As I was driving along the by-ways of the Chicago ‘burbs on Monday, Gertie, our trusted GPS system, was ordering me to hee instead of haw, while my cell phone signaled that a message was pending. I wondered to myself if our internet service was still interrupted at home and what I could warm up in the microwave for supper. As I drove along, our local public radio station began broadcasting NPR’s All Things Considered. Host Robert Siegel began with this opening line:
“Fifty years ago on this date, space became TV-friendly. It was one small moment for an orbiting satellite called Telstar 1, one big leap for couch potatoes everywhere.”
Fifty years ago . . .
. . . I was a young girl, on the cusp of becoming a teenager, with my head usually buried in a book, dreaming of knights in shining armor defending the castle gates or a chance encounter with George Chakiris, snapping his fingers and dancing westward along the Eisenhower Expressway toward me. My world still felt idyllic then. I felt safe in the bosom of my family. The brutal assassinations of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King had not yet occurred, nor the civil unrest that would come as the decade wore on. I was too young to understand Viet Nam, and there were but three national television stations to choose from, ABC, CBS, and NBC – and they went off the air every night to the tune of our national anthem.
As I listened to NPR yesterday, the music of the Tornadoes’ playing Telstar filled my head. I thought of Walter Cronkite’s broadcast, live, across the United States with Chet Huntley, his competitor, in San Francisco and across the Atlantic Ocean to the BBC’s Richard Dimbleby. There was even a cheer from the crowd at a Cubs baseball game in Chicago’s Wrigley Field. How exciting it felt back then; this idea of instant communication across continents and oceans and outer space. I had little idea of what it truly meant or what phenomenal changes it would mean for all of us these fifty years later, but, looking back, the changes have been nothing short of mind-boggling. I think I am more in awe now when I think of all that small satellite in outer spaced, birthed by Ma Bell and raised by the enterprising minds of those who dared to think outside of that little box that sat in our homes all across this globe.
I could wax on about all that the Telstar broadcast shepherded into our lives. Instead, I think I’ll just let it speak on its own as you ponder how instantaneous communications now is and how we take it for granted. The link above is about 10 minutes in length, narrated by Walter Cronkite. I think you will find it interesting if you are so inclined and have the time to listen to him as he talks about this moment in time and how they were all “creating an event to serve technology” when many of us were young girls and boys, and many of us were not even born yet.
You might also enjoy hearing The Tornadoes and their hit song, Telstar.
I remember going outside in our back yard to watch the satellite go by. It was a big deal. All of the neighbors were in their back yards too. We stood there for what seemed like a long time to watch a little dot of light move across the sky. On my I-phone, I have an app that lets me see the constellations in the sky above me. I can touch the screen and also see the satellites. It is amazing how many are in the sky at any one time. The amount of technology that affects our daily life that came from that space program is mind boggling. We do indeed take it for granted.
By the way, I love Telstar.
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That is an interesting app, Janet. I would like that. Isn’t it amazing all that is out there, floating above us? I really hadn’t thought about it much until I heard that we were celebrating 50 years. So much has come from it. Tom has used a glucose monitor now for a lot of years. That originated from the space program.
As soon as I heard the word “Telstar” the tune was playing in my head. Me too.
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A great post Penny, 2 things strike me, one, how interesting that Cronkite uses the word reassuring to describe Dimbleby’s voice from the BBC, just as I was thinking how reassuring Cronkite’s words were. Perhaps having a reassuring voice was a required asset for such posts in those days. The other is how the baseball game section commented about all the baseball fans in Europe, now able to watch the game as it happened. I suspect there were not too many European baseball fans ( who weren’t Americans based in Europe for various reasons) at the time. Anyway, we could hardly imagine the world now could we. I wonder what the next 50 years will bring, and how our grandchildren and their children will look back on the strange antiquated ways of 2012. Thanks for this post, I’ll be thinking about it all day. J.
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Thank you, Janice. Walter Cronkite was known as the mosted trusted man in America in his time. His voice still reassures me, though he passed on some years ago. We could use some of these steady souls these days. I believe both Cronkite and Dimbleby, who is equally revered in Great Britain, served together with the expeditionary news forces during WWII and were likely both at Normandy. Isn’t it amazing to think that fifty years ago a baseball game, our own Chicago Cubs no less, were first being broadcasted live? On Friday, we will all see the lighting of the Olympic torch! I think about what our grandchildren’s world will be like as well, Janice. I have so much hope in our youth, perhaps naive of me, but I think the generations coming up will make things better, in spite of all the horror we see today, in real time. You are quite welcome.
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I remember watching Cronkite as a little girl. When the news was the news. I’m sure he thrashes about in his grave at what we’ve done to it.
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He had integrity, Andra, and he shepherded me through war, civil unrest, the space program, politics, assassinations, politics, history, etal – all with integrity. “When the news was the news” – you are so right.
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We have a friend with some responsibility for satellite technology and when he is able to tell us “more” we often almost pile on top of him in an attempt to have him tell us what’s coming down the information highway! There are places he’ll go, and then there are the smiles he gives us with “can’t tell you that” now! I think it’s amazing to think about it only being 50 years…maybe a younger person would think that’s a long time, but to me, it’s incredible to look back, and then to imagine what even ten years multiplies now! And to the other comments…I DO miss Walter Cronkite, as well as Huntley (and Brinkley) and I think after Peter Jennings passed away I sort of gave up on network news, but I’m grateful for other sources, like our NPR friends! 🙂 D
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How intriguing it would be to have such a friend who is surely of classified standing. I”m enough of a sleuth that I would be looking for clues in everything said. It is amazing, isn’t it, Debra? How much things have changed and evolved, for better or worse, in just one half of a century. Walter Cronkite was like everyone’s uncle, wasn’t he? I have his memoirs sitting on the shelf and should crack that open someday soon.
