Notes on my trip to the NASA Engineering and Development offices 52nd anniversary/reunion today: I was decidedly the youngest person (by a lot) in the room. I was decidedly NOT (again, by a lot), the smartest person in the room. My mother is a Hoot and everybody loves her. Both of these points were made evident today in no uncertain terms. Mom and I had a great time visiting with old friends today. Some of those old friends are actually rather famous in aviation and space circles. We chatted for a while with our old (no pun) buddy Floyd Bennett for example. There is a hill on the moon called Bennetts Hill in his honor because when he was designing the descent trajectory for the first lunar landing (Apollo 11) Floyd realized that if Niel Armstrong looked out of the window to his left at a precise time and found that the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) was going past and descending below the top of the hill that the Eagle (LEM) was on the correct course and trajectory. The geologic feature was named in Floyds honor. It is rather a cool bunch of old farts to hang around with. Geez! I miss working there! Though I cannot properly attribute this quote it was certainly pertinent today: If you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room. I take this to mean that there will not be a lot of opportunity for learning new things in such a room. Spending a few hours again with the likes of NASAs first Flight Director, Chris Kraft and his ilk can humble even a brilliant S.O.B. like me! Now... as to Mom being loved. Every person that saw her today called out her name and hugged her. Male and female alike. One woman that Mom told me that she doesnt recall ever even interacting with at NASA came up to Mom and told her that she felt compelled to thank her for being the sweetest person that she had ever met at NASA. Mom has that effect on people. As to Mom being a hoot... Well, she and I laughed a lot today but, one thing in particular stands out in my mind at the moment. Now remember that I was the youngest person in the room and I a two days shy of turning 55. Mom at one point turned to me and said, Chris, who is that guy wearing glasses over there? I told her that damned near every guy n the room (including me) was wearing glasses! We both laughed again. She may as well have asked me who that bald headed or grey haired guy was! Mom and I had a great afternoon at the Johnson Space Center today. Dear God, I do miss working there though. I miss doin all my Rokit Science stuff!
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 00:21:10 +0000
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