Footsteps On The Moon

 

Lunar Module Eagle in landing configuration, July 20, 1969

July 20, 1969, fifty-six years ago today, the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle landed on the moon. Millions watched at 10:56 PM, EDT, as Neil Armstrong, the commander of the Apollo 11 mission, descended the Eagle's ladder and made what he called a "giant leap for mankind" with his final step onto the powdery lunar surface. Learn more about the Apollo 11 mission here on Wikipedia where you can find scores of links to more National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reports and multimedia.

Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the lunar module pilot, spent almost 22 hours on the moon including their 150 minute walk where they erected an American flag, collected soil and rock samples, and deployed experiments. On their return to Earth much of the material they collected was eventually archived and displayed at the Smithsonian Institution. Some rocks entered our culture in some fascinating ways, including this one at the Washington National Cathedral, where one was embedded at the center of a red planet in what has become known as the Space Window.

Time is catching up with those first attempts at exploring our nearest celestial neighbor. Neil Armstrong passed away in 2012 at the age of 82. Buzz Aldrin turned 94 earlier this year. Michael Collins, the command module pilot, passed away in 2021 at the ago of 90. With the creation of the Artemis program in 2017, the US and its partners hope to return to the lunar surface with a crewed polar landing scheduled for 2025. That's an ambitious target date , but no more so than the private sector timetable for similar missions to Mars. Regardless of what the future holds, those early years including the mission we commemorate today were an exciting and almost magical time for science, exploration, and discovery of the frontier "out there."






Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
atlasobscura.com, Space Window detail
nasa.gov, Space Window, full photo

Text:
Wikipedia.com

Americans On The Moon 1969

Lunar Module Eagle in landing configuration, July 20, 1969

July 20, 1969, fifty-five years ago today, the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle landed on the moon. Millions watched at 10:56 PM, EDT, as Neil Armstrong, the commander of the Apollo 11 mission, descended the Eagle's ladder and made what he called a "giant leap for mankind" with his final step onto the powdery lunar surface. Learn more about the Apollo 11 mission here on Wikipedia where you can find scores of links to more National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reports and multimedia.

Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the module pilot, spent almost 22 hours on the moon including their 150 minute walk where they erected an American flag, collected soil and rock samples, and deployed experiments. On their return to Earth much of the material they collected was eventually archived and displayed at the Smithsonian Institution. Some rocks entered our culture in some fascinating ways, including this one at the Washington National Cathedral, where one was embedded at the center of a red planet in what has become known as the Space Window.

Time is catching up with those first attempts at exploring our nearest celestial neighbor. Neil Armstrong passed away in 2012 at the age of 82. Buzz Aldrin turned 94 earlier this year. With the creation of the Artemis program in 2017, the US and its partners hope to return to the lunar surface with a crewed polar landing scheduled for 2025. That's an ambitious target date , but no more so than the private sector timetable for similar missions to Mars. Regardless of what the future holds, those early years including the mission we commemorate today were an exciting and almost magical time for science, exploration, and discovery of the frontier "out there."






Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
atlasobscura.com, Space Window detail
nasa.gov, Space Window, full photo

Text:
Wikipedia.com

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Forever England

The English composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams, was born on this day in 1872. The brief introduction to his biography appearing on the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society website says all that need be said about this beloved interpreter of the musical themes and varied landscapes of England:

[He] is arguably the greatest composer Britain has seen since the days of Henry Purcell. In a long and extensive career, he composed music notable for its power, nobility and expressiveness, representing, perhaps, the essence of ‘Englishness’.

Vaughan Williams expressed this "Englishness" as a prolific composer of a full spectrum of classical music grounded in the extensive research of English folk tunes and their preservation in his works.

I suspect the quality of music education in the public schools, if the curriculum exists at all, is not nearly as comprehensive today as it was in the 1950's or 1960's. In those years surrounding Vaughan Williams's death in 1958 he was revered as the beloved dean of composers in much of the Western world. In the 65 years following his death he remains a popular force in the music of our lives. Here are some likely familiar examples that renew themselves on every hearing:

I imagine hearing these pieces takes some readers back to those introductory music classes in middle school with their mechanics of music, basic performances, and musical history that included the great composers and their works. That was a long time ago but for me those introductions led to hours of enjoyment listening to all kinds of music over the past six decades. I'm very happy for that and trust that more than a few readers have enjoyed a similar experience.

A Leap Of Faith In One Small Step

Lunar Module Eagle in landing configuration, July 20, 1969

July 20, 1969, fifty-four years ago today, the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle landed on the moon. Millions watched at 10:56 PM, EDT, as Neil Armstrong, the commander of the Apollo 11 mission, descended the Eagle's ladder and made what he called a "giant leap for mankind" with his final step onto the powdery lunar surface. Learn more about the Apollo 11 mission here on Wikipedia where you can find scores of links to more National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reports and multimedia.

Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the module pilot, spent almost 22 hours on the moon including their 150 minute walk where they erected an American flag, collected soil and rock samples, and deployed experiments. On their return to Earth much of the material they collected was eventually archived and displayed at the Smithsonian Institution. Some rocks entered our culture in some fascinating ways, including this one at the Washington National Cathedral, where one was embedded at the center of a red planet in what has become known as the Space Window.

Time is catching up with those first attempts at exploring our nearest celestial neighbor. Neil Armstrong passed away in 2012 at the age of 82. Buzz Aldrin turned 92 earlier this year. With the creation of the Artemis program in 2017, the US and its partners hope to return to the lunar surface with a crewed polar landing scheduled for 2025. That's an ambitious target date , but no more so than the private sector timetable for similar missions to Mars. Regardless of what the future holds, those early years including the mission we commemorate today were an exciting and almost magical time for science, exploration, and discovery of the frontier "out there."

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
atlasobscura.com, Space Window detail
nasa.gov, Space Window, full photo

Text:
Wikipedia.com

Eagle On The Moon

 

Lunar Module Eagle in landing configuration, July 20, 1969

July 20, 1969, fifty-two years ago today, the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle landed on the moon. Millions watched at 10:56 PM, EDT, as Neil Armstrong, the commander of the Apollo 11 mission, descended the Eagle's ladder and made what he called a "giant leap for mankind" with his final step onto the powdery lunar surface. Learn more about the Apollo 11 mission here on Wikipedia where you can find scores of links to more National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reports and multimedia.

Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the module pilot, spent almost 22 hours on the moon including their 150 minute walk where they erected an American flag, collected soil and rock samples, and deployed experiments. On their return to Earth much of the material they collected was eventually archived and displayed at the Smithsonian Institution. Some rocks entered our culture in some fascinating ways, including this one at the Washington National Cathedral, where one was embedded at the center of a red planet in what has become known as the Space Window.

Time is catching up with those first attempts at exploring our nearest celestial neighbor. Neil Armstrong passed away in 2012 at the age of 82. Buzz Aldrin turned 92 earlier this year. With the creation of the Artemis program in 2017, the US and its partners hope to return to the lunar surface with a crewed polar landing scheduled for 2925. That's an ambitious target date , but no more so than the private sector timetable for similar missions to Mars. Regardless of what the future holds, those early years including the mission we commemorate today were an exciting and almost magical time for science, exploration, and discovery of the frontier "out there."




Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
atlasobscura.com, Space Window detail
nasa.gov, Space Window, full photo

Text:
Wikipedia.com

Ralph Vaughan Williams: The Sound Of Englishness

The English composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams, was born on this day in 1872. The brief introduction to his biography appearing on the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society website says all that need be said about this beloved interpreter of the musical themes and varied landscapes of England:

[He] is arguably the greatest composer Britain has seen since the days of Henry Purcell. In a long and extensive career, he composed music notable for its power, nobility and expressiveness, representing, perhaps, the essence of ‘Englishness’.

Vaughan Williams expressed this "Englishness" as a prolific composer of a full spectrum of classical music grounded in the extensive research of English folk tunes and their preservation in his works.

I suspect the quality of music education in the public schools, if the curriculum exists at all, is not nearly as comprehensive today as it was in the 1950's or 1960's In those years surrounding Vaughan Williams's death 1958 he was revered as the beloved dean of composers in much of the Western world. In the seventy years following his death he remains a popular force in the music of our lives. Here are some likely familiar examples that renew themselves on every hearing:

I imagine hearing these pieces takes some readers back to those introductory music classes in middle school with their mechanics of music, basic performances, and musical history that included the great composers and their works. That was a long time ago but for me those introductions led to hours of enjoyment  listening to all kinds of music over the past six decades. I'm very happy for that and trust that more than a few readers have enjoyed a similar experience. 

 

The Search For Objective Truth

I originally planned for this post to appear yesterday long after the fireworks on the East Coast had come to a close. Thanks to You Tube I made the joyful decision to watch fireworks displays in smaller cities and at simple crossroads across the Midwest, the Great Plains and southern Rockies. The images carried me back to the Independence Days of my childhood in a mill town in western Maryland. All of that patriotism past and present brought me a deep and restful sleep.

Waking to a new day I'm invigorated and motivated to share my concern about a growing national threat to the historic personalities, events and ideals we celebrated yesterday. What I'm referring to is a post-modern interpretation of the American experience that operates outside objective truth and fans a racial divide that few of us want to see. We know it as Critical Race Theory (CRT), a concept cloaked in a Marxist framework and readily linked to three words: equity, inclusion, and diversity. I'll leave it to you to research CRT. Some parents familiar with CRT seriously question the theory's place in their local schools. A few months ago they began crowding local board meeting asking why their white children should be categorically declared oppressors and why their BIPOC (black, indigenous or other people of color) children should be categorically declared victims. Some point out that lesson plans and classroom activities could be interpreted as bullying or even violations of equal protection provided by the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. It's no wonder the opposition has become a nationwide pushback that grows louder by the week.

