“Earth is a small town with many neighborhoods in a very big universe.”
The morning is hot, 84˚, already. I was on the deck for a short while but decided I preferred the cool house. The dogs came inside with me. They are lolling on the couch napping. I am watching a really bad science fiction movie. Aliens have arrived. Let’s shoot them down. Their spaceships which have traveled across the broad expense of the universe will be no match for our bombs.
I haven’t a list for today. I have an item. All the hauling, carrying and planting of the last few days has my back complaining so I’ll just water my outside plants and then call it a day.
When I was a kid, the summer seemed endless. Every day was mine to do anything I wanted. I never stayed home. Some days I was at the park. Other days I hiked to the zoo and spent the whole day. The pool was a long way from my house, but it didn’t matter. I walked there and back. My bike transported me anywhere I wanted to go, close or faraway. The furthest I ever rode was to East Boston to visit my grandparents. They were surprised when my brother and I showed up. My grandfather called my mother. I could hear her scream. We left immediately.
Since I was little, I have been a science fiction fan. I read all the science fiction books my library had to offer. All these years later, I still remember where those books were. They were on shelves behind the librarian’s desk in a tall bookcase. Most were about space travel. I don’t remember reading about aliens. They came later.
I watched every science fiction black and white movie from the 50’s I could find. That’s when the aliens appeared. Few were friendly. Most wanted Earth. I know now they had few specials effects, but it didn’t matter back then. It doesn’t even matter now. I still love those movies.
I was in Ghana for the moon landing. It was during training when we were living with our Ghanaian families. Every day we, my language group and our language instructor, met for lunch and a Hausa lesson. That day we knew to turn on the radio to listen to Voice of America’s broadcast of the moon landing. We heard it all. We heard Neil Armstrong announce his big step. Even from the radio it was exciting. We cheered.
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July 29, 2022 at 12:06 pm
Seems like you have much the same weather as we do here in PA. For the past 5 days we’ve had 90 deg. temps or higher. It’s been quite muggy also. Even too hot to do anything outside. You almost could not breath right. However, it’s better than freezing my butt off. I do not like cold weather. Lots of people stay in their air-conditioned homes. I sure do pity those who don’t have it. I haven’t rode my bike in over a month. Just too warm. Like you, when I was much younger, I rode my bicycle most everywhere all the time. Didn’t matter if it was raining or snowing. It’s all I had then.
July 29, 2022 at 4:25 pm
Hi Les,
We haven’t reached 90° but have gotten close, the high 80’s. The humidity has returned here as well. Outside is ugly. I have been staying in the cool house with the dogs. The sun comes and goes as does a wind which wasn’t around earlier.
I loved my bike. I remember the Christmas I got it. Luckily there was no snow so I could use it right away. I think snow on the ground was all that stopped me from riding my bike.
July 29, 2022 at 12:09 pm
Hi Kat,
Another triple digit day without any possibility of rain.
I also enjoyed science fiction as a kid because I was interested in aviation and space exploration was the obvious next step. All of the Mercury 7 Astronauts were military test pilots. The Apollo moon landing was the most amazing moment in the history of our time. Imagine that my 90 year old grandmother witnessed men walking on the moon and she was an adult in 1903 when the Wright Brothers first flew a controllable, powered airplane. That was only a 63 years time span. We’re just now planning a return trip to the moon 53 years later.
One of my favorite movies from the 1950s was, “The Day the Earth Stood Still”. It still holds up fairly well. All the alien movies back then were thinly veiled representation of the Cold War. Just replace space invaders with Russians. 🙂
July 29, 2022 at 5:05 pm
Here in PA, Bob, we have had much the same. Not triple digits, but darn close. I remember when those Astronauts landed on the Moon back in 69. Had gotten discharged from the US Navy in Nov. 68. Was hired right away at the Polymer Corp. Stayed there for 30 yrs. I called off work for that.
July 29, 2022 at 6:22 pm
Hi Les,
Who would have ever thought that London England would hit 104°F, that’s 40.5°C. That was a record and they’ve been keeping records since the 1600s. Any moron could figure that global warming caused by human activity is the culprit. Unless of course, you’re a moron named Donald Trump or you are the CEO of a corporation like Exon Mobile. 🙂
Landing a man on the moon in 1969 was a tremendous technological feat. This was the era when engineers designed spacecraft using slide rules. I don’t think any kid in college today even knows what is a slide rule.
July 29, 2022 at 5:07 pm
Hi Bob,
High 80’s today and no rain in sight here either. The sun has disappeared and the wind is stronger. I’m still behind closed doors with the AC blasting.
It wasn’t until two years after that I finally saw the moon landing. It was amazing to see. Because most Ghanaians did not have TV’s back then, many of them didn’t believe we actually landed on the moon. I guess it is a seeing is believing sort of thing.
In the 50’s, many of the science fiction movies were creatures like spiders and tarantulas but no less deadly than aliens.
July 29, 2022 at 6:12 pm
There are still lots of nut jobs today here in the U.S. who think the moon landing was faked by the government. Fortunately, we all have the right to believe whatever kind of story we want to believe about anything. 🙂
As I recall all the giant spiders and such were created by nuclear bomb testing in the Pacific Ocean. Wasn’t Godzilla supposedly created by hydrogen bomb tests?
July 29, 2022 at 6:40 pm
Some of the creatures were the result of a-bomb tests in New Mexico. One of my favorite movies from the 50’s was Them! The creatures were giant ants from atom-bomb tests near Alamagordo, NM. Yes, Godzilla was the result of H-bomb tests in the Pacific. That movie was made only nine years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Amazing Colossal Man was exposed to massive atomic radiation during testing. There are so many more of these movies, most of which I love, and we haven’t even looked at alien invasion from those days.