For those who know me, you know exactly where I was (along with my sister, Kathy) this week 50 years ago. We were sitting in our den, glued to our color (yes, we were those neighbors-first to have a color television set in the 60’s) TV set watching the Apollo 11 moon landing, walk and all things space. As Mom was an original NASA employee (meaning she was there from the Army days in the 50’s) and we did live in Huntsville, Alabama —-home to Marshall Space Flight Center, Werner VonBraun and the team of German scientists—-space exploration was part of our DNA...where by nature or nurture. That and there were only 3 networks, bunny ear antennas, no cable, no VCR, DVD, Netflix, Amazon, HBO or the 1200 other choices of entertainment. If it was happening, it was all you could get on the TV...no matter how boring it may have been. Commercials were better, there was no Flo, Gecko, emu (seriously the dumbest, yet) or drug commercials—-it was the Marlboro man, toothpaste, sugary cereal, and the Alka seltzer man...kinder simpler times, for sure. Mid summer in July, the 20 or so kids from our neighborhood would gather after dinner for a game of hide and go seek, red rover, kickball, catch fire flies or just lay in our front yard (as it had a slight hill in the front) and watch the sky hoping to be able to make a wish on a falling star. So, man on the moon, was a big thing.
Fast forward 50 years, we still live in a Space City—-Houston. Home to the astronaut program, Mission Control and all the space contractors that go along with manned space flight...not Elon Musk’s Space X...but the man on the moon still reminds me of my childhood and the excitement/wonder I felt then. Unfortunately, space travel has become ordinary since the 60’s, as the number of things to grab our attention increased, the coverage decreased...along with government money. In fact unless there is an explosion on the pad, the launches of both payloads and people barely even register in the News Feeds. My, my how we have changed.
The news story last night about the #FaceApp challenge was longer than the Apollo piece. Hmmm, we are more interested in what our face will look like at 50 (because that is old if you are a millennium snowflake) than how much our world has changed because of space travel...or what an engineering feat it was. BTW I tried it...not much difference...no more wrinkles than I currently have (that would be the part about fat not cracking), same hair issues, jowls a little droopier..that would be a Newton’s and gravity thing. I did note with some interested the news musing of the fact that it could be used in a not yet determined way by the Russian company that developed the app. I read a lot of international mysteries...cannot even come up with a good plot line here...other than Russian Cornering the market on Botox or making medi spas of mafia/cartel kind of thing.
Which brings me to where are we...if I am writing, we are traveling. We are in the Western mountains of North Carolina—-the BlueRidge Mountains in a town called Blowing Rock. 50 years ago this was probably not a tourist destination, but a moonshiner’s Heaven. The folks who lived around these parts thought that the moon walk was fake and done in a movie studio. Ed’s grandmother certainly thought that was the case. We traveled here last year in August to escape the heat of Houston for a couple of weeks, this time we are here for 50 days...in a Rustic mountain logged cabin....hold on to rustic, as it will be a topic In Upcoming days.So, not every day...despite there are potentially 50 Eddie stories...I will keep you informed about life in the slow lane here in N.C. It is currently 76 degrees outside...with a low of 63 at night. Next week the high will be 72/lows in the lower 50’s. Yeah, life in the slow lane, driving with top down, windows open, sitting on the porch swing until after dark—-life is good.
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