not have the option of fleeing. I was psyched! The next day, when projection problems occurred, I cruised happily passed blank slide after blank slide (pointing out the non-existent graphs and blots) and survived my first presentation. Oh yes, I think I gave the talk to Mrs. Lee's giant (papier-mache) Yale Bulldog too. You remember Mrs. Lee's Guest House, yes?