A brush with an old sage:

NASA And World War Two

by Hal Swift

One recent evening, three youngsters were sitting on the curb, talking in the glow of the street light, while my niece, Sioux, and I sat in our front yard, waiting to see the International Space Station pass over.

I decided to alert the kids to the coming show, and got up and went over to them.  They acted as though they were going to run from me, but stayed when I told them I wasn’t going to yell at ‘em, I just wanted to tell 'em something.  I said, “The International Space Station is due to pass overhead in about five minutes, if you wanta see it, look up now and then.”

Of the three kids, one was a girl of around 12, and two were boys--maybe 10 or eleven years of age.  All three of them looked at me uncomprehendingly.  I said, “The NASA space station.  You know.”  I was no small amount dismayed when all three of them shook their heads and said no, they didn’t.

They seemed awestruck as I explained that there are four live human beings—three men and a woman—riding around in that thing, something like 250 miles up.

The girl said, “Has anyone ever died on the moon?”  I assured her that, to the best of my knowledge, such a thing has never happened.  One of the boys asked what “NASA” is.  I told him, “The letters stand for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.”

The girl said, “What does aeronautics mean?”

I explained that nautical refers to the sea and ships... and sailing.  I said that, when I was in the Navy, I was having a nautical adventure, y'see?  I was sailing on the sea.  “Aeronautics” I said, “means sailing in the air.”

The girl said, “When were you in the Navy?”

I said, “Well, right at the end of World War Two, and in the Korean War.  I was in Japan less than five years after we bombed them.”

The girl looked puzzled.  “Why would we do that?” she asked.

“Well,” I said, “because they wanted to take over the world, and make everyone do what they said to do.  You know, like the Nazis, and the Fascists, and now the Militant Muslims.”  All three just shook their heads, with no comprehension whatsoever of what I was talking about.

The elder of the two boys said, “When is this thing going to come over?”

I looked up, and saw that it had already begun its passage overhead.  “Look up,” I said.  “It’s right there.”  We all watched silently as it passed slowly out of sight.  How ‘bout that?” I said.  “Ever see anything like that before?”

They all shook their heads, no, and got to their feet.  “We gotta go now,” the girl said.

“Okay!” I called after them.  “Now you can tell your friends all about NASA and the space station!  And World War Two!” I added.

One of the boys said, “Yeah.”  The girl said, “Uh-huh.”  The second boy walked away silently, shaking his head.

I went back to where Sioux was sitting in one of our lawn chairs.  “What were you and those kids talking about?” she asked.

“Oh,” I said, “I was tellin’ them all about NASA and World War Two.”

“You think they’ll remember any of what you told them?” she asked.

“I doubt it," I said.  "I think everything I said passed over 'em about as high as that International Space Station."

This is how to get information on when the space station can be seen.  Click on the country, then state, and pick your city.

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(Ed. Note:  For a closer look at Hal Swift's cowboy poetry, go to http://www.cowboypoetry.com/halswift.htm )

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