One apple from the CRT tree in the news is The New York Times 1619 Project. I am not writing to discredit the a project whose aim is "to reframe the country's history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contribution of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative." I am here to point out that the first segment of the project created by Nikole Hannah-Jones, a Times reporter noted for her coverage of racial issues, contained notable inaccuracies including its very premise, that the American Revolution was fought to preserve slavery. Again, I leave it to readers to follow up on the criticisms of the 1619 Project. So far, the project has resulted in four interesting consequences: a Pulitzer Prize in Commentary and a tenured chair in the Hussman School of Journalism and Media for Hannah-Jones at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; the adoption of the 1619 Project in school and university curricula across the country, and the New York Times distancing itself from the 1619 Project. I suppose the Times doesn't want to be associated with another Pulitzer in the manner of Walter Duranty. If you don't know that story you can read about it here.

I close with an antidote to all this wokeness about reframing the American experience by appealing to all sides to explore a book that was written fifty year ago. It is Professor Bernard Bailyn's The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. 

The book is a classic today recognized as the best scholarship on its subject in the last century. Bailyn, who passed away last August at 97 shortly after his third revision of the book, lived to see his work celebrated for its rigorous research, clear writing, and logical process that in my opinion approaches objective truth. If you read it you will learn far more than what you need to refute the claim that the American experience was born in a war to keep black people enslaved by white people.

As we look forward to a society facing Critical Race Theory and its derivatives like the 1619 Project, I can only view them as the social equivalent of New Math only this time some of the numbers are missing. I think we can do far better in our government schools than teach racial division, that some people are born superior and keep winning while other are born inferior and keep losing. That's not a solution, rather, it is a perpetual grievance with the power of division and conquest far beyond the subject at hand. The American model is not perfect but it still offers protection and opportunities envied by much of the world. Most assuredly, the future of the American world does not rest with conclusions searching only for those answer that support it.

 

A Lunar Landing 50 Years Ago Today

On this day 50 years ago the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle landed on the moon. Millions watched at 10:56 PM, EDT, as Neil Armstrong, the commander of the Apollo 11 mission, descended the Eagle's ladder and made what he called a "giant leap for mankind" with his final step onto the powdery lunar surface. Learn more about the Apollo 11 mission here on Wikipedia where you can find scores of links to more National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reports and multimedia.

Lunar Module Eagle in landing configuration July 20, 1969

Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the module pilot, spent almost 22 hours on the moon including their 150 minute walk where they erected an American flag, collected soil and rock samples, and deployed experiments. On their return to Earth much of the material they collected was eventually archived and displayed at the Smithsonian Institution. Some rocks entered our culture in some fascinating ways, including this one at the Washington National Cathedral, where one was embedded at the center of a red planet in what has become known as the Space Window.

Time is catching up with those first attempts at exploring our nearest celestial neighbor. Neil Armstrong passed away in 2012 at the age of 82. Buzz Aldrin turned 89 earlier this year. There are new rumbling of a manned mission to the moon as early as 2024. And the United States Space Force has become a reality in our national defense initiative. Regardless of what the future holds those early years, including the mission we commemorate today, were an exciting and almost magical time for science, exploration, and discovery of the frontier "out there."

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
atlasobscura.com, Space Window detail
nasa.gov, Space Window, full photo

Text:
wikipedia.com

Labor Day Memories Of A Mill Town Boy

What a beautiful holiday weekend we've had in most of Georgia. Refreshing easterly winds  bathed the state in moderate temperatures and filled the sky with puffy cumulus clouds one usually sees rolling in off the Atlantic. We had the pleasure of hosting our children for most of that time.  Much of our conversation this weekend focused not on work but on past holidays and recent world travel, on our large and diverse population of relatives, and on future plans. 

For about thirty of the 55 years of our dual career my wife and I were accustomed to working on weekends and most holidays. We worked so that others could enjoy their day experiencing some of the most significant natural and cultural resources in the nation.  We consider it an honor to have do so but at the same time have come to appreciate the opportunity to share and celebrate these special days with others. In sharing them with my children, in the quiet of the evening  I'm often left with memories of Labor Day picnics.

Those picnics were day-long affairs held by the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company to honor their employees and families on the workers' holiday.  The company had been the major employer in my hometown for three generations.  By 1960, the community and company were indeed a family and this day was their reunion.  With four to five thousand people in attendance it was a big event featuring plenty of food and beverages in addition to carnival rides, dancing, bingo and board games, swimming, model train rides, pony rides, softball, foot races and similar activities, real airplane rides at $2 a ride, and a playground filled with wonderfully dangerous equipment including the greasy pig, flying boats, two merry-go-rounds - one a center-pivot - and a very tall and fast sliding board. None of that equipment could approach today's safety standards. The big day ended with a free movie under the stars at the drive-in theater next door.

