Village Squire, 1974-01, Page 17Keith's Kolumn
The forgotten
astronauts
- Ho -Hum
can just see the scene now:
A general sits at his big walnut desk in
Houston reading the morning paper. A
lieutenant, his aid, rushes in breathless.
"General, there's been trouble."
"Trouble? What, did Army get beat by
Navy again?"
"No Sir. It's the astronauts. They're in
trouble."
"What, the Russians, I didn't even know
they had any up."
"No sir, they're ours."
"Ours, I didn't know we had any up.
When did we put them up?"
"I think it was back about Thanksgiving
sometime, but I'm not sure sir. If you look
on page 43 of the paper I think there's
something on them."
"Well, what kind of trouble are they
in?"
"Frankly sir, I think they feel we've
forgotten them."
"Forgotten! Forgotten! What foolish-
ness...Aw, who do we have up there
anyway?"
"Well there's Michaels, and Turner and
Johnston, sir."
"Johnston... Johnston...that name rings
a bell. Do I know him?"
"You should sir, he's your son-in-law."
"Aw that's right, good old J im...or is it
Tom? Darned, he's been gone so long I
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forget. Never did think the boy was up to
much anyway. Anybody who would sign up
to go into space can't have too much on the
ball."
Well, maybe this scene will never
actually take place, but it proves a point
that it is awfully easy to forget all about
those guys whirling around the world in
outer space. The whole subject brings up a
giant yawn to most people these days. It
wasn't so a few years ago of course. When
the first trips were being made into space
and when that first historic step was made
on the moon, the people of the western
world were glued to the television set.
They followed every move and they could
tell you the names of the astronauts, their
wives and children and probably what they
ate for breakfast.
Call it hypocritical or call it blase, but we
just don't care any more. Frankly, I can't
say I ever cared that much. Space travel
was just another game, really, like baseball
or hockey... If you followed it closely, it
meant a great deal to you. But in the long
rut., it didn't change the course of the
world.
What that first astronaut (see, I can't
even remember his name) who stepped on
the moon should really have said was "One
small step for man, one small step for
mankind."
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VILLAGE SQUIRE/JANUARY 1974, 17