Recalling the startof the space race

I WAS sitting in the living room eating, as best I recall, a grilled cheese sandwich, and watching a space adventure on ‘the set’ when my mother came into the room.

She had a shocked expression and was a little pale. I asked what was wrong. “The Russians have just put a Sputnik into outer space,” she announced.

I responded, “So what?” and then catalogued the vast array of non-Russians out there, including Buck Rogers and a whole cast of space characters, friend and foe.

It was then I learned the truth. All of those space guys were not real — it was all fiction. Nobody, not the Russians, not the Germans, not the Japanese, nobody but nobody from this planet was in space. I was devastated.

Fifty years ago, the Russians launched a small ball with car-aerial spokes sticking out it, and half the world was scared as hell.

Parents had to do a lot of explaining as grim-faced television announcers reported that the communists were in orbit.

The space race was on — and we were losing. Next, it was the Cape Canaveral mishaps and explosions as the US desperately tried to catch up and put a satellite in space.

For some, the trauma launched children into more down-to-earth careers. More wanted to be doctors, nurses, firemen and cops — not space warriors, battle commanders, planet presidents, galaxy governors or civil servants on Pluto. Nobody opted to press their parents to move to Mars.

A few of us brave souls still wanted to be rocket scientists and take on the Russians.

We continued to make models that would not explode on the launch pad and now we are all retired Cold War veterans. The wonder is that we all survived to tell the tale.

Dennis McMahon

72 Murray St

Burlington

Vermont 05401

USA