Although many of the kids I played with those days ended up working at the mill many of them went on to college, military service or other opportunities and adventures that took them away from small town life. In the long run I think those who left made the right decision. Today, the mill exists under another name, employs only a shadow of its former workforce, and no longer holds a Labor Day picnic.  It is a reflection of a community in decline, one left with vivid memories of better times. 

One item that does remain is the union wage and it's exceptionally good. Unfortunately the jobs are few and the quality of life in the entire region is wanting and now into its seventh decade of decline. Regardless, throughout my life, I've always made a point to family, friends, and colleagues that all work is honorable. Every employee, from minimum wage to executive salary, contributes to achieving organizational success. That college diploma still largely determines where one will fall on the earnings scale; however, that formula is changing rapidly. In fact, opportunities to develop skills beyond the academic campus have never been greater. Simply put, the American Dream may be closer to more employees now than ever. That should make many people very happy. If we could just find a way to resurrect an honest liberal arts curriculum in high school, I would be very pleased. It would anchor tomorrow's happy workers in the principles, ethics, and precedents necessary to understand, appreciate and perpetuate the best of the American experience as we have come to know it. Labor Days as I both remember and enjoy them today remain fine expressions of that experience. I hope you and your family enjoyed the holiday as well. 

A Reach For The Moon, 1969

Lunar Module Eagle in landing configuration, July 20, 1969

Forty-nine years ago the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle landed on the moon. Millions watched at 10:56 PM, EDT, as Neil Armstrong, the commander of the Apollo 11 mission, descended the Eagle's ladder and made what he called a "giant leap for mankind" with his final step onto the powdery lunar surface. Learn more about the Apollo 11 mission here on Wikipedia where you can find scores of links to more National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reports and multimedia.

Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the module pilot, spent almost 22 hours on the moon including their 150 minute walk where they erected an American flag, collected soil and rock samples, and deployed experiments. On their return to Earth much of the material they collected was eventually archived and displayed at the Smithsonian Institution. Some rocks entered our culture in some fascinating ways, including this one at the Washington National Cathedral, where one was embedded at the center of a red planet in what has become known as the Space Window.

Time is catching up with those first attempts at exploring our nearest celestial neighbor. Neil Armstrong passed away in 2012 at the age of 82. Buzz Aldrin turned 88 earlier this year. Although we hear rumbling of new manned missions to the moon there's nothing firm coming from our government aside from a proposed Space Force. The private sector in fact may have an edge on new lunar missions. Regardless of what the future holds, those early years including the mission we commemorate today were an exciting and almost magical time for science, exploration, and discovery of the frontier "out there."

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
atlasobscura.com, Space Window detail
nasa.gov, Space Window, full photo

Text:
Wikipedia.com

Labor Day 2017

In the eastern U.S. we're in the last minutes of the Labor Day holiday weekend and the informal end of summer. I'm sure Labor Day and the weekend generated plenty of memories. The most memorable Labor Days in my early days - the '50's and '60's - were the big day-long picnics sponsored by the paper mill that employed my home town. Three to four thousand people attended those events at Burlington, West Virginia, and enjoyed carnival rides, swimming, softball, races, airplane rides, and a playground filled with wonderfully dangerous equipment that could never be built today. It all ended with a movie under the stars at the drive-in theater next door.

Old Tybee Ranger was three when this photo was taken at the Burlington campground

Many of the kids I played with those days ended up working at the mill, I imagine a number of them went on to college and enjoyed the greater opportunities it afforded. In the long run they made the right decision. Today, the mill employs only a shadow of its former workforce, fewer than a quarter when compared to its post World War II heyday. The company sponsored picnic ended years ago. The union wages may still be good, but the jobs are few, the future of the American paper industry remains in question, and the quality of life still wants in a region now entering its seventh decade of stagnation or decline. 

Although it's been forty years since I skipped rocks in Patterson Creek and spent my last weekends at the Burlington campground I feel a strong affinity for the place and for the people who live there. My family's experience began there in the early nineteenth century. Today that family consists of my cousins and Facebook friends who elected to remain in those magnificent ridges and valleys in the shadow of the Allegheny Front.

In my life, I've always made a point to family, friends, and colleagues that all work is honorable. Every employee, from minimum wage to executive salary, contributes to achieving organizational success and profit in the American dream. To those in the valleys of Georges Creek, New Creek, Patterson Creek and the Potomac River I wish a happy Labor Day. The notable labor history of these valleys in the last century helped bring the nation through two world wars and into the limelight as the greatest economic engine on the planet. Although we may be left only with the memories of the holiday at Burlington and elsewhere we cannot forget the labor that made the celebration possible and the ambitions and achievements of those who choose to call the region "home."

