I was always a geek growing up and that was thanks in large part to the fact that my dad is a huge geek himself. One of my earliest memories is sitting on his lap in this old, brown chair we had as he read Lord of the Rings to me. My dad is super smart and a scientist to boot, which just adds to his geek cred.
You would think that being a geek myself from an early age, that my geeky dad wouldn’t be able to embarrass me. All kids are embarrassed by their parents, but it may be a little harder to embarrass a geek kid.
When I was in the 8th and 9th grade, I was really getting into Star Trek. It started out with Star Trek: The Next Generation, which was on the air at that time. I eventually got into the original Star Trek as well. We lived near to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and there were one day Star Trek conventions that happened every so often.
At one of these conventions, the guest was James Doohan who played Scotty in the original Star Trek. Usually there was a question and answer session before you could get in line for autographs. I remember very clearly sitting near the front with my dad at this q&a session and that my dad asked a terribly complicated science question. I don’t remember what the answer was, but I do remember that I wanted to disappear into the ground. I was so embarrassed. My dad wasn’t though and we went on to have a good time getting our autograph from James Doohan. But it’s something I still remember, 20 years later.
I’m sure all parents embarrass their kids at some point. But only a geek parent could embarrass a geek kid at a Star Trek convention.
I’m sure Mr. Doohan took it in stride; at about the same time (I’m guessing), he was doing presentations for the Department of Energy, and that, of course, included Hanford (as the project DID bring many engineers to southeastern Washington state).
The very interesting thing for me about that is that I did meet him at such a presentation at what was then the Hanford Science Center at the Federal building in Richland, WA, um, sometime in 1980, I think. Honestly, at the time, I did NOT know who he was, although I’m sure he said. I just remember him as this really cool guy that was interested in teaching kids about science.
He did take it in stride 🙂 But I was still mortified since I was a teenager *L*