I'm an astronaut. My white nylon sports jacket is my space suit. My mother finds me some pajamas with scenes of astronauts and lunar modules on them. I climb the stairs to the top of the rocket slide at the park.
"Ten seconds to liftoff. Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. We have liftoff."
To what planet shall I travel? Saturn is my favorite planet because of the rings.
My (Mercury)
Very (Venus)
Elegant (Earth)
Mother (Mars)
Just (Jupiter)
Served (Saturn)
Us (Uranus)
Nine (Neptune)
Pizzas (Pluto)
Planets, moons, stars, asteroids, comets, meteorites, satellites, and rockets are all interesting.
On Saturday mornings, I sometimes watch a funny show called Far Out Space Nuts. Two NASA maintenance men are loading a rocket with food when one of them accidently presses the "launch" button instead of the "lunch" button.
And in The Reluctant Astronaut, Don Knotts portrays a NASA janitorial worker who is also launched into space in a rocket.
In my younger days, I also watched a television series entitled Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. The show focuses on Buck Rogers, a NASA pilot who is accidently frozen for 504 years before being discovered and revived.
I also watched an animated series on Saturday mornings entitled The New Adventures of Flash Gordon. The story begins with Flash, Dale Arden, and Dr. Zarkov being launched from earth in a rocket ship.
Of course I saw episodes of The Jetsons, a show focusing George Jetson and his family living in Orbit City.
The Lost Saucer was a Saturday morning television show about two friendly time-travelling androids.
My sister and I each received a Kozmic Kiddle for Christmas one year. Mine was called Yellow Fello and hers was named Purple Gurple. They each had their own spaceship.
We have a book in the school library about Robert H. Goddard, a pioneer of rocket research. Rockets are cool. Space shuttles aren't even remotely as interesting. Shuttles are cool because they're reusable thanks to their ability to land like an airplane. And the James Bond movie Moonraker with a plot involving a stolen shuttle is cool. But no shuttle compares to the mighty Saturn V rocket that took the three men of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. Later in life my aunt and uncle living in Houston, Texas would take me to see NASA.
I received the book Tom Swift and His Rocket Ship in my younger days. Tom Swift. "Swift by name, swift by nature." I had trouble reading it for some reason although I liked the subject, of course.
According to my research, though the book was written in 1954 much of the science is accurate.
Summary: Extracted from the dustjacket of the book:
The third volume of the new TOM SWIFT JR. series takes the brilliant young inventor into outer space in a rocket ship of his own design.
On Fearing Island just off the Atlantic Coast, Tom's space craft project attracts the attention of the spies and agents of a foreign scientist whose plan is to rule the world and space.
Tom Swift's advantage over his competitors is that he has perfected a rocket fuel which can carry his ship into and out of orbital flight. But it takes all of Tom and Bug's ingenuity to outwit the ruthless efforts of the foreign scientist and his desperate gang of henchmen.
The flight through space makes thrilling reading--the more exciting because you know the details of the flight are scientifically accurate.
Readers of TOM SWIFT JR. AND HIS FLYING LAB, the first book of this new series, will recall the message that came in the shape of a meteor-like object falling into the Swift plane enclosure. In this story another message from the same mysterious source proves very valuable to Tom as he is flying through space.
Watch for the next TOM SWIFT JR. adventure which will be out soon!
"Space, the final frontier."
I watched Star Trek reruns in my younger days. The USS Enterprise is a cool ship. The transporter scenes were cool but kind of scary. I didn't want my body converted into an energy pattern. I didn't want to be dematerialized. Teleportation was quite convenient though. And the Enterprise could really haul ass!
"Warp factor 10, Mr. Sulu!"