Gettysburg At 154 Years

The Old Ranger and his dad at Gettysburg National Military Park 1954

Today marks the conclusion of the Battle of Gettysburg, fought July 1-3, 1863, and the beginning of the end for the Confederate States of America. A year later, in August 1864, the Union unconditionally controlled the Mississippi River and relentlessly pressed Confederate forces in Virginia. In the Deep South, General Sherman's army devastated Atlanta. Six months later, he would be in Savannah and poised to destroy the remains of the Confederacy as he moved north through the Carolinas.

The American Civil War is a perennial topic in our history. Indeed, it did preserve the Union as President Abraham Lincoln intended and left us with any number of consequences, both good and bad, in our national experience. Regarding those consequences, we should not expect otherwise as that is the way events unfold in the great wheel of history. And so it is with our great wheels of personal experience. Now in my seventh decade immersed in all of this I'm a bit surprised and certainly privileged to experience Gettysburg at 100 and 150. The place is a personal holy ground because three people cared.

First of all. my parents always loved being in nature and its historical overlay. Living in the Potomac River watershed afforded our family many opportunities to enjoy any number of places of national significance. As is often the case, first impressions become lasting ones. I was seven years old when we spent a long weekend exploring almost every foot of Gettysburg National Military Park. It was a fascinating experience and I still have the souvenirs to prove it. About six years later I met George Landis, the third person in this story. Landis taught middle school history and social studies on the eve of the Civil War Centennial. A Pennsylvanian with a love of history and basketball, he devoted an entire school year to the study of the Civil War. He was a superb teacher, highly animated and far ahead of his contemporaries in his classroom methodology. He focused on learning that took his students beyond lectures into the world of role-playing, performance, critical thinking and more. I recall fondly seeing every chalkboard in his classroom filled with detailed maps of battles, each carefully drawn and labelled with colored chalk. A little more than a decade after my year with Landis, I began a long and rewarding career immersed in experiential learning in the sacred places and histories in our national parks.

The Old Ranger with his mom at Gettysburg National Military Park 1954

There will be tens of thousands of people visiting Gettysburg this week as well as many thousands of volunteers recreating and commemorating the events that took place there. There will be lasting impressions made this week about the sacrifice, the consequences, and the wheels of history both national and personal. And somewhere in the crowd is a seven year-old with a new enthusiasm for a defining moment in our national experience. The commemorative landscape at Gettysburg will wait with pride and serenity like an old veteran to welcome him on his return visit in the battle's bicentennial year, 2063.

Labor And The Celebration Of The American Dream

Labor Day comes Monday, but I figured addressing the theme today would make sense as most of us will be enjoying the day with family and away from the Internet. My most memorable Labor Days occurred in the '50s and '60s when I attended the big day-long picnic sponsored by the paper mill that employed my home town. Three to four thousand people attended those picnics at Burlington, West Virginia, and enjoyed carnival rides, swimming, softball, races, airplane rides, and a playground filled with wonderfully dangerous equipment that could never be built today. It all ended with a movie under the stars at the drive-in theater next door.

Old Tybee Ranger was three when this picture was taken at Burlington, West Virginia

Although many of the kids I played with those days ended up working at the mill, I imagine a number of them went on to college and enjoyed the greater opportunities it afforded. In the long run they made the right decision. Today, the mill employs only a shadow of its former workforce, perhaps fewer than a quarter when compared to its post World War II heyday. The picnic. if it occurs at all these days , must be a shadow of the earlier event. The union wages may still be good, but the jobs are few, the future of the American paper industry remains in question, and the quality of life still wants in a region now entering its sixth decade of stagnation or decline. 

Although it's been forty years since I skipped rocks in Patterson Creek and spent my last weekends at the Burlington campground I feel a strong affinity for the place and for the people who live there. My family's experience began there in the early nineteenth century. Today that family consists of my cousins and Facebook friends who elected to remain in those magnificent ridges and valleys in the shadow of the Allegheny Front. 

In my life, I've always made a point to family, friends, and colleagues that all work is honorable. Every employee, from minimum wage to executive salary, contributes to achieving organizational success and profit in the American dream. To those in the valleys of Georges Creek, New Creek, Patterson Creek and the Potomac River I wish a happy Labor Day. The notable labor history of these valleys in the last century helped bring the nation through two world wars and into the limelight as the greatest economic engine on the planet. Although we may be left only with the memories of the holiday at Burlington and elsewhere we cannot forget the labor that made the celebration possible and the ambitions and achievements of those who choose to call the region "home."  

