THE ROCKET BUILDERS

It was an unforgettable day in OCTOBER, 1957. I had been waiting outside FINLEY’S electronics. I was waiting over an hour – determined to get a better view. My nose was been pressed against the glass. I was watching the very first launch of the Turbo rocket. It was sent into the sky and to the planet Jupiter.

I was so stimulated after watching the rocket commence that I rode straight to collect Dave and Gerry. Then we went to the Springtime library and borrowed only two books we found about rockets. We then started to read page after page and picture after picture in incredulity.

Before I even comprehended of what I said, I had announced the gang that we were going to build a rocket. Of course the boys were sceptical saying that their fathers would say that it was a waste of time and the kids in the school will call us nerds. The boys were right but as I said to them, none of us were going to be noticed in the town by being a football star so why not we build a rocket instead?

We thought Gerry’s basement will be the best place to build the rocket. We were lucky because his father went to play golf but Gerry’s mother agreed and gave us that place. We also didn’t have to explain our plans to his father.

We all imagined what are fathers would say…

‘You are wasting your time by building rockets. Do you think it’s a nice idea to leave our town and become a rocket scientist? I don’t think so. You can read for your coming exam instead”.

That week, we spoke to Mrs. Emma about our project. She was so enthused and gave us a pamphlet of the national science fair competition that was being held in December. Now we had a closing date! Whenever we could go away, we would meet in Gerry’s basement when father is gone to play golf. We started amassing materials and tools which are indispensable to build the rocket. I would go to my Uncle Stan’s house and purchase some more tools.

At the third of December, we finished our project. We found a long, wide discarded steel bar near the dustbin. We used it to protect ourselves from rocket if it soared sideways instead of up! We peeped up the steel rod to watch it launch.

Then Dave, Gerry and I started to count down together….

10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1…Blast offffff!

And this was our first rocket built.