Re: 1939...

[Robert Jackson <High.Seas@breezy.com>]

Speaking of "Space Patrol" -- it was the scene where the captain of
space patrol was required to hold with his bare hands the two ends of a
huge power cable, joining them together, which he knew would burn his
hands, which it did - but, it HAD to be done! Otherwise, they would
never have been able to re-start the rocket motors and remove themselves
from harm's way...

I was probably 10 yrs. old, and had a real respect for "power cables"
after that.

On the North Shore one could watch "ATOM SQUAD" on TV in the afternoons
after school in the 50s.  It was a wonderous time to be a kid...UFO
reports in the news, aliens attacking the earth in the theaters, then
the launch of the Russian's Sputnik around 1957 which the media went
crazy over...they had us all standing in our backyards at 4:30 in the
morning waiting for that streak of light to cross the sky.

But, those first special effects, those wonderful simulations on TV news
of that Russian satellite orbiting the globe with its beep, beep, beep
eminating from its 21 mHz transmitter made me a believer.  Science
interest for kids got a real boost in those years...

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