What would we do without NPR and PBS?
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Hadn’t thought of Telstar in many years, and I, too, had the tune running in my head long before I got to the end of the post and found the link to it. 🙂 Thanks for that memory, Penny.
Technology is wonderful and truly amazing, but as for the way some of it has been put to use . . .
Most of the now gone, true “news”men seemed to genuinely care about getting it right and passing it on to us as factually as possible. Your descriptive word “integrity” is apt. Sadly, such reporting has somehow mostly eroded into the listener/viewer being fed only what is politically expedient, what sounds good on its face but has little depth, and the occasional “warm fuzzy, feel-good tale.” Often, at the conclusion of a “news” item, my sis will look at me and say, “This is news why?” It is, I fear, a way to avoid examining in depth those issues which truly matter. You didn’t know you’d set out a soapbox for me to climb upon, did you?
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You are welcome, Karen. It was such a unique sound at the time and just the mention of Telstar, the satellite, brings the music to mind.
I know. The good with the bad, as they say.
It’s gotten to where I can tell when someone is telling this reporter or that what to say by the looks on their faces. I’ve felt like saying the same. There are a few oasis out there, public radio and television and a few shows, but, for all the channels we now have at our fingertips, there is little in-depth news or just the news. Not to worry, Karen. I enjoy the dialogue and I’m sure your sentiments are shared by others, including me. Soapboxes are welcome here.
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I remember so much of what you’ve described here and agree that we sure have come far. However, I’m not sure if we are better informed because of it! Also, right now I am having a terrible time because my email provider has decided somebody may have tried to use my email so it won’t let me in! Now I realize how my entire life is hooked up to that very email and I can’t even talk to a human being to fix the problem! Life was much simpler way back when.
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I concur, Janet.
Oh dear. Have you tried changing your password? I hope you get it settled soon. I do understand the frustration. Our service keeps going out, our provider keeps coming to fix whatever needs to be fixed, assure us that all is well, then, poof! When emails are waiting to be read or sent and they are of a pressing nature or we want to know how loved ones are, it is truly a problem. Good luck.
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A wnderful post Penny. It seems to me the technology I update and use is always on the cusp of new invention and never quite perfect and can be so frustrating but even so .. amazing.
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Hi, Joan. Nice to see you here and I thank you. Technology is amazing, isn’t it, and just when we think we have the latest, we find out we don’t. We live in such frightening and interesting times and our lives have seen so many changes. I can only imagine what our grandmothers witnessed.
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Penny,
I identified with much of what you wrote about the summer of ’62 . Haven’t we of a certain age been fortunate to witness what has come about in the fifty years? Black and white TV was all there was and my transistor radio brought me Telstar! The more new things produced, the more complex life becomes. In some parts of this world, none of these improvements are yet available. And that is something to think about.
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We certainly have, Marilyn. I can remember our first television set, which was a huge piece of furniture with a very small screen. I thought it was magic. I guess it was. I’d forgotten we had a transistor radio, too. It was such a novel thing when it first came out. Sometimes, I do long for the simpler times when life seemed slower. It is, indeed, something to thing about.
Hope you are staying cool.
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Phil and I get very emotional about Telstar. Such a gorgeous, engineer’s piece of history, a stage of technical evolution. Nancy Hatch, of Spirit Lights The Way, has lost her father recently. We are all sad for her. Her tribute to him stemmed from the fact that he worked on Telstar. A special man, I think. Its a wonderful post, poignant but celebratory with some amazing footage. http://nrhatch.wordpress.com/2012/07/22/one-speck-in-space/
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Kate, this somehow ended up in the Spam file and I just discovered it. Here it is in hopes that others will see Nancy Hatch’s tribute to her dad. Thank you again, Kate.
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Whoops! just posted a comment and it disappeared, probably because of the link included 🙂 I wanted you to know about Nancy Hatch of Spirit Lights The Way whose Dad worked on Telstar. Her latest post includes a link to a fabulous film about Telstar which includes her father, who died only a few weeks ago. It is a lovely tribute to the man and the star!
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I googled and found it, Kate. Thank you for telling me about Nancy’s post and her father. It is a lovely tribute, indeed, and to come at the 50th anniversary of Telstar’s launch so fitting, though such a loss to her. Folks like Nancy’s dad were such pioneers, each in their own way. Where would be without folks who think outside of the box?
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Thank you for the reminder and the video….. I do remember this (I was busy with babies at that time and a lot of news kinda’ escaped me, but I remember watching this with Walter Cronkite and also going outside to look for it.
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And to think, those babies are grown up with babies and even their babies using computers and cell phones and all the tools of this era we now live it, Sallie. What an experience it was going outside to look for the satellite, wasn’t it?
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Dear Penny, thank you for this trip down memory lane and for that fleeting reference to “West Side Story.” After seeing it I was so sure that I could dance too! And I’d go outside in the back yard and leap and dance, skip and jump while belting out show tunes!
So much change is truly such a short time in the technological world we now live it. It’s mind boggling in many ways. Peace.
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You are welcome, Dee. I think we all thought we could dance, acting out the scenes in similar ways, snapping our fingers. It is fun to remember, isn’t it?
It is mind boggling with much good that has come out it, much not.
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