Greetings - from the new old guy

[Jim66]

Yup, I'm older than dirt, sort of. I got into SF in the 7th grade. As a reading project, I picked up a book that changed my life. I was absolutely captivated with the story, getting one hour every couple of days to read the book, and I had to fight others for it. Well, as life is, I moved from the West coast to the East coast. The problem was, I could not remember the title of the book when I got back into school as an eight grader. A further complication was, I was restricted to the 'childrens' section - in the basement. Crayons were not my style. But when I got to high school, I could go into the adults section, up on the street level. My first act as a freshman in high school, and eligible to take out books in the adult section, was to find my 'book'. I had no title, didn't know the author's name, just that it was 'Science FIction'. The librarian was not much help but directed me to the SF section where I started to brouse. Eventually I found it. The searching process did get me to read a lot of SF books. As a result, I got into more real science, from the component end thru the design phases and ultimately to the engineering portion of - space. I have worked on tracking stations, computers, commercial and military satellites and made a small contribution to a satellite launched by the space shuttle.
Oh, the book - Red Planet, by Robert Heinlein. I started to read it in 1952. I have two copies - one for me, and one to give to a 7th grader.
My only regret in life is that I will not be able to walk on the Moon.
Jim

[admin]

Don't give up on walking on the moon just yet. I read recently that a commercial company is planning suborbital flights from the US to Austrailia, traveling time just over two hours, tickets $40,000 each.

Heinlein predicted it more than fifty years ago.

There may be commercial flights to the moon in our lifetime. The only question is, will the pilot be American or Chinese? It's a question Heinlein would have appreciated.

America is the richest, most powerful country in the world. But all too many Americans seem to say that it is too much trouble to be richest and most powerful. Lazy and stupid is more fun.