Fly Me To The Moon July 30, 2011

July 20, 1969 was a great day in the history of science. Lynnie Gobel's living room on Freeman Street was filled with people watching Walter Cronkite on CBS giving the second by second account of Neil Armstrong and the other Apollo astronauts landing on the surface of the Moon. "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" were words that stayed with our memories of that scientifically historic event. Actually I was more interested in Mrs. Gobel's 17 year old grand daughter from Birmingham who's raven hair and brown eyes kept me from being focused on Walter Cronkite. Ironically the girl married some wealthy space engineer from St. Louis and they own Anheuser Busch, the Gateway Arch, and the St. Louis Rams. The first American in space was Alan Sheppard and I can remember that cold rainy Saturday and hearing it on the radio. The third man into space and orbited the Earth three times was John Glenn. He had some frightening moments during his mission. John Glenn served in the United States Senate representing Ohio. He truly has to be in the top ten great Americans. Can any of you remember when anytime a NASA space shot happened, we gathered in the television room of Tallapoosa Elementary School and watched it? Mrs. Cobb taught science and prodded our interest in the space program. The space program gave us microwave ovens, digital watches, and home computers. Many of us probably had a desire to go into outer space and perhaps go to the Mars. The day after the historic day 42 years ago, NASA landed the Space Shuttle for the final run. The day after that, thousands of NASA employees were handed pink slips. It is all over. Does this mean that space exploration is done? Not likely because there are individuals like Richard Branson, the head of Virgin Airways who want to open up going into space for people willing to buy a ticket. If you have a half million burning your pocket you can go when Virgin Airways makes it happen in the future. I was sad when the Concorde stopped flying across the Atlantic. Nashville entertainment reporter Jimmy Carter flew from Paris to New York a few times on the fastest passenger plane ever. He said it was a thrill that has no comparison. Chris Craft was the voice of mission control for all those years is in his late 80's and is disappointed that the NASA program is over. Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and the Space Shuttles will all be in our memories of what science can do for mankind. We lost astronauts like Virgil "Gus" Grissom and we can never forget the brave souls on the Challenger and the Columbia. We will never forget the courage. I am wondering what is going to happen to all those buildings on Florida's Space Coast? What economic ramifications will be experienced by the thousands of unemployed Floridians? Dear readers, please keep them in your prayers. The heat and the rain has kept me busy going back and forth to Bridges Shell getting gasoline to cut the lawn about every week. Is there a city ordinance about owning sheep and goats in the city limits of Tallapoosa? Somebody help me figure out how to get my kudzu problem under control. It seems that it is about to take over the back yard that seems to be a magnet for litterbugs. I've picked up enough beer and soda pop cans to make a Boeing 797. The other day a folded up dirty diaper made perhaps the ultimate gross out trash I've had to pick up. Question for you dear readers. What has happened to the red and blue mail drop boxes that we had once upon a time? The Piggly Wiggly has the only pay phone in town that I know of. Can you remember when we had them everywhere. A favorite among my classmates was the one in front of Howard Bowman's store. Has our digital age made a telephone go the way of the horse and buggy? Hollywood lost a great character actor this past week. G. D. Spradlin was best remembered as Senator Geary in Godfather II and numerous television appearances on Dragnet. The 90 year old actor was a lawyer and a wealthy oil man who grew up in Oklahoma. He ran John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign in Oklahoma in 1960 and ran unsucessfully for mayor of Oklahoma City in 1965. I always liked his acting because he sounded like he was from here.

Rhubarb Jones is a Tallapoosa native and a Distinguished Lecturer in the Department of Communication and Director of Special Projects in the Office of Development at Kennesaw State University. Comments and suggestions are welcome at P. O. Box 1001, Tallapoosa, GA 30176 or via e-mail at rhubarbjones@aol.com or professorrhubarb@gmail.com Previous columns are available at www.tallapoosa-journal.com and commentaries can be heard weekdays at 11:05 a.m. on WKNG, 1060.