US in Space; A Personal History

Howdy Folks!

Come along with me on a little nostalgia trip. OK?

This is my childhood.

I well remember the warmth,

the hum,

the orange glow.

These vacuum tubes made our sophisticated technology work:

Radio, Television, even a Computer or two!


There were still plenty of black & white movies, 
and propeller airplanes,
but there was TECHNICOLOR now,
 and Jet Aircraft!

The First Computer in the World!

This is the ENIAC computer right in my hometown,
 at the University of Pennsylvania in West Philadelphia.

(My Mom is a West Philadelphia High School graduate!)
Twenty thousand vacuum tubes. . . CUTTING EDGE!

My Grandparents had a Television like this one.

Do You Recognize This?

 Then you are most

 likely over 50.

The local TV station(s) 

(there was one, maybe 3,

 if you lived in a major

metropolitan area)

did something

 called 'sign off.'

They played the national anthem, 

then broadcast a Test Pattern

(like the one here)

 ALL NIGHT.

 Or they just turned the station

OFF leaving a hum and static.

 Remember Static?

Some folks called it 'snow.'

 It was relaxing like watching falling snow.

Ours was modern.

I just thought it was TV,

but now they say it was a Golden Age.

We were the Greatest Country in the World!

  Men like my Dad, and my classmates' Dads,

and the milkman 

 and the cop on the beat,

 had Made The World Safe For Democracy.

 The future looked GREAT!




Then some scary things happened:

Laika, Soviet Space Dog

Mutt-nik  &  Sputnik




Then the first human in space,

Yuri Gagarin.

The Communist Soviets Had the High Ground! 

 We MUST DO SOMETHING!

 Telstar 1 
was launched on top of a Thor-Delta rocket
 on July 10, 1962.


 It successfully relayed through space the first television pictures, telephone calls, fax images and provided the first live transatlantic television feed.

I was watching that first  live transatlantic broadcast.

TELSTAR

But it wasn't enough.

  So John Glenn was the first American
 to orbit Earth 

 aboard his Mercury Capsule, 

Friendship7

in 1962.

It was VERY special 
having a television wheeled into the classroom.

We all watched at school!

Gosh I remember that shape! 

I had the pencil sharpener!

Those recoveries by aircraft carrier-based helicopters 

out of the sea near our New 50th State,

Hawaii,

  were almost as exciting!

Then "we" walked on the moon in 1969!

"For All Humankind"

And in 1981, 

we saw this sight for the first time:

The World Was Amazed

 at the Glide-to-Landing.

The Future Had Arrived!

You could drive your family

 around in your OWN Space Shuttle!

But it was not all good.

Ellison Shoji Onizuka,
Kona, Hawaii
" Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

Ilan Ramon

                                               And danced the skies 

                   on laughter-silvered wings;

Christa McAuliffe

Sunward I've climbed,
 and joined the tumbling mirth

Columbia Crew 2003

" Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Challenger Crew 1986

                       Put out my hand, and touched   

the face of God. "

      

— John Gillespie Magee, Jr

But we and our allies

including the Russians,

Canadians,

and others,

got it done:

International Space Station

"We have slipped the surly bonds of Earth."

The last Shuttle mission has been flown.

It is an empty feeling

befitting a nervous time

of immense change.

I hope we are not done

doing big things

together.

           What do YOU think?  cloudia

Aloha Initiative

A  L  O  H  A  !

" We have more possibilities available

 in each moment than we realize. "

Thich Nhat Hanh 

" Take Me To Your Leader. "

" After one look at this planet 

any visitor from outer space would say

 'I want to see the manager.'  "

William S. Burroughs 

Two Faces of Dali

" Each morning when I awake, 

I experience again

 a supreme pleasure - 

that of being Salvador Dali. "

Salvador Dali 

" I don't do drugs.

 I am drugs. "

Salvador Dali 

" Throw your dreams into space like a kite, 

and you do not know what it will bring back, 

a new life, a new friend, 

a new love, 

a new country. "

Anais Nin

Hello Kitty Goes Native

" It is in the nature of cats 

to do a certain amount 

of unescorted roaming. "

Adlai Stevenson

 > < } } ( ° >

 The Aloha Initiative is  a local, non-profit organization that has invited some of the Japanese people most affected by the March natural disasters

to come to Hawaii. 

It's been a tough four months for them

 since the tsunami, earthquake, and nuclear emergency.

 "I'm still very scared, but I have to be strong,"

 says a Fukushima student named Tadano.

Tadano and about 30 other grade school and high school students are staying with host families on Maui - to rest, relax, and recuperate. 

  "100 percent of the students were affected in one way or the other, by the tsunami. Some of them have lost friends or family, also in the earthquake or the nuclear power accident." Said group leader Yumiko Nishimoto

Two weeks ago, the first wave of Japanese - mostly families – arrived through the Initiative and are staying with families on Oahu and Maui for up to three months. Only a very few of them had ever met their host families before arriving here in the islands.

That is the meaning of ALOHA!

Do Leave a Comment'

            Warmly, cloudia

Chinatown Lunch

A L O H A !

Let's wander through my beloved Honolulu Chinatown!

" We need to haunt

the house of history

and listen anew

to the ancestors' 

wisdom. "

Maya Angelou

"  On the roof it's peaceful as can be
And there the world below can't bother me. "

UP ON THE ROOF

                                  by Gerry Goffin &
                                                             Carole King

How about some Chinese / Malaysian /  Singaporean?

"One who waits

 for roast duck to fly into mouth

must wait a very long time."

Chinese Proverb

1. Shrimp Won Ton Char Siu Noodle $4 / All Noodle In Soup




"One cannot refuse to eat

just because
 there is a chance of choking."

Chinese Proverb

Looks Even Better in Person!

"Some prefer carrot
while others like cabbage."

Chinese Proverb

What a Good Girl Am I!

" A Smile will gain you
ten more years
of life. "

Chinese Proverb

Ah! The Day Looks Brighter Now :)




" The greatest wealth 
is to live content with little,
 for there is never want 
where the mind is satisfied. "


Lucretius








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Thanks For Visiting!  Comment please, cloudia

Why Can't We Be Friends?

A L O H A !

" Each step we take 

creates a cool breeze,

 refreshing our body and mind. 

Every step 

makes a flower bloom

 under our feet. " 

- Thich Nhat Hahn

“ There are only two ways to live your life.

 One is as though nothing is a miracle.

 The other

 is as though everything

 is a miracle. ”

Albert Einstein

" To what shall I liken the world?
Moonlight, reflected in dewdrops.
Shaken from a crane's bill. "


Dogen

 

<>

 

 

  " A mountain is composed

 of tiny grains of earth.

 The ocean is made up

 of tiny drops of water. "

Sivananda 

                                            > < } } ( ° >

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      Thank YOU for visiting! cloudia

Have you seen

the dolphin and cat?

Doubt Unmasked

A   L   O   H   A !

" Life

is the art

of drawing without

an eraser. "

John W. Gardner

Even the crab likes some shade!

" I am learning all the time.

The tombstone

will be my diploma. "

Eartha Kitt

Beyond the Shadow of a Leaf...

" If a man speaks or acts

 with a pure thought,

 happiness follows him,

 like a shadow that never leaves ".

Buddha 

Oh to Be in a Green Place!

"We read the world wrong

and say that it deceives us. "

Rabindrath Tagore 

   > < } } ( ° >

If you are in doubt

Realize that it means

that you are under stress.

Stress is a bad way

to discover wisdom.

So breathe,

pause, de-stress.

Then you will be able

to proceed

All on a Summer's day.

     Warmly, cloudia