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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
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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 |
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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. |
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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
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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
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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." -----= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =----- http://www.newsfeeds.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! -----== Over 100,000 Newsgroups - 19 Different Servers! =----- |
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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
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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
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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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