Last Words....

[Kirbstone]

This morning I heard a little story about Neil Armstrong:

We all know what his first words were on stepping on to the surface of the Moon, but his last words, 'Good luck, Mr. Gorsky!' spoken just before he left to board the ascent module were the subject of speculation for years, and when asked about them at interview he never answered, just smiled.
When he was a boy he had neighbours called Gorsky, and one day as he retrieved his football from under their window he overheard a conversation snippet from within: Wife: 'Sex!...you'll get it when that little boy walks on the Moon!!'
He waited until as late as 1995, when the Gorskys were dead and gone, before expounding.

Tom K.

[crfriend]

Thank you, Kirbstone, for posting that. It made my evening and gave me a good laugh that I sorely needed.

The amazing thing, though, is that the entire episode transpired within the span of one human life. We went from something patently absurd -- men walking on the moon -- to actually making it happen. When I think about what my grandparents witnessed over the courses of their long lives my mind boggles; when grandma and grandpa were children, indoor plumbing and running water -- nevermind hot and cold -- were only spordically available. The first heavier than air flight happened about the time that grandpa was born, and aviation was still in its infancy when grandma hade her appearance -- and it was still a toddler when they were young adults and got together. Yet they, like I, and my father (their child), watched the triumph of the Moon landing. What a stunning evolution, and a very heartwarming three-generation moment.

Those of us who were alive during those heady years of the 1960s recall the "Space Race" mainly because of all the hype heaped upon it; what was never properly presented to the world was the immense and incredible amount of hard engineering work that went into making the thing possible at all -- and that it was done in an era where unlimited computing horsepower was not available. A lot of the theoretical and verification calculations went on with slide-rules (think three significant digits, if you're lucky) and on the backs of napkins; the original notion of LOR (Lunar Orbit Rendezvous) was first postulated in the nineteen-teens and then quickly shelved as "impossible".

Yet it happened. I hope that Mr. Gorsky got lucky that night, although I rather doubt it.

Apollo flew with computers; yet they also flew with telescopes and sextants -- old school if there ever was such a thing. Celestial navigation in the heavens; it's somehow "right". And best, Apollo flew with humans -- and all the delights that can bring.

[Kirbstone]

No doubt the two World Wars of the 'early' 20th Century and the subsequent cold war galvanised science into bringing about the amazing aviation and computing advances of the period, which continue, of course.
The name escapes me, but the boy who assisted the Wright Bros in their bicycle shop and witnessed all the preparations, experiments and eventual flight of the 'Kitty Hawk' was alive and well and shook Neil Armstrong's hand when he returned from the Moon.

My forebears' generations were wide, e.g. my father was 41 years older than me. In 1903 the first motor race was held in Ireland, because at that time there was a 5MPH limit in the UK, cars being required to have a man walking in front with a flag! This was the famous Gordon Bennet Race, and my father remembered standing on a hillside holding hands with his Dad and looking at the long dust clouds generated by each competing car as they drove by in the valley beneath, as it was dry Summertime and the roads weren't tarmac'd, of course. Even then some cars could top 60MPH.
The annual London to Brighton Run is held in celebration of the lifting of that rediculous ban in 1905, and all real participating cars must date from prior to that. The famous film 'Genevieve', with Kay Kendall & Kenneth More was based on that event.

Tom.