It was a great time to be a kid

On Fri, 13 Mar 2015 22:43:42 -0500, "Byker" wrote:

If only the public knew: The B-58 was difficult to fly and a quarter of them
crashed before they were retired in 1970. We lived about forty miles from
March AFB, Ca., and their sonic booms shook our neighborhood all the time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M64Ai4I9-as

We kids knew all about the Redstone. The teacher in my second-grade class
brought a TV into the classroom and we got to watch Alan Shepard lift off
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iCm22yyz1I

Many kids had "Jimmy Jet" at home
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CclDgg2FDVA

We had real heroes back then
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cmGLg6TcxA

I asked for one of these for Christmas but I didn't get it, presumably
because the 1959 asking price of $14.98 would equal $122.00 in today's money
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuEhNzoCnJA

Oh, golly...

I remember my Cape Canaveral Rocket set as a little kid. Launched the
first lima bean into space (well, would have, had the kitchen ceiling
not interfered.)

For learning to tie my own shoes, getting a United Airlines 727 (as I
recall - might have been a Caravelle) that had a geared system where
pushing it on its wheels ran a flint doohickey that made sparks come
out the engines. Looking back, this seems like a rather
self-defeating plan if your engines quit the second you leave the
ground...

A little older, and had the 'DarePlane' (sort of an indoor, battery
powered control line biplane) and 'VertiBird' helicopter. There's
actually a PC software simulator available of the latter:

http://www.peterhirschberg.com/vertisim/

Maybe my misspent yoot wasn't so badly misspent after all.

"Bob (not my real pseudonym)" wrote in message
...

Maybe my misspent yoot wasn't so badly misspent after all.

Estes Industries came along at just the right time

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