The Struggle to Be Known

Everybody’s been talking today about the anniversary of man walking on the moon. I was seven years old at the time and was totally obsessed with the space program.

In connection with that historic event, the Gulf Oil Co. produced a beautiful hardback book. It was set to be available at every Gulf Oil gas station across the nation. I found out about the book by watching the coverage of the landing on our little television set. Commercials about the book were running at the time and featured the mysterious Rod Serling.

Guess what? I actually found the commercial on YouTube a few days ago. Here’s the little spot that was so impressive to me back in the day. If you have good Internet connection speed, click on the image below you can watch it!

I knew I had to get a copy of this book so I immediately began a campaign with my parents to go and find a Gulf Oil station. Rod Serling said I would learn things from this book and I was determined to find out what these things were. After several days of impressing on them the importance of finding this book, we found a station in our little city and purchased a copy for $1.

For the next few weeks this book was my constant comparing as I examined every photo over and over and although I was a slow reader at the time, I managed to read and study every word. I still have the book today! The photo below is my actual copy. Notice the carefully applied tape on the binding where the book was completely worn out my my seven-year-old hands. If you look closely enough you will see the tape was cut using my mother’s Pinking Shears.

During the Apollo years I become more and more obsessed with spaceflight. Even my playtime centered around NASA and landing on the moon. A trip to the local dump, turned up an old baby buggy which when flatted in the folded position resembled the moon rover which would make its appearance in later Apollo flights.

I brought the buggy back home and retrofitted it with all types of faux scientific equipment. I lived on the edge of a seemingly endless wilderness surrounding Bayou Bartholomew and down in my corner of those woods, I ran cables for hundreds of yards and would ride in my makeshift moon buggy (often wearing my brother’s motorcycle helmet) pulling myself along the cables. I would stop along the way to collect “moon” samples and log them in my flight journal. I sealed them safely in plastic sandwich bags to bring back to headquarters.

I must have looked like a nut! But it was great creative fun at the time. Whenever I hear kids today say, “I’m bored.” I think to myself, “Kid, go to the dump and make yourself a moon buggy!”

Also, in the Gulf Oil book was a page of NASA addresses. You guessed it. I started writing to the appropriate location and asking for moon maps and photos. I always received a response and still have several Public Relations pieces from that era that I received in the mail.

About the same time as the moon landing, I began to become an avid amateur astronomer. I received the first of many telescopes that Christmas.

And it was while studying this book (outside with my magnifying glass) that I discovered how to focus the sun’s light and start a fire. Below you can see the hole that I burned in my book the day I made that discovery. Not a safe thing for a kid, but I was definitely learning!

Maybe part of my fascination with the space program was because I was actually named after John Glenn the senator and astronaut.

But regardless, I’m sure many boys were interested in the space program during those years. It’s a shame that the same wonder and interest in exploration doesn’t seem to exist in kids these days.

It looks like I’m not going to make it to the moon this lifetime, but I had the same experience down on Bayou Bartholomew in Southeast Arkansas 50 years ago!