The Carrington Event, 1859: A World-Wide Electrified Earth

On this day in 1859 a massive wave of energy from the sun - a coronal mass ejection or CME - energized our planet to the point that it literally "turned on the lights." Our friends at spaceweather.com wrote this about the event:

... a billion-ton coronal mass ejection (CME) slammed into Earth's magnetic field. Campers in the Rocky Mountains woke up in the middle of the night, thinking that the glow they saw was sunrise. No, it was the Northern Lights. People in Cuba read their morning paper by the red illumination of aurora borealis. Earth was peppered by particles so energetic, they altered the chemistry of polar ice.

You can link to the rest of this post in the spaceweather.com archives.

Orange dots mark sighting of auroras on the morning of September 2, 1859

The geomagnetic storm that day was so powerful that telegraph keys sparked and caught fire. Even with power lost in the lines, the storm electrified them to the point that messages could still be sent. Given our dependence on technology today, such storms pose a significant threat. From NASA's Science News page:

...a huge solar flare on August 4, 1972, knocked out long-distance telephone communication across Illinois. That event, in fact, caused AT&T to redesign its power system for transatlantic cables. A similar flare on March 13, 1989, provoked geomagnetic storms that disrupted electric power transmission from the Hydro Québec generating station in Canada, blacking out most of the province and plunging 6 million people into darkness for 9 hours; aurora-induced power surges even melted power transformers in New Jersey. In December 2005, X-rays from another solar storm disrupted satellite-to-ground communications and Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation signals for about 10 minutes.

Read the complete (brief) Science News story here.

Events of this nature, as well as those involving near earth objects, perhaps deserve as much attention as those from anthropogenic climate change.

American Eagle 1969

Forty-seven years ago the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle landed on the moon. Millions watched at 10:56 PM, EDT, as Neil Armstrong, the commander of the Apollo 11 mission, descended the Eagle's ladder and made what he called a "giant leap for mankind" with his final step onto the powdery lunar surface. Learn more about the Apollo 11 mission here on Wikipedia where you can find scores of links to more National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reports and multimedia.

Lunar Module Eagle in landing configuration, July 20, 1969  

Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the module pilot, spent almost 22 hours on the moon including their 150 minute walk where they erected an American flag, collected soil and rock samples, and deployed experiments. On their return to Earth much of the material they collected was eventually archived and displayed at the Smithsonian Institution. Some rocks entered our culture in some fascinating ways, including this one at the Washington National Cathedral, where one was embedded at the center of a red planet in what has become known as the Space Window. 

Time is catching up with those first attempts at exploring our nearest celestial neighbor. Neil Armstrong passed away in 2012 at the age of 82. Buzz Aldrin turned 86 earlier this year. Although we hear rumbling of new manned mission to the moon there's nothing firm coming from our government. Regardless of what the future holds, those early years including the mission we commemorate today, were an exciting and almost magical time for science, exploration, and discovery of the frontier "out there."

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:

atlasobscura.com, Space Window detail
nasa.gov, Space Window, full photo

Text:

wikipedia.com

Labor Day Past And Present

Happy Labor Day working America! It's a beautiful holiday in Georgia. Refreshing easterly winds are bathing the state in moderate temperatures and filling the sky with puffy cumulus clouds one usually sees rolling in off the Atlantic. My wife and I are having the pleasure of hosting my former colleague and his wife for the weekend. Ours is a friendship that extends across 45 years and in a broad variety of national park sites from sea to shining sea. Much of our conversation this weekend has been about those magnificent resources we had the honor to preserve and share with others. Of course the nature of our work required us to labor on most weekends including this one in our early careers. It wasn't always that way.

Old Tybee Ranger, Labor Day Picnic, Burlington, WV, ca.1950

My most memorable Labor Days occurred in the '50's and early '60's when I attended the big day-long mill employees picnic. The entire event was free, sponsored by the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company that had essentially employed my home town for generations. Three to four thousand people attended those picnics and enjoyed carnival rides, dancing, bingo and board games, swimming, model train rides, softball, foot races and similar activities, real airplane rides, and a playground filled with wonderfully dangerous equipment - the greasy pig, flying boats, a center-pivot merry-go-round, a very tall and fast sliding board -  that could never be built today. It all ended with a movie under the stars at the drive-in theater next door. 

Although many of the kids I played with those days ended up working at the mill many of them went on to college, military service or other opportunities and adventures that took them away from small town life. In the long run I think those who left  made the right decision. Today, the mill exists under another name - Verso - and employs only a shadow of its former workforce, perhaps less than a quarter compared to its post World War II heyday. If it still exists, the Labor Day picnic has to be a mere shadow of the exciting event as I remember it. 