We study space travel in elementary school. The launch of Sputnik started the space race. Soviet astronauts are called cosmonauts. My classmate has a model rocket from the Kennedy Space Center. I'm jealous. My dad makes me a wooden rocket painted to have a red body, blue fins, white nose cone and the letters USA in white on the side. My rocket towers over my classmate's. "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
I'm a cowboy. I have a holster that holds a silver gun with a white grip. I have another revolver that's black and shoots white plastic bullets. I have a rifle. I have a cowboy hat. I wear a red bandana that keeps the sun off my neck while I'm driving cattle. Sometimes I'm a lawman when I pin on my silver star. I have to be careful when walking the trails in our woods because Indians never make a sound.
My mother tells me that cowboys wear chaps to protect their legs when riding through brush. I like the jingle of spurs on cowboys in the movies. We have two horses on our farm, King and Trigger. Trigger is also the name of Roy Roger's palomino horse. During my high school years, I occasionally wear a pair of turquoise blue cowboy boots. Sometimes I look at my dad's copies of Western Horseman. Robert Redford stars in a film called The Electric Horseman.
I like to frequent saloons. "Barkeep, pour me a shot of whiskey and leave the bottle. On second thought, I'll have a sarsaparilla."
I read a book by Wheeler Publishing from the school library about Wild Bill Hickok. I also read books about frontiersman like Davy Crocket and Daniel Boone. I have an action figure named Johnny West. He has guns, hats, neckerchief, chaps and cooking utensils. He also has a strong box filled with sacks of gold. Where did you get that gold, Johnny?
John Wayne is rugged. True Grit. Clint Eastwood is intimidating. High Plains Drifter. My dad knows about guys like Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, the Cisco Kid, and Lash LaRue. The Statler Brothers sing "Whatever Happened to Randloph Scott." The Cartwrights from the Ponderosa Ranch on Bonanza are in gunfights sometimes. Little Joe fans the trigger on his revolver to get off a lot of shots. Gunsmoke with Marshall Matt Dillon. Reruns of The Lone Ranger. "Hi-Yo, Silver! Away!" Waylon and Willie remind us, "Mammas, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys."
I'm a pirate. I'm a buccaneer. Ahoy, matey. My ship flies the Jolly Roger - the skull and crossbones. Don't mess with me or you'll walk the plank and end up in Davy Jones' Locker. I need a spyglass so I can spot land and ships I might want to attack and plunder while avoiding being surprised by any enemy ships. I dress as a pirate for Halloween one year in elementary school. I have a bandana covering my head and a patch covering one eye. I wear long boots. Our school mascot is a pirate. He's usually shown wearing a bicorne hat with a skull and crossbones on it. He has an eye patch, a hoop earring, and most interestingly a dagger clenched in his teeth. I guess he needs both of his hands free for swimming, climbing, and swinging on ropes.
"You look like a pirate," she says.
I suppose my shirt that day looked nautical. Although it did not have blue and white stripes like the iconic French shirt it may have been considered a Breton stripe, nonetheless. The long-sleeved Breton shirt (or marinière) in blue and white stripes was once worn by French sailors. Some say these boldly striped knitted shirts were introduced for their high visibility which helped crews spot any seamen who had fallen overboard.
In elementary school I read a book called Look Out for Pirates! The plot involves pirates, sailors, and gold. With the aid of a deep-sea diving suit and a wasp nest the sailors vanquish the pirates. I read another pirate book where the captain threatens punishment with something called a cat o' nine tails. On a Sunday evening in the spring of my fifth-grade year I watch a movie on NBC called Swashbuckler from 1976 starring Robert Shaw. The sword fighting scenes are dazzling. Pirates enjoy looking for buried treasure. Gold doubloons and silver pieces of eight. On their map, X marks the spot.
I'm a diver. I wear a suit of waterproofed canvas and heavy boots. I wear a copper helmet with a front port that opens when I'm out of the water. An air hose keeps me supplied with air.
One of my favorite books entitled Look Out for Pirates! features a couple of scenes involving a diving suit.
