NARCON Memories

[Tau Zero]

Here's a follow-up to the "NARCON: Who's going?" thread:

http://forums.rocketshoppe.com/showthread.php?t=719&page=1&pp=10


Does anybody have some especially memorable tidbits of NARCON this year? (Besides having John Dyer of Red River Rocketry take a picture of your jeans-clad backside in the Vendor's Room, I mean. :o )

Right before Lee Piester's address Friday night, Scott Goebel and I discovered our last names were pronounced "Gable" and "Gomer," respectively.

After Lee's address, Bill Eichelberger told me, "You look taller in person." ;)

Carl McLawhorn of Semroc saw me and said, "Jay," and all I could do was give him a big hug, and tell him, "Thanks for everything!" :D :cool:

I didn't *intend* to swap stories about Chas Russell :eek: with the aforementioned John Dyer, but I sat down in the Vendor's Room and had a rather lengthy chat with him about all kinds of stuff. (Plus he burned me a CD of the pictures he had, right there on the spot!)

I asked David J. Miller of Sirius Rocketry, "*So.* Are you *really* serious?" He chuckled and said he was.

At the beerloft Saturday night, I introduced myself to Matt Steele, and he reminded me we'd met at NSL 2002 near Phoenix. :o I told him, "That's *right!* No wonder you've seemed so familiar the past few years!" ;)

Scott Hansen's voice was deeper than I thought it would be, what with him still being skinny, and all. :rolleyes: We clicked bottles (my was plastic, his was glass) and talked about reading books... and stuff.


Anybody else?

Cheers,

--Jay

[Ltvscout]

Scott Hansen's voice was deeper than I thought it would be, what with him still being skinny, and all. :rolleyes: We clicked bottles (my was plastic, his was glass) and talked about reading books... and stuff.
Heh, it used to be real high in grade school. I used to sing first soprano in grade school choir. ;) When I got to high school my voice dropped from the highest to the lowest singing-wise. I sang second bass in concert choir in high school. Weird how that works!

[JRThro]

Right before Lee Piester's address Friday night, Scott Goebel and I discovered our last names were pronounced "Gable" and "Gomer," respectively.

(snip)

Anybody else?

Cheers,

--Jay
Okay, I'll go next.

I'm, um, shyer and more reserved in person than I am online, so I struggled with that a good part of the weekend, but...

The most enjoyable thing about NARCON for me was meeting in person some of the great people I'd already "met" on YORF, TRF, the OldRockets Yahoo! group, etc., or knew of from the forums:
Jay Goemmer - one of the nicest guys you could ever want to meet
Bill Eichelberger - on top of everything else, his knowledge of music is encyclopedic except when it comes to Renaissance (the band, not the period in European history)
Scott McCrate - a really nice, funny guy
Scott Hansen - I didn't really notice the low voice, but he definitely is skinny
John Dyer - though I didn't actually introduce myself
David J. Miller of Sirius Rocketry - though I didn't introduce myself
John Arthur of jonrockets.com - though I didn't introduce myself, I spent a lot of time at his vendor table and bought the last Holverson Designs Wicked Winnie he had... plus a bunch of other kits.
Bruce McLawhorn - talked to him a bit at the beerlofting session at the hotel Saturday night
Peter Alway - no introduction, but he asked me if I wanted to buy something from his vendor table, as he was about to go somewhere else for a while.

Since I'm of German heritage and a lot of the people in my home town are too, I noticed the pronunciations of Scott Goebel's and Jay Goemmer's last names, too. And I also noticed that they pronounced each other's names as "Gobel" and "Gamer." :p

Though I have absolutely no past experiences involving Centuri rockets given that I've been in the hobby less than 2 years, I introduced myself to Lee Piester after his talk and complimented him on it.

Soon after I arrived, I saw Jay Apt, so I asked him, "Are you Jay Apt?" and said hello and shook his hand.

I attended Bob Alway's egglofting seminar, which involved a lot of byplay between him and Peter. Also, those guys know a LOT about competitive model rocketry!

I'm sure I've forgotten some people, but a lot of the weekend is already a blur... and I don't even drink!
;) :) :eek:

[DeanHFox]

This was the first year I've had the opportunity to visit a NARCON, and I'd like to echo the sentiments of the early posters to the thread. It was great to meet and associate faces to names for all the folks I routinely read here and on TRF.