One item that does remain is the union wage and it's exceptionally good. Unfortunately the jobs are few and the quality of life in the region is wanting and now entering its seventh decade of decline. Regardless, throughout my life, I've always made a point to family, friends, and colleagues that all work is honorable. Every employee, from minimum wage to executive salary, contributes to achieving organizational success. That college diploma still largely determines where one will fall on the earnings scale; however, the formula may be changing. In fact, opportunities to develop skills beyond the campus have never been greater. Simply put, the American Dream may be closer to more employees now than ever. That should make a lot of people very happy, even in the midst of our economic downturn. If we could just find a way to resurrect an honest liberal arts curriculum in high school, I would be very pleased. It would anchor tomorrow's happy workers in the principles, ethics, and precedents necessary to understand, appreciate and perpetuate the best of the American experience as we have come to know it. Labor Days as I both remember and enjoy them today remain fine expressions of that experience. I hope yours is a happy day as well.

Retiring To New Opportunities: Two Legendary Educators You May Know

Talley Kirkland

In the past few weeks two of the nation's finest Civil War interpreters/educators, Talley Kirkland and Richard Hatcher, retired from their respective positions at Fort McAllister State Park, south of Savannah, Georgia, and Fort Sumter National Monument in Charleston, South Carolina. Kirkland's departure was proceeded by his earlier retirement after thirty years of service at Fort Pulaski National Monument, a National Park Service (NPS) site east of Savannah. Hatcher also had prior NPS assignments at Kings Mountain National Military Park, Colonial National Historical Park, Gulf Islands National Seashore, and Wilson's Creek  National Battlefield. 

Both could have easily chosen an academic track teaching at the university level, archival work in the museum field, authorship of several books of note or management of any of our historic parks and resources from the Civil War era. Instead, they chose to stay close to what is known in the NPS as interpretation.  The term originated in 1896 with the great American naturalist, John Muir, who wrote in his notebook about Yosemite Valley, California: 

I'll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm and the avalanche. I'll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens, and get as near the heart of the world as I can.

Defining interpretation is much akin to herding cats. It isn't easy because it encompasses the heart (emotion) as much as the brain (reason).  After a century or so the concept remains a process. Today, the NPS says that interpretation:

facilitates connections between the interests of the visitors and the meanings of the artifacts, collections or natural resources of a site. It is these personal connections and powerful meanings that visitors will remember long after their site visit, more so than the tactics involved in a battle, or the names of wetland species. Truly meaningful interpretation relates what is being interpreted to the hearts and minds of the audience and answers the question “Why should I care?” 

Richard (Rick) Hatcher

Kirkland and Hatcher have devoted a combined eighty years of their storied careers connecting national and state park visitors to historic resources, to themselves, and to the visitor's conscience.. They did it in blistering summer heat, frigid cold, flood tides, prejudice, and the most wretched circumstances of political correctness. Believe me, they are storied because I can document them having known and worked with both characters for most of those years.  What is remarkable about them is their dedication to authenticity, accuracy, and the understanding of the everyday life of ordinary people. And even more remarkable is the reach of their wisdom. In the college classroom, they could have touched a few hundred a semester, In books and museum exhibits, their touch - impersonable but still meaningful - would have reached many thousands. As field interpreters/historians they had daily face-to-face contact with visitors. In eighty years, I am confident they have talked to millions of them - and you could have easily been one - about the American Civil War, Billy Yank and Johnny Reb, the strategies and tactical engagements, the aftermath, and the impact of the war and its consequences on the contemporary American experience. They helped people understand not only who they were as Americans but why they were. Such revelation can be powerful. For a fact, they have met more than one Wall Street banker who would have traded places on the spot to be paid a modest salary and have the honor to do what they did.

My thanks and congratulation to both Talley and Rick on the conclusion of their park careers and the beginning of new lives within the bounds of their own work schedules. They are going to love the flexibilities and possibilities that await them. Legends are made of such lifetime devotions. I am honored to call them both colleague and friend and look forward to seeing where their futures take them.


Credits:
Kirkland photo: Jamie Parker/Bryan County Now
Hatcher photo: Post and Courier, Charleston, South Carolina

The Class of 1964:The Class Of Great Promise Holds A Reunion

The Greatest Generation birthed them. They came of age at the pinnacle of their nation’s industrial power, prosperity, and position as the undisputed leader of the free world and the beacon of hope for those not so free. Spurred on by a thirst for knowledge and achievement, their scholastic test scores were exceptional. And they found themselves at a turning point for human rights and other new frontiers. They were the high school Class of 1964, the Class of Great Promise. When they gathered for their tenth reunion in 1974, they did so in an environment of unprecedented national change. Everywhere this summer the Class of 1964, now in their late 60’s, gathered for their 50th reunion. I was among them, making the journey from Georgia to Salisbury, Maryland, to join classmates from Wicomico Senior High School, fondly known as Wi-Hi.

On a Saturday evening earlier this month, my wife and I sat with 125 or so of my classmates enjoying cocktails, a fine Eastern Shore dinner, and an opportunity to reminisce. In fifty years, we lost roughly sixty out of 350 graduates. Out of the 290 remaining, about 200 – a surprisingly high number to me – still lived within fifty miles of their high school. This was the first reunion I attended and I had not been in Salisbury for over 30 years. After such an absence there were questions. Would I be recognized and welcomed? What about conversations? The memories? Although I had only been with most of my classmates through seven years and seven grades, good memories flowed easily. The few sadder times remembered had been softened over the years, but some youthful misperceptions, small wounds, "if onlies," and especially regrets about forgotten friends persisted.

