Today we took a journey in the WABAC machine. We went back fifty years to 20 February 1962. It was a time of great adventure and promise. A time of "Friendship 7" and a man named John Glenn. Dad is only four years old and living in northern Ohio. He is sitting watching the black and white TV. At 9:47:39 a.m. EST the Atlas Rocket roared into outer space. The nation held its breath as an astronaut named John Glenn circles the earth three times. As the capsule reenters the atmosphere there is a problem. Walter Cronkite talks to the nation as events unfold. After 4 hours, 55 minutes and 30 seconds the capsule lands in the Atlantic Ocean just north of the Dominican Republic. John Glenn has become the first American to circle the Earth.
The risks were real. The pride of being an American was there as well. It was a time of great challenges. It was a time when heroes were not athletes, they were men that were called astronauts, men that wore cumbersome shiny suits.
As we journey back to our own time, we can see a look in Dad's eyes. A reminder of a time when we tried to do things together. A simpler time of three TV stations and shiny heroes. A time we strove to do great things together.
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| Sherman's Cone Reminds Dad of Astronauts |
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| Houston can you hear me |
Essex & Sherman
3 comments:
I remember those first space flights very well--the Russians with their Sputniks, the dogs, then Yuri Gagarian (sp?), and then the Americans with first monkeys and then the manned flights. I even kept a scrapbook with newspaper clippings about them all!
I can almost remember that. I remember (I think) watching them pick him up out of the ocean. I also liked when there were only 3 TV stations. Though I guess we could pretend there are only 3 now. And Sherman..you DO look a bit like you're lost in space!
Gee, Sherman, your cone does look high-tech! I had a cone, too, but I couldn't see through it. Guess what I did? I wriggled around so that I could get my teeth onto an edge and I chewed mine to bits! I guess at least I chewed the cone and not myself, so mum said it had done its job one way or another!
licks, gooberz & slobberz
Islay
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