Time: 3/22/86, 4:45 A.M.
Place: near Shaver Lake, CA
Event: Halley's Comet®

It swooped down and knocked my Hat off, literally! Admittedly the most spectacular celestial display of the millennia, as you can clearly see. Gordon, Cheryl, and Tim accompanied me to the high Vista Point away from the city lights. There was a chilly breeze and patchy snow on the ground as we watched the moon set. There it was. We had heard through the grapevine that this vantage point was the perfect spot to see Halley's Comet® from, and so had 200 other people. It was shoulder to shoulder at the hurricane fence guarding the edge of the parking lot. As newcomers would arrive we veterans would caution against looking directly at the comet, to avoid blindness. Just before dawn I dug out four glasses, and a hip flask of Drambuie. I and my friends immortalized the occasion with a toast, "Here's to Hälley's Comet, as our fathers taught us, and to Samuel Clemens who taught them." I then took this picture of us to prove what we had done and we went home knowing we had done the thing right.