I was working at the Mercer County Health Department in Celina....was just coming back from a morning inspection, walked in the office, and our Registrar/Receptionist Helen gets off the phone looks at me and says..."The Space Shuttle just exploded".
First thing I thought was..."that is sad"...the second.."why are we putting civilians(Teachers etc) on these damn things.....?"
So this day in 1986, if you were old enough, you have to know where you were, and what you were doing......I remember going home at lunch time....Sam, who had just turned 4 in December, was a game show junkie....he would video tape the games as they went along, then play along with them while re watching the videos...Sam was a young genius...he could read and write at 2....he finished with many awards for math in State Competition....so what's he doing driving RVs for a living? You'd have to ask him....the guy has an IQ in the 140 range, but goes to the beat of a different drummer.....kind of like his old man(except the IQ part...mine is not 140).
Anyway, he was taping NBC when the Bulletin came up.....I got home and told Patricia, who was working part-time and going to night classes at the time, to tape the rest of what was happening.....I've still got the entire days broadcast on tape today.....what a sad day, and it sure doesn't seem like 22 years ago.
Back to work this morning at Greenville this morning, back felt pretty good getting up, but acting up a little right now...BP has been up somewhat for the last couple days....150/77 or so...making me more determined to get the 15 pounds off, and drop the salt off in the diet...I'm sure the increased pain this morning has something to do with it as well.
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{Photos}-The Crew of Challenger...Sam with his "hardware" from the State Math Competition back in 1996...two 3rd place individuals for Sam, and a 1st place finish for the Celina team, he also won the school match competition back to back years in 5th and 6th grade....Sam with Hal and the neighbor kids in 1992 with his Lemonade Stand he built with help from his mom and ran himself that summer....he was very successful at being a 10 year old entrepreneur.
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Update...Speaking of Sam, on his way to Las Vegas with a Damon RV for delivery...story goes, he beats the storm out of Colorado, then hits 60 MPH head winds through Utah..goes into the Arizona gorge and right before hitting the Nevada state line, the diagnostic goes out on the RV...100 miles out of Vegas, so he has to call for a tow truck to haul it in to North Las Vegas to the Ford Engine shop....some minor heat sensor problem, that shuts down the engine and everything else....
But he makes it to the airport and is awaiting his "Red Eye" to Dayton....the joys of RVing.
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8 comments:
Hum. The RV delivery business sounds more demanding than I had imagined.
Well, I'm depressed...22 years...seems like a couple of years ago.
All pf today's pics are great...but the lemonade stand is CLASSIC! That's real Americana there, Pat!
re: Challenger. I was less than six months into my first post-USAF job in Detroit. Work stopped... I mean ceased when the shuttle blew up. My co-workers and I were glued to a teevee (that seemed to materialize out of nowhere) for the rest of the day... what was left of it. Tragic.
Wow, I hadn't realized it had been 22 years. I was coming back from a grad school class, or maybe coming home from work, and Mom came out and told me the shuttle had blown up. then it was endless video of the explosion and stories about the people who died on TV. I'll never forget Reagans speach. Pure poetry. Lots of tears.
Then, the next time the shuttle went up I watched and waited for them to say "go with throttle up", and then burst into tears when the friggin' thing made it unscathed. I had't realized how much the Challenger disaster effected me.
And the lemonade stand is classic. You know, if you get caught doing that, or having a garage sale here without getting a permit from the city, the bastards will give you a ticket. Shows how much we've gone from what we once were. Trajic.
Best thing about the Lemonade stand was...the Bureau-Rats couldn't do much...since I was the Chief Inspector for the Health Department, and would have to issue the permits....I was never that chickenshit, and any kid that wanted to sell would have my blessings....Sam just did it up right and made quite a profit those two summers.
hello . My name is also Pat Houseworth... as in Patricia. However, I beg to differ about your anti-Obama sentiment. I do believe that he is the refreshing breath of air that this country so sorely needs. He will tell the American people what they need to hear, not just what they want to hear. He will bring a transparency to politics.. no more behind closed doors deals. He will put the "we the people" back into our government. Open your mind and do your homework...and thank you and have a lovely day.
Sorry Patricia, Obama and his sheep like followers are ready and willing to sell this country down the road to socialism and worse, but keep on dreaming the dream/.
aside from our disagreement with politics...I'm not sure where your Houseworths fit in, but there are only 700 or so Houseworth's in the US....my wife is also named Patrica and your can find more on the bloodlines at my other web site, the Genealogy one at:
http://israelhouseworth.blogspot.com/
take care
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