Shapiro: In those days, undergraduates didn’t do research projects. That was sort of unheard of… Feynman was there when I was there. And I knew of him, and I remember very clearly my asking my advisor a physics question in the middle of the lobby in Rockefeller Hall, which was then the physics building. He said, “Hmm.” And Feynman was just walking by, and he said, “Dick, I have this question for you.” [laugh] And he asked Feynman the question I’d asked him. Feynman rattled off [laugh] the answer, and walked by, all in maybe a minute at most. [laugh] Zierler: Now was— Shapiro: By the way, I lived one house away from him in Far Rockaway. Zierler: Really? Shapiro: Yes. Zierler: Did you know him then? Shapiro: No, he was 12 years older than I. But his sister, [laugh] I took his sister out after he died as sort of a condolence call, and she remembered me. She said that she was jealous of my red wooden rocking horse. She was about seven years older than I, something like that, and she remembered being enamored of my red wooden rocking horse. I didn’t even remember having a red wooden rocking horse. Zierler: [laugh] Shapiro: But I checked it out with a cousin of mine, older cousin, who never forgot anything in her life, and she confirmed that I indeed had a red wooden [laugh] rocking horse. [laugh]
- FEYNMAN