stefanj
12-20-2006, 12:27 AM
This is rocketry related. Bear with me.
So, I'm back East visiting my parents. We decide to go for a ride out to eastern Long Island, something they would never, ever do since it would be five hours away and mean a ride on congested highways. But, heck, it's a dream.
We end up driving into a old-fashioned family beach resort. It is pretty much closed for the season, but the main clubhouse, an old mansion, is open, along with the restaurant. We get on line for a table.
For some reason, I wander off. I go up and down the stairs of the mansion, look at walls of pictures of customers enjoying the place. There's a glass case with more photos and a history of the family that runs it. I run into the current manager / owner going about his business; he looks vaguely familiar, and when he introduces himself to someone the name sounds VERY familiar.
Eventually I wander outside, along a road through the pine barrens. There are campsites, deserted for the winter, and clusters of funky old weather-beaten rental cabins. One of the clusters looks like a Boy Scout camp I once attended.
I end up at a rambling concrete and tile recreation center, with an outdoor pool and snack stands and locker rooms and such. It is pretty much closed up, with the chairs up on tables and umbrellas folded up and the snack bars sealed with metal shutters. It was all very bleak and sad and picturesque.
But . . . there's a LIBRARY! And it's open. And what a library! A warm brightly lit room with all sorts of great kids' books, plus guides for camping and outdoor crafts and indian lore and the like. Wow! I thought, why couldn't my family have stayed at places like this when I was growning up?
One section is titled BANGS. It's a chemistry and pyrotechnics section! There are all sorts of books from the 50s on how to do experiments and make fireworks. I'm amazed and excited.
Then I find it. A model rocketry catalog. One I'd never seen before. The company was kind of a composite of Coaster and FSI; they made huge fancy motors back in the old days. The catalog had never even been scanned in, but I'd read about it online. And get this; the outfit was a family business, the same family that ran the resort.
I realized, seeing the pictures on the inside cover, that the aging baby boomer who I'd run into a half an hour before was once the head of a rocketry company!
I found another book or catalog by the same company. I found the "librarian," who told me she didn't care if I took them, as long as I got permission from the big guy.
I ran back to the mansion, getting lost on the winding road (suddenly there was a suspension bridge involved), but finally getting back. There still wasn't a table available, but time was running short. I ran through the mansion, desperately seeking the owner. I sort of realized that this was too damn good to be true but that if I found the guy I might be able to get permission to keep the books even though it was a . . . dream.
Damn. Pop!
God Damn, I felt so horrible after that! It seemed so logical and promising. I had had "Bonanza Hobby Shop" dreams before, but this was somehow so much worse.
So, I'm back East visiting my parents. We decide to go for a ride out to eastern Long Island, something they would never, ever do since it would be five hours away and mean a ride on congested highways. But, heck, it's a dream.
We end up driving into a old-fashioned family beach resort. It is pretty much closed for the season, but the main clubhouse, an old mansion, is open, along with the restaurant. We get on line for a table.
For some reason, I wander off. I go up and down the stairs of the mansion, look at walls of pictures of customers enjoying the place. There's a glass case with more photos and a history of the family that runs it. I run into the current manager / owner going about his business; he looks vaguely familiar, and when he introduces himself to someone the name sounds VERY familiar.
Eventually I wander outside, along a road through the pine barrens. There are campsites, deserted for the winter, and clusters of funky old weather-beaten rental cabins. One of the clusters looks like a Boy Scout camp I once attended.
I end up at a rambling concrete and tile recreation center, with an outdoor pool and snack stands and locker rooms and such. It is pretty much closed up, with the chairs up on tables and umbrellas folded up and the snack bars sealed with metal shutters. It was all very bleak and sad and picturesque.
But . . . there's a LIBRARY! And it's open. And what a library! A warm brightly lit room with all sorts of great kids' books, plus guides for camping and outdoor crafts and indian lore and the like. Wow! I thought, why couldn't my family have stayed at places like this when I was growning up?
One section is titled BANGS. It's a chemistry and pyrotechnics section! There are all sorts of books from the 50s on how to do experiments and make fireworks. I'm amazed and excited.
Then I find it. A model rocketry catalog. One I'd never seen before. The company was kind of a composite of Coaster and FSI; they made huge fancy motors back in the old days. The catalog had never even been scanned in, but I'd read about it online. And get this; the outfit was a family business, the same family that ran the resort.
I realized, seeing the pictures on the inside cover, that the aging baby boomer who I'd run into a half an hour before was once the head of a rocketry company!
I found another book or catalog by the same company. I found the "librarian," who told me she didn't care if I took them, as long as I got permission from the big guy.
I ran back to the mansion, getting lost on the winding road (suddenly there was a suspension bridge involved), but finally getting back. There still wasn't a table available, but time was running short. I ran through the mansion, desperately seeking the owner. I sort of realized that this was too damn good to be true but that if I found the guy I might be able to get permission to keep the books even though it was a . . . dream.
Damn. Pop!
God Damn, I felt so horrible after that! It seemed so logical and promising. I had had "Bonanza Hobby Shop" dreams before, but this was somehow so much worse.