Remembering Sputnik

[avandonk]

It was about this time fifty years ago I stood next to my father and watched a little white dot slowly go across the sky. I was only seven!

He said that this is the future and he told me to learn my lessons well.

Bert

[ballaratdragons]

Good advice Bert, and it paid off well.

Wise man your Dad was :thumbsup:

It must have been quite strange watching something drifting through the heavens back then!!! It must have really fed the imagination of many :)
A great memory to have.

[acropolite]

Must be a nice memory Bert. My father died when I was 7, my fondest memory is sitting on an old apple crate next to him in the back garden on a hot day and having a sip of his beer. I was only four at the time of Sputnick and too young to remember. A few years later I named my dog Sputnick, he used to grab my trouser legs and wildly orbit my leg until he ran out of slack.

[h0ughy]

Fantastic memories guys, thanks for sharing. how things have progressed???

[okiscopey]

Yes, but we should have had a base on the Moon or even Mars by now!

I remember Sputnik 1 being in the papers and heard it going 'beep ... beep ... beep' on the news on an old, grainy black-and-white TV. The set wasn't ours – we only got to see such a modern invention when visiting my aunt. It was a sort of walnut piece of 'furniture' that had doors to hide the screen when not in use, and it had to be polished.

I was ten at the time and already very interested in space and astronomy. Unfortunately, auntie didn't have the same interest, and for some reason she always ending up doing the ironing right in front of the screen.

This was the same TV that, as well as bringing exciting news like this, gave me nightmares from the 'Quatermass' science fiction series.

I don't know what my father made of the space shot - think he was more interested in going out to the pub with my uncle. I was always keen to see him go – not because he was a bad sort, but because I loved the way they both came back in a ridiculously humerous and jolly mood, much to the disgust of my straight-laced aunt.