Photo by SHILWANT roy on Unsplash July 20, 1969 I remember it well. I arrived at Mississippi State University the day before the landing and moon walk. Earlier that year, in May my father had died leaving me parentless after my mother's death eighteen months earlier. In the Fall of 1968 I applied and was accepted into a program for high school students between the junior and senior years of high school. The program was called Special Program for Academically Talented Students (SPATS) and we participants were able to take college courses for credit to give us a head start when we enrolled after graduation. Because of Daddy's death I was allowed to attend starting in July violating a major SPATS requirement of attending both Summer terms. The advisor/counselor for the program called me and suggested that he "boil down" the orientation I would miss in early June. He told me to NEVER tell any of my professors or fellow students that I was a SPATS (you can pr