I'd have to say that the highlight of the weekend (for me, anyway) was the chance to meet a couple people that influenced me profoundly as a youngster. I was a child of the Space Age; I spent those formative years watching us race to the moon, building models of our moonships, and actually *flying* rockets myself! It was some of the best times of my life, and helped set the course into science, engineering, and technology that I still follow to this day.

When I was a kid, "Penrose, Colorado" and "Phoenix, Arizona" had the same cachet as "Emerald City, Oz", because that was where the magical Estes and Centuri rockets were designed and manufactured. I literally spent HOURS reading and re-reading those catalogs, often falling asleep on a summer's evening staring at a picture of a Centuri Taurus and imaging flying off to some exotic planet in it...remember, we were all going to be flying spaceships for real, soon, anyway, right?

And (not to offend any Estes zealots, here), Centuri rockets always seemed more...cool?...more "gee whiz", anyway, than most of their Estes counterparts (OK, don't starting throwing OT's, Interceptors, and Mars Landers at me, I loved those designs, too!). I built every Centuri design I could get my hands on, and used to "zoom them around my room" when I couldn't afford motors to fly 'em. :)

So --- when NARCON presented the opportunity to meet "The Wizard of Phoenix", as it were...hey, how many of you would pass up the chance to meet the Great and Powerful Oz? And Lee (and Betty, too!) showed that my youthful "boy, it would be great to be like them" idolization wasn't misplaced. Listening to Lee talk about those heady days in the 60's and 70's was like having a chance to hear Neil Armstrong talk about the first moon landing...for just a couple of hours, I was *THERE* with him, Betty, and all the other inhabitants of the Emerald City of Centuri. :)

Not to shortchange anybody else that was there --- Carl and the gang at Semroc are amazing; John Dyer over at Red River Rocketry was a waaay cool guy (c'mon, John, more kits! I love your sense of style!); I'm still totally agog at Sirius Rocketry's Saturn V (I *loved* the fact that he had the Mars Lander sitting on it for a chunk of the weekend --- boo yah!); and all the others I've overlooked --- the vendors are great folks and I'm glad to support 'em with $$$, as they continue to make my adult rocketry as much fun as my childhood rocketry was.

I guess the best thing about NARCON was --- it helped confirm to me that there are a lot of other geeks like me who're passionate about this hobby, and are willing to travel (in some cases) across the country to be part of it. It was a hoot, and I can't wait to see where it all happens next time. I'll do my damndest to be there. :)

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

This was the first year I've had the opportunity to visit a NARCON, and I'd like to echo the sentiments of the early posters to the thread. It was great to meet and associate faces to names for all the folks I routinely read here and on TRF.

I'd have to say that the highlight of the weekend (for me, anyway) was the chance to meet a couple people that influenced me profoundly as a youngster. I was a child of the Space Age; I spent those formative years watching us race to the moon, building models of our moonships, and actually *flying* rockets myself! It was some of the best times of my life, and helped set the course into science, engineering, and technology that I still follow to this day.

When I was a kid, "Penrose, Colorado" and "Phoenix, Arizona" had the same cachet as "Emerald City, Oz", because that was where the magical Estes and Centuri rockets were designed and manufactured. I literally spent HOURS reading and re-reading those catalogs, often falling asleep on a summer's evening staring at a picture of a Centuri Taurus and imaging flying off to some exotic planet in it...remember, we were all going to be flying spaceships for real, soon, anyway, right?

And (not to offend any Estes zealots, here), Centuri rockets always seemed more...cool?...more "gee whiz", anyway, than most of their Estes counterparts (OK, don't starting throwing OT's, Interceptors, and Mars Landers at me, I loved those designs, too!). I built every Centuri design I could get my hands on, and used to "zoom them around my room" when I couldn't afford motors to fly 'em. :)

So --- when NARCON presented the opportunity to meet "The Wizard of Phoenix", as it were...hey, how many of you would pass up the chance to meet the Great and Powerful Oz? And Lee (and Betty, too!) showed that my youthful "boy, it would be great to be like them" idolization wasn't misplaced. Listening to Lee talk about those heady days in the 60's and 70's was like having a chance to hear Neil Armstrong talk about the first moon landing...for just a couple of hours, I was *THERE* with him, Betty, and all the other inhabitants of the Emerald City of Centuri. :)

Not to shortchange anybody else that was there --- Carl and the gang at Semroc are amazing; John Dyer over at Red River Rocketry was a waaay cool guy (c'mon, John, more kits! I love your sense of style!); I'm still totally agog at Sirius Rocketry's Saturn V (I *loved* the fact that he had the Mars Lander sitting on it for a chunk of