Funny how things weave in and out of other stories. In 1986 I was working for Bussman, the once very well known company for making all sorts of fuses. The department I was working in assembled many of the small fuses that were used in the space program. By that time, I had worked on all aspects of assembling those little suckers so it was on that fateful day in ‘86 that I was working on the kick press that capped them. We could listen to radios and as soon as the new broke, there were a lot of us in surprise, shock and tears. We had been thrilled that Krista and Judy had been included. Up until then space flight had definitely been a man’s world. Of course when we got home and watched the explosion on the news, it made things so much more heartrending.
In the aftermath, NASA put out a call for anyone finding parts of the Challenger to please let NASA know. My cousin was living at Atlantic Beach and his habit was to walk the beach every morning early. He found a good sized piece of the shuttle a few weeks after the explosion.
In December that same year, Asheville had a big Light Up the Holidays celebration around the first of December in order to open up the Christmas season. John Denver was the big name who would be coming to town for it. As he was my favorite singer then I desperately wanted to go so we got tickets and had a great time at the concert. At the very end of his concert, a huge screen dropped down behind him and he started this:
Needless to say, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house when it was over. As a matter of fact, I’m crying now just listening to the video. Ironic that Denver would lose his life flying his ultra lite plane over the Pacific.
Bill, in reading this, it is a reminder of just how vital a part women played in getting the space race off the ground but it took a movie like HIDDEN FIGURES to show us just how big a part. Women have always been doing great things to make our lives better or to advance our knowledge of this world but with very little recognition. How desperately sad it is that today’s powers that be would see us pushed back into the shadows, unheralded for anything other than being a baby machine.
Will read the other articles this weekend. Going to finish my email and settle in to read my book. I hope you and everyone else here have a good weekend.
Funny how things weave in and out of other stories. In 1986 I was working for Bussman, the once very well known company for making all sorts of fuses. The department I was working in assembled many of the small fuses that were used in the space program. By that time, I had worked on all aspects of assembling those little suckers so it was on that fateful day in ‘86 that I was working on the kick press that capped them. We could listen to radios and as soon as the new broke, there were a lot of us in surprise, shock and tears. We had been thrilled that Krista and Judy had been included. Up until then space flight had definitely been a man’s world. Of course when we got home and watched the explosion on the news, it made things so much more heartrending.
In the aftermath, NASA put out a call for anyone finding parts of the Challenger to please let NASA know. My cousin was living at Atlantic Beach and his habit was to walk the beach every morning early. He found a good sized piece of the shuttle a few weeks after the explosion.
In December that same year, Asheville had a big Light Up the Holidays celebration around the first of December in order to open up the Christmas season. John Denver was the big name who would be coming to town for it. As he was my favorite singer then I desperately wanted to go so we got tickets and had a great time at the concert. At the very end of his concert, a huge screen dropped down behind him and he started this:
https://youtu.be/12pO9h3TRPQ?si=89oH7-kLt5Aiy1qo
Needless to say, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house when it was over. As a matter of fact, I’m crying now just listening to the video. Ironic that Denver would lose his life flying his ultra lite plane over the Pacific.
Bill, in reading this, it is a reminder of just how vital a part women played in getting the space race off the ground but it took a movie like HIDDEN FIGURES to show us just how big a part. Women have always been doing great things to make our lives better or to advance our knowledge of this world but with very little recognition. How desperately sad it is that today’s powers that be would see us pushed back into the shadows, unheralded for anything other than being a baby machine.
Will read the other articles this weekend. Going to finish my email and settle in to read my book. I hope you and everyone else here have a good weekend.
Thanks! I’d never seen that nor heard the song. We could use some more John Denver.
Our daughter told us that her car didn’t have that little arrow. Of course she hadn’t actually looked before she said that. Kids. Sheesh.
Car renter’s favorite thing!