We were doing geography earlier

[conuly]

And we were discussing the problem of longitude. I said - carelessly, not thinking much of it - that longitude was like the space race of the day. I got a full three sentences in before I realized that that phrase was completely meaningless to the girls. Even once I backtracked and gave them the historical background, it had no emotional resonance whatsoever.

Even by my generation, I guess that was all in the past anyway. The exciting parts, I mean, not the useful weather satellites and cell phones and all. I was not yet three when Challenger exploded. I don't think Jenn even has any memory of that, though I could ask her.

I wonder if "the race to be the first person to Mars" would work better as an analogy? Or maybe "the race to fix global warming" (if I thought we all took that seriously)?

Comments

Surprise!

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Sputnik went up when I was 2 months old, so I'm exactly that much older than the Space Race. It was VERY exciting! I distinctly remember watching John Glenn's space ship blast off to orbit the Earth for the first time ever when I was 4, and then of course the First Moon Landing a month before I turned 12 - and the Spring after that, when Apollo 13 got stuck in space for a week, OMG! How fraught was that! The whole country was on edge, praying they'd make it home.

That was two months before my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. My grandfather remembered the Wright Brothers' first flight when he was a little boy - imagine that; only 63 years from the first powered flight to the first Moon landing! But it was Sputnik that really kicked up the pace:



... and this song, practically the National Anthem of the SF community back in the day. What it meant that humans had walked on another planet for the first time ever.... well... I guess you had to be there....

Re: Surprise!

[conuly]

My grandfather remembered the Wright Brothers' first flight when he was a little boy - imagine that; only 63 years from the first powered flight to the first Moon landing!

You know, when you put it like that it's no wonder sci-fi writers always overpredicted how advanced our ability to travel really far, really fast would be IN THE FUTURE.

What it meant that humans had walked on another planet for the first time ever.... well... I guess you had to be there....

Which is probably why the girls have really no clue at a distance of half a century.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

"You know, when you put it like that it's no wonder sci-fi writers always overpredicted how advanced our ability to travel really far, really fast would be IN THE FUTURE."

In those 63 years, we also had WW1, WW2, the Korean War and the Cold War, all increasingly dependent on air power. Look at the huge differences between the airplanes of 1914 and those of 1945: that level of development probably would have taken a century of peace-time.

"Which is probably why the girls have really no clue at a distance of half a century."

Hopefully the songs will help.

[conuly]

In those 63 years, we also had WW1, WW2, the Korean War and the Cold War, all increasingly dependent on air power. Look at the huge differences between the airplanes of 1914 and those of 1945: that level of development probably would have taken a century of peace-time.

And our current wars use a lot and a lot of drone warfare, so same thing but ever so much moreso.