Saying goodbye
London, ON, March 2011
About this photo: We're closing out our March Madness theme. Our new Thematic theme launches tomorrow (Friday) at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. It's not too late to share a little madness of your own. Just go here.Those two lines in the sky are the International Space Station (brighter) and the Space Shuttle Discovery. I grabbed this 13-second exposure a little while after the orbiter undocked for the last time. Two days later, her STS-133 mission complete, she swooped back to earth, and into retirement.
The munchkins ca
me outside with me to say goodbye. They knew there was no way for the astronauts aboard either ship to see them, but that didn't stop them from waving skyward for almost the entire time they were visible. They were just dots, really, but I didn't want the experience to pass without the kids having had the opportunity to witness it directly.It was a clear, cold night, and I'm thinking the last place I should have been shepherding my kids was a cold sidewalk to watch something that, visually, at least, pales in comparison even the simplest game on the family Wii. But this was real, and it was history, and it happened right over our house.
Two more flights to go. I suspect our kids will be out there for those, too. Wherever you are, I hope you'll join them.
Your turn: Do you remember a slice of history from your own childhood?
A slice of history? yes i do remember. In England The Flying Scotsman ( steam train ) had a last journey up the main line and our family went out to a remote level crossing and watched it whistling passed. I would have been young at the time but do remember great importance attached to the occasion...and seeing grown men cry.
ReplyDeleteI remember standing in line in 3rd grade..There was an announcement over the P.A. system.. We couldn't understand it due to static and wind.. Our teacher told us that JFK had been killed...I just remembered being a bit confused, later on we were told to write how we felt...I don't remember what I wrote but u can imagine what a 3rd grader could write. Mind u, 3rd graders back then are not as articulate as the ones today.
ReplyDeleteI remember sitting on a hillside watching the aerial acrobatics performed by Vulcan planes for the opening of Wellington International Airport - does that count as history? I was about 8 or 9 I think.
ReplyDeleteI also remember watching the interisland ferry Wahine sink, with the loss of 50 lives, from our living room window overlooking Wellington harbour - I think I was 17 at the time.
I seem to have a habit of being present for some of New Zealand's big disasters - at least on the fringes.
The Voice of Peace (1540 on your am dial) was a pirate radio station operated by Abie Nathan from Somewhere in the Mediterranean. When Egypt and Israel made peace, and he couldn't afford the upkeep anymore, it was brought into shore and eventually scuttled. I remember seeing it just off the Tel Aviv beach. Tragically, Abie was premature.
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