In recalling the events of that dinner and of a gathering the previous evening, the Class of Great Promise did not disappoint. I loved every minute of the experience. All the fears were put to rest quickly in spite of the graying hair, the weight gain, no glasses, new teeth, a beard, a new first name and a three decade void. In so many ways I could never be removed from this association. Although we had established separate lives and moved distances sometimes measured in thousands of miles, there was a sense of common experience stretching over the decades. I read so many stories of that experience in their faces. Flower children, rebels both reformed and unreformed, Vietnam veterans, homemakers, business successes, professionals, contented retirees and more were there. And many faces bore signs of hard work, pain, disappointment and uncertainty, but I saw nothing that spoke of a lack of determination.  Was that "Great Promise" at work or the selectivity of a reunion at the autumn of a generation? I'll leave that question to readers everywhere who know all of these stories. Only the faces will change.

If you plan to be a face at a future reunion, be it five or fifty years, have no fear. Even the longest lost souls and introverted optimists will find welcome in the smiles, handshakes and hugs. The close friends perhaps abandoned, those you wanted to know better, those you secretly desired, the clusters of friends who helped each other through” those” years - they’ll be there. On the other hand, some will be missing from the events by choice or circumstance and it will be a disappointment. But be prepared for an even greater loss - those friends in the room you simply didn't reach. Sometimes, a photo and name tag prove useless and you pass each other in the aisles or perhaps stand in line together at a bar or serving line. Some will point to your empty chair and ask your spouse where you are in a crowd of 300 people, most of them searching for other people. All of these scenarios lead to a motto we know well: Be prepared. If you are a long-absent face at your class reunion, pull out that dusty yearbook and make a “must see” list. Better yet, make early contact with those you don’t want to miss. These contacts may lead to plans for a "shoulder day" or two on either side of the reunion for gatherings with close high schools friends.

Even if you are poorly prepared for a big reunion, say #50, there’s a good chance you won’t be waiting for five years to see your classmates again. The advancing years of our Class of 1964 convinced organizers to plan a 70th birthday party. I'd say that is great promise! And if it is God’s will, we will attend...with a checklist.

Donald Kagan: A Scholar Retires

When I attended college in the mid-1960s, a history major was a rather common pursuit. And the subject itself was a rather common focus on the "big picture," being subdivided mostly by geography and a few broad themes. Specialization really didn't occur until graduate studies. A decade later, the undergraduate study of history had been dissected  by the "Me Decade" mentality into a series of narrow, highly politicized  studies of gender, race, and class often dumping on the historical "glue" that held the field together. Today, it's just about impossible to find the kinds of introductory history I was exposed to in college. In fact, it's hard to find a university requiring a single history course as part of its core curriculum or even for graduation. This is a tragic circumstance for liberal arts and for American culture. Who will carry the tradition into the future?

One of the torchbearers has been Donald Kagan, a liberal turned conservative in 1969 partly in response to the surrender of the academy to the student mob. He went on to become one of the nation's most beloved, controversial, and respected scholars. Kagan, Sterling Professor of Classics and History at Yale University, is retiring at the end of this semester after a long, distinguished career. Obviously, Kagan has specialized over the years, but he remains a valued teacher/scholar who understands the value of the traditional "big picture" approach to who we are a people.

Power Line's Scott Johnson has a brief tribute to Kagan containing a multitude of links either written by Kagan or related to his work. Check it out if you have an interest in the future of the study of history and the liberal arts or just want to enjoy reading what an extraordinarily fine writer has to say about our world.

"...He That Hath No Stomach For This Fight, Let Him Depart."

Odysseus and the Sirens                                                               British Museum

It is unfortunate that political correctness has infected our culture to the point where the classic literature of Western civilization must be cleansed for nine year olds. That is the case in Seattle where the parent of a third-grader has objected to some phrases  that were to appear in the class's production of an abridged version of Homer's Odyssey. The parent certainly has a right to object. Furthermore, I admit that staging this production for third-graders is ambitious. I also acknowledge the learning potential from such an opportunity and find it unfortunate that we must restrain the reach of all by cancelling a play because one person objects. The principal made a serious administrative error. Far better to seek compromise - apparently the play will be revised -  rather than cancellation.

We may be quite surprised about learning if we could only move beyond the boundaries we erect around ourselves and our children.

We always taught our children to reach for their personal infinities, then go beyond. And we think Buzz Lightyear would have made a great teacher.


A big hat tip to Sippican Cottage for posting the video. Sip's blog is well worth your time - superb writing, compelling subjects, admirable politics.