Jodies mention of sand dunes in her recent essay reminded me of a semi-historic tale.... As everyone knows, among other places the dunes stretched for miles behind Regency Square for a number of years. My younger brother Gary got into model rocketry around 1970. Our family would drive (northward) on Monument past Regency a mile or so (probably about where the Target is now) and park on the edge of the road along the dunes -- a place where model rocketry buffs frequented. Wed assemble and prime Garys latest rockets and go set up the launching platforms a hundred yards or so from the road out in the sand. Generally the wind would allow the rockets to return fairly close to the launch point. But Im getting ahead of myself.... Around that time development as already starting to encroach into the dunes, and indeed one Sunday we found that some nearby dunes had been flattened and tons of cow efluent had been pumped all over a stretch of the sand - presumably a preparation for adding topsoil to support ornamental plantings. There was literally a shallow (maybe 6 or so) cow shit pond covering quite a few acres. Youve probably guessed where this is going.... We decided to let Gary launch his newest rocket anyway. And Murphys law kicked in-- an upper level breeze caught the spent rockets parachute and carried it to a dead center landing in the middle of the smelly pond. We were about to write it off, but I couldnt bear to let Gary waste a good rocket -- so I was elected to take the nasty barefoot rescue journey. I remember how we had to scramble to find a way to clean my brown feet & calves enough to let me back into the car (didnt have a water jug or any big rags with us out there). I think that ended up being the last rocket we launched. Thats the magic of this group. A simple statement can jolt you back in time to events youd long forgotten....
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 16:30:54 +0000
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