In fifth grade I read a book collection called The Deep-Sea Adventure Series consisting of books with titles such as:
Storm Island
The Sea Hunt
Treasure Under The Sea
Sea Gold
Submarine Rescue
Enemy Agents
Castaways
The Pearl Divers
Frogmen In Action
Danger Below
Whale Hunt
Rocket Divers
Sometimes I watch Wild Kingdom where some men occasionally embark on a mission involving the use of Scuba gear.
One Halloween evening I watched Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The Nautilus is the coolest submarine ever. And the fight against a giant squid was frightening but amazing.
A Childcraft book by World Book Encyclopedia shows how to make a cardboard submarine capable of holding one kid my size. It also shows how to make a periscope. I need a periscope to see my enemies without them seeing me.
I'm a soldier, spy, and superhero. One of my first toys is a G.I. Joe action figure. He's dressed in green fatigues and has a cap and boots. He wears a dog tag so he can be identified. Joe has a scar on his face because he's been in a few scraps. I receive another G.I. Joe a few years later dressed in camouflage. One year as a gift from my cousins I receive a Bulletman action figure the same size as Joe. In fact, he's considered part of the G.I. Joe Adventure Team. Empire Toys made various jeeps that action figures could ride in. I ended up with a white jeep with red and blue decals. The vehicle didn't exactly look like something that Joe would be seen in other than it being quite patriotic looking.
I also had a bunch of little green army men in various poses. I had a tank and an army truck. I also got a neat military set by Tootsie Toys for my birthday one year that included various vehicles and two missiles. I also had an Action Jackson figure and his Rescue Copter. Take a hike, Ken. Go play with Barbie.
James Bond is the coolest dude on the planet. "The name is Bond, James Bond." He skis off of a cliff in The Spy Who Loved Me to evade capture. When it's looking bad for James...falling...falling...falling, his parachute opens and is revealed to be decorated as the Union Jack. I'm crushed when my mother explains that it's the flag of Great Britain and that James Bond is British. In the same movie, he has a car that turns into a submarine. Thanks, Q. He looks great in a dinner jacket. He always outwits the bad guy. He always gets the lady. "I'll have a vodka martini, shaken not stirred."
We Americans are stuck with CIA operative Felix Leiter. He mostly receives cursory treatment on film. He always plays second fiddle to James. He's pretty cool in his own way. But never as cool as James. I missed out on the Mission Impossible television show. That might have made me feel better. What America has is a lot of cops and private detectives. I watched shows like Adam-12 and Starsky & Hutch. I also watched private detective Jim Rockford in The Rockford Files.
I have a 4" hard rubber Superman figure as a boy. He's not poseable. He's forever frozen in the same position. One arm is at his side while the other sticks out from his body a bit with a clenched fist. He's not poseable but I like him anyway. I watch the Super Friends cartoon on Saturday mornings. I watch reruns of the live Batman television show each afternoon featuring Batman and Robin. The Batmobile is the coolest car I have ever seen. And Batgirl on her motorcycle is rather captivating even to a young man. We need you Caped Crusaders! "To the Batpoles!"
I know of Captain America, Thor, Spiderman, and the Hulk but I'm not really a fan. But in first or second grade I have a Mead pocket folder featuring some Marvel superhero. I like the DC Universe including Wonder Woman and her invisible jet. I watch a live Saturday Morning show called Shazam! featuring Captain Marvel. I really like Captain Marvel. Not the Marvel Comics Captain Marvel. I like the original Captain Marvel. When young Billy needs to become Captain Marvel he says, "SHAZAM!"
Do some children dream of being a banker and buy play money? Do some children dreaming of being a real estate tycoon play Monopoly? Do some children destined to be in the world of business dress up in suits and pretend to make business deals? Do future architects enjoy drawing and perhaps playing with erector sets and Legos?
I grew up and never became any of the professions that interested me. Well sure being a pirate is a bit unrealistic. We may have all wanted a different life. We've all had to deal with adventures, adversaries, Kryptonite and traps in our lives. But most of us survived.
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