Had he still been with us, Isaac Asimov would have turned 87 three days ago. Well … at least, that’s when he would have celebrated it, as he was never really sure of the exact date.

As he put it in his autobiography, In Memory Yet Green, “It could not have been later than that. It might, however, have been earlier. Allowing for the uncertainties of the times, of the lack of records, of the Jewish and Julian calendars, it might have been as early as October 4, 1919. There is, however, no way of finding out. My parents were always uncertain and it really doesn’t matter. I celebrate January 2, 1920, so let it be.”

So, in honor of that maybe/maybe not birthday, let’s step into the Wayback Machine. Here I am, visiting Doubleday’s Park Avenue offices to interview Isaac back in the ’70s for my high school underground newspaper. Click through the image for a better look at Isaac, garbed in his customary bolo necktie. I, unfortunately, can be seen wearing a puka shell necklace, which I guess I thought was cool back when I was 16 or so. At least I wasn’t wearing a headband!