Sunday, May 28, 2023
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(I wrote this in July 2019 for facebook. The story is typical of adventures with Whit. Henry and I wanted to share it here.)
~~ 50 years ago, in a very small town in NE North Carolina, a father asked his son a question late one July afternoon. "Would you like to go see that space launch to put a man on the moon?" The son, who had just graduated high school and would be headed to Carolina in another few weeks, looked at his father to study him for seriousness. This would be a fitting graduation gift. "Take the car. If you leave in the next 30 minutes and drive all night, you should be able to get there in time. -That is, if you grab a couple of friends to go with you to help drive." The son jumped at the chance.
One of the friends he grabbed was Henry. Another was Frank. They had to tell Frank that, "Uh, yeah. We've got reservations at a motel down there." They lied. It didn't matter though.
They drove all night, and got to a spot across the river from the launch site, with 45 minutes to spare. Whew. Cutting it close.
The river water boiled from the vibrations. Fish jumped high. A fire ball grew, and a rocket launched. I'm betting they cried with the thrill of it all.
Last week, that son and his friend Henry made that trip again. Does it look like they had a good time?~~
