“…that may have been a small one for Neil…”

November 19th, 1969:

115:22:16 Conrad: (As he lands) Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that’s a long one for me. (Pause)

    [Jones – "I understand that there was a bet on your saying that."]
    [Bean – "Who’d you bet?"]
    [Conrad – "You know who I bet."]
    [Bean – "Nope. I forget."]
    [Conrad – "A reporter, who thought the government put words in our mouths."]
    [Bean – "Oh!"]
    [Conrad – (Laughing) "I also had $500 riding on it, but I never got paid."]
    [Bean – (Laughing) "I didn’t know that! Is that right? I kind of remember it, a little. Oh, well."]
    [Jones – "Do you want that story as part of the record?"]
    [Bean – "Put it in. It will be good for the myth. We’re trying to create a Conrad Myth. Big Bucks on this. Can’t have too many human interest things."]
    [Conrad – "I tell the story, but I don’t tell who I bet."]
    [Actually, Pete does occasionally reveal that the reporter was Oriana Fallaci. A more detailed version of the story can be found in Andrew Chaikin’s "A Man on the Moon".]
(Note: The Apollo12 crew may have been one of the most animated and fun group to listen to. Listen to it all here. They were a riot to listen to in person later on the lecture circuit when I went to listen at the University of Nebraska and met Pete Conrad in person.  I also cracked him up big time when I asked that he sign the cast on my wrist, broken the previous week, as he noted it was the first cast he’d been asked to sign… Unfortunately we lost Pete in a motorcycle accident 30 years later on 9 July 1999. – SJS)

The old (Surveyor III w/Pete Conrad) and the new (LM "Intrepid" in the distance)