On 26 May 2004 19:08:51 -0700, (Allen Thomson)
wrote:

Rick DeNatale wrote

Doug wrote:

Hmmmmm... I was born in October of 1955, about two years "even" before
Sputnik. I don't recall Sputnik's launch, but I was alive then.

I *do* recall Mercury.

I was born 10 years and 1 day after the Pearl Harbor attack.

OK, I'll play too.

....Yeah, why not? I was born the day after one of Glenn's launch
cancellations, and thanks to living in Houston during the early boom
years up to August 1st, 1966, I was exposed to the infomation glut
that was required to produce an Astrobuff of the First Generation. For
me, the first mission I can vividly recall was the launch of GT-4,
including the coverage of the spacewalk in audio only. I remember
pretty much every mission from that point on, as I only missed one bit
of coverage between GT-4 and STS-55(*), and that was the ALT for the
Shuttle. Pop was ****ed because I'd failed a math class, and decided
to punish me for the entire summer just to be a *******. Part of that
punishment was not being allowed to watch the ALT coverage. The
resulting arguement that ensued lasted through the day, and while I
didn't get to see the ALT coverage I still won the war, because I made
it very clear that sort of **** was never going to happen again.

Apparently the arguement given was convincing enough, because he never
tried to pull that **** again, and that's been almost 30 years since.

....But I digress. I also had quite a few space-related toys, including
that three-stage "Atlas" with all the fins and the spring-loaded
satellite launching third stage. I also had a similar cheap plastic
Saturn 5, which was wild because the entire CSM stack was still
attached to the adapter shroud, and at the base was a bas-relief
chrome representation of the back end of the LM. This was also stuck
on top of an S-II stage with a spring-loaded pop launcher that a)
popped the CSM stack off into orbit, and b) would put your eye out if
you weren't careful.

....I also built a lot of those model kits that came out back then. By
the time I got into kit building, all the Hawk and Lindbergh and Willy
Ley kits were out of production and off the shelves. I got the Space
Tug when the local five-and-dime manager bought a lot of surplus kits
from a store closing, and there was one in the pile, complete with
chrome-plated astronauts. I discovered two others in the "Space
Pursuit" kit - one being the Convair shuttle, the other being
something else I can't recall - but for the most part every other kit
was based on actual NASA designs. Which is why when the Monogram 1/24
CSM came out, I gladly set my 1/32 totally inaccurate Block "I" CSM on
fire in the back yard. I also had the LM landing kit, and at least
three of the CSM/LM minikits that Revell put out en masse. And, of
course, the Revell Saturn 5 kit that I got the Chrisnukkah it was
released. That still stands out as one of my favorite years.

....I had them all up to that one huge Shuttle kit that Monogram put
out, but never did get into the proto ISS concepts as I was moving
away from kit building at that time for other pursuits - CB Radio
being one of them, girls being the other. But every now and then I'd
stop and look over the kits and buy one. Most of them are still in-box
and unassembled due to lack of time, but one day I'll finally find the
time again. Probably when I retire :-P

(*) I had a contract gig in Dallas that required me to travel on the
day of the launch, and Southwest Airlines at the time wasn't allowing
personal radios on board due to some problem with the electronics
interefering with the navigational systems. They wound up loosening
the rules a few weeks later, but that was too late for me to try and
catch some coverage of the launch. Not that I'd probably have found
any...
OM

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