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generational markers (was "Disney's Man In Space")



 
 
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  #1  
Old May 26th 04, 02:17 PM
Mike Flugennock
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Default generational markers (was "Disney's Man In Space")



My wife claims the generational marker between "early Boomers" and "late
Boomers" is that "early Boomers" saw "The Wizard Of Oz" for the first time
in a theater instead of on TV.

So, I'm just looking at some of the old books and art from the books from
the 1957-60 period at http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/~jsisson/1957-1960.htm and
just wondering if perhaps there was a "generational marker" among those of
us who grew up in the early Space Age.

I was born in 1957 -- beat Sputnik off the pad by about 7 months -- and my
earliest memories of space enthusiasm begin at a time when it had already
been reality for a couple of years. Sputnik was ancient history to me at
the age of eight. I first "got serious" at the beginning of Gemini, and
even at that age, I'd look at some of the art and books mentioned in the
"Disney's Man In Space" thread and think of them as quaint artifacts of an
ancient era. In the lunchroom, my pals and I engaged in endless critique
of that old stuff: "Huh, that'd never fly, how come it's got all those
fins?", "Oh, man, that guy'd be dead now, his helmet doesn't even seal at
the neck!", "Gawd, what's that supposed to be, an Atlas? A Titan III?".

So now, I'm wondering what the generational markers are for those of us
who were school kids pre-Mercury, as opposed to post-Mercury -- between
the kids who could only look at books and imagine what rocket ships looked
like, and the kids who had TV's wheeled into the lunchroom so we could
watch the Gemini launches and who knew _exactly_ what a _real_ rocket ship
looked like.

--
"All over, people changing their votes,
along with their overcoats;
if Adolf Hitler flew in today,
they'd send a limousine anyway!" --the clash.
__________________________________________________ _________________
Mike Flugennock, flugennock at sinkers dot org
Mike Flugennock's Mikey'zine, dubya dubya dubya dot sinkers dot org
  #2  
Old May 26th 04, 02:40 PM
Steve at fivetrees
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"Mike Flugennock" wrote in message
...

I was born in 1957 -- beat Sputnik off the pad by about 7 months


Heh - me too - actually more like 8 months (early Feb '57). Good year,
wasn't it?

I first "got serious" at the beginning of Gemini


Again me too. By the time of Apollo, I was a total anorak. Still am.

Steve
http://www.fivetrees.com


  #3  
Old May 26th 04, 03:34 PM
Doug...
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In article ,
says...


My wife claims the generational marker between "early Boomers" and "late
Boomers" is that "early Boomers" saw "The Wizard Of Oz" for the first time
in a theater instead of on TV.

So, I'm just looking at some of the old books and art from the books from
the 1957-60 period at
http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/~jsisson/1957-1960.htm and
just wondering if perhaps there was a "generational marker" among those of
us who grew up in the early Space Age.


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 can remember the MR flights rather vaguely,
and I have better memories of the orbital flights. My first *really*
clear memory of getting highly excited over a spaceflight was for MA-9,
but the memory involves remembering, at the time, how much I loved
watching the space shots on TV. So I know I had followed them from the
beginning, even if I can't remember the earlier flights all that
clearly.

By the time Gemini began, I would do *anything* to be able to watch the
launches live. I was nine through eleven years old during the Gemini
flights, and I spent every moment during which there was any live
coverage of a Gemini flight glued to the TV.

And during Apollo (especially the early flights), I was in heaven.

So -- yes, I think that the early space program was something of a
generational marker. Not all of my friends of the day were as
interested in space as I was, but there was a general fairly high
interest level. And yes, some of our teachers would, indeed, let us
watch launches on TV at school. But I'm just not sure *how* much you
can mark out the markers, since that is really determined by the general
interest levels, and most of us had unusually high interest levels...

Doug

  #4  
Old May 26th 04, 05:35 PM
Rick DeNatale
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On Wed, 26 May 2004 14:34:11 +0000, 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.

I've got a vague recollection of Sputnik, it's hard to separate real
recollection from things like the "you are there" kind of records we used
to listen to back then.

I definitely remember seeing Echo I pass overhead, as well as the Mercury
launches, and yes they wheeled the TVs into class to watch those.

I can't remember personally seeing coverage of the Mercury 7 selection
press conference, but I vividly remember discussions of the event among my
fellow scouts. And I remember participating in building a mock-up Mercury
capsule for the annual "Skills of Scouting" show at the local armory. The
mock-up was complete with an "astronaut" made of silver painted overalls
stuffed with newspaper and topped with a football helmet.

  #5  
Old May 26th 04, 07:54 PM
Pat Flannery
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Mike Flugennock wrote:


So now, I'm wondering what the generational markers are for those of us
who were school kids pre-Mercury, as opposed to post-Mercury -- between
the kids who could only look at books and imagine what rocket ships looked
like, and the kids who had TV's wheeled into the lunchroom so we could
watch the Gemini launches and who knew _exactly_ what a _real_ rocket ship
looked like.


In my case (born same year you were) the markers would be:
1.) Did you demand to your parents that the barber give you a crewcut,
because that's what the astronauts had?
2.) Did you habitually use the term "AOK" when talking?
3.) Was your school pencil sharpener a plastic Mercury capsule?
4.) Did you develop a real fascination with tubes of toothpaste, because
there were tubes just like that that contained _food_ rather than
toothpaste?
5.) Did you ever own a plastic Col. McCauley helmet with a "microphone"
that had a sheet of plastic in it that gave your voice a buzzing sound?
6.) Were rubber buckle-up snowshoes a really cool thing, because they
looked like part of a pressure suit?
7.) Did you ever think that Sister Linda, your fifth-grade
teacher....might be a lot of fun in the sack?
8.) Did you ever suspect that the Mother Superior of your school might
be thinking the same thing? :-)

Pat

  #6  
Old May 26th 04, 08:26 PM
Pat Flannery
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Rick DeNatale wrote:

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




All the late 1950's-early 1960's newsgroup crew starts doing math on the
back of an envelope; all the late 1960's-early 1970's crew starts doing
math on a electronic calculator; all the late 1970's-early 1980's crew
asks "Pearl what?" Mary Shafer starts figuring out how old that is in
dog years on an abacus; Stuff 4 starts haranguing us about Pearl Harbor;
Bob Haller will still not answer Scott Hedrick's question. :-)

Pat

  #7  
Old May 26th 04, 09:13 PM
John Beaderstadt
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While reading in the bathroom on Wed, 26 May 2004 14:26:25 -0500, I
saw that Pat Flannery had written:

All the late 1950's-early 1960's newsgroup crew...


What about us late '40s - early '50s folk?

I remember the *initial* broadcasts of Disney's Man in Space. Sputnik
and Echo 1 are clear memories. I remember the Cold War, "Duck and
Cover," Jodrell Bank pirating the Soviet lunar photos, and all the
rest.

And, watching Man in Space, I used to own *all* those models!


--------------
Beady's Corollary to Occam's Razor: "The likeliest explanation of any phenomenon is almost always the most boring one imaginable."


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  #8  
Old May 26th 04, 09:44 PM
William C. Keel
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Steve at fivetrees wrote:
"Mike Flugennock" wrote in message
...

I was born in 1957 -- beat Sputnik off the pad by about 7 months


Heh - me too - actually more like 8 months (early Feb '57). Good year,
wasn't it?


Sure was. I as pre-Sputnik by about two weeks. One early memory was
seeing an Echo (must have been 2) go overhead with some older family.
First special classroom use of live TV I can remember was Ranger 9.
First memory of any external news event was John Glenn's launch -
which made it just cool to be working with an experiment in the
back of STS-95. Would have been even cooler if our target selection
hadn't been constrained by that frozen azimuth bearing...

Bill Keel
  #9  
Old May 26th 04, 10:38 PM
Sam Seiber
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Steve at fivetrees wrote:

"Mike Flugennock" wrote in message
...

I was born in 1957 -- beat Sputnik off the pad by about 7 months


Heh - me too - actually more like 8 months (early Feb '57). Good year,
wasn't it?


I wanna be in the club. December '56.

Sam
  #10  
Old May 26th 04, 10:39 PM
Mike Flugennock
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In article , Rick DeNatale
wrote:

On Wed, 26 May 2004 14:34:11 +0000, 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 can't remember personally seeing coverage of the Mercury 7 selection
press conference, but I vividly remember discussions of the event among my
fellow scouts...


I just barely remember Shepard, Grissom, and Glenn; I really started
paying much closer attention to the first Gemini shot, in about the third
grade, at an age where it was a little easier to get my head around what
was happening.

...And I remember participating in building a mock-up Mercury
capsule for the annual "Skills of Scouting" show at the local armory. The
mock-up was complete with an "astronaut" made of silver painted overalls
stuffed with newspaper and topped with a football helmet...


I was an astronaut in the Cub Scout pageant in DC in 1965, me and six
other kids in my pack at Fort Myer. I made my helmet by coating a balloon
with papier mache and spray-painting it silver. Came out awesome.

--
"All over, people changing their votes,
along with their overcoats;
if Adolf Hitler flew in today,
they'd send a limousine anyway!" --the clash.
__________________________________________________ _________________
Mike Flugennock, flugennock at sinkers dot org
Mike Flugennock's Mikey'zine, dubya dubya dubya dot sinkers dot org
 




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