Re: Straker's DOB

I chose Straker to be Capricorn because having known Scorpios and Geminis,
the people he most resembled in my experience were Capricorns - the business
and duty over personal matters and the occasional brilliance out of left
field (out of left field? Out of the ballpark). The actual date was
astrologically derived.



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--- In [hidden email], "Deborah Rorabaugh" <momkat@...> wrote:
>
> I chose Straker to be Capricorn because having known Scorpios and Geminis,
> the people he most resembled in my experience were Capricorns - the business
> and duty over personal matters and the occasional brilliance out of left
> field (out of left field? Out of the ballpark). The actual date was
> astrologically derived.
>

That's so cool, Deb!  I haven't known many Capricorns, or if I did, they didn't tell me. *grin*  I'll have to look them up now.  You've got me intrigued.
Denise

That's so cool, Deb! I haven't known many Capricorns, or if I did, they
didn't tell me. *grin* I'll have to look them up now. You've got me
intrigued.
Denise

 

 

Well, my bit of a confession - my description of Straker as a kid is
describing my kid brother - a Capricorn with a stratospheric IQ and
positively scary interests. He really did damn near burn down his school
with a home made rocket and scared the chem student in the flat downstairs
so badly he moved out.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

--- In [hidden email], "Deborah Rorabaugh" <momkat@...> wrote:

> Well, my bit of a confession - my description of Straker as a kid is
> describing my kid brother - a Capricorn with a stratospheric IQ and
> positively scary interests. He really did damn near burn down his school
> with a home made rocket and scared the chem student in the flat downstairs
> so badly he moved out.
>

That is so COOL!  I wish any of my brothers had been like that!  What fun we would have had! *evil grin*  I can easily see Straker being that kind of kid.  He'd have driven his parents crazy!
Denise

> That is so COOL!  I wish any of my brothers had been like that!  What fun we would have had! *evil grin*  I can easily see Straker being that kind of kid.  He'd have driven his parents crazy!
> Denise
>

My parents worried that I was going to blow the house up with the chemistry set I had as a kid. I toyed with model rockets as well, but we used the solid fuel engines that were considered reasonably safe. Now liquid fuel rockets, like Dr. Goddard and the early rocketry pioneers experimented with are another matter. They like to go boom! If we dig deep enough we might all find a little bit of Straker in us. *grin*
Matt

> If we dig deep enough we might all find a little bit of Straker in
> us. *grin*

I see no indication from the series that Straker caused any
trouble as a kid... (?)

Marc

I doubt that Straker would have actually  done anything as dangerous as nearly blow up a school, and I wonder if he would have been accepted into the military if he had a reputation for recklessness on that level. He never struck me as particularly  foolhardy at any time in the series, or thoughtless towards the safety of others.

--- In [hidden email], "Marc Martin" <marc@...> wrote:
>
> > If we dig deep enough we might all find a little bit of Straker in
> > us. *grin*
>
> I see no indication from the series that Straker caused any
> trouble as a kid... (?)
>
> Marc
>

Model rocketry prior to 1960 was a somewhat hazardous pursuit, as premanufactured rocket engines did not yet exist. Many men who later became astronauts dabbled in this somewhat risky hobby. I could picture Straker doing that as a young teen. I don't mean to say he would be careless, in fact I would expect him to be very cautious. Liquid fuel or homemade solid engines could be very unstable.

The rocket group I belonged to as a young man took safety quite seriously. Our launch console included a safety key that was kept by the RSO (Range Safety Officer) and not inserted until everyone had cleared the field. The duty of RSO fell to one of the adults in the group. (Mostly my father)
Matt

My brother spent too much time unsupervised. Once it was pointed out to him
how dangerous his hobbies were, (and our father threatened with legal action
for leaving a pre-teen unsupervised so he could GET into so much trouble.)
he turned to different pursuits - astronomy and electronics. He paid for his
electrical engineering degree repairing TV sets.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

And another defense of my baby bro - the school yard was the largest open
area in the neighborhood and it was an early Saturday morning. He hadn't
realized how high the freakin' thing would go, or that there were winds and
air turbulence above ground level that blew the rocket onto the roof of a
three story brick building.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Deb, your brother was in some pretty distinguished company. As a young man, Jim Lovell, who would later command Apollo 13, also had an interesting mishap with model rocketry. His model rocket exploded on the pad,sending the nose cone several hundred feet into the air, scaring the hell out of his future wife. Lovell called the "flight" a qualified sucess. The story is somewhere in the book "A Man on the Moon" which was a Time/Life publication.

My second rocket launch made a splashdown in the neighbor's pool prompting my father and I to move our operations to the ball field, making recovery much easier. Using the end of our driveway as Pad 39A probably wasn't a good idea to begin with. *grin*
Matt

--- In [hidden email], "Deborah Rorabaugh" <momkat@...> wrote:

Hi,

S'thruth! All this brings back some great memories. When I was a kid I use to build model rockets and fireworks! My first one wasn't a qualified success. I reverse engineered a large firework rocket, and used my own propellent mix. Well, after a lot of preliminary smoke, sparks and a huge fiery plume the thing struggled a take off and made a fiery arc straight into my neighbours pristine garden. It made a large scorched circle in the middle of their beautiful lawn - I was not popular!

Having been 'grounded' for a month, I used the time to 'study up', determined to get it right next time.

Well I guess I did, as after a lot of math, less tape, a new mix, nozzle and not quite so compressed propellent, my brother and I took my new rocket down to the local beach one clear evening.

Rockets tend to attract crowds no matter how innocuous you are. Well after a lot of ribbing from most about how the thing would never get more than few feet off the ground, I pressed the button... In all my years watching small, medium and large rocket lift-offs of all types, I have never seen a faster launch. It went up, and up, and up... well who knows, it could be still up there for all I know.

Thanks. Fun times...

Griff

Heh heh, this reminds me of the story my David told me about his mispent
youth. (David Chenault - some of you oldsters may remember him) He built
a special capsul for a mouse and launched a mouse! He says the capsul
deployed seperately and it came down on one parachute and the rocket
came down on another parachute. Afterwards, he says he put the little
mouse in a terrarium where he was paralyzed for three days, but then he
got up and was running around, so he let him go in the park.

My reaction is, Poor little mouse!! But he thinks it was great. LOL!

Y





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--- In [hidden email], Yuchtar <yuchtr@...> wrote:
>
> Heh heh, this reminds me of the story my David told me about his mispent
> youth.

These are GREAT stories about the zeal of budding rocket engineers!  I can see that I really missed out with my brothers.  But it's been lovely to have you share your adventures!  Thanks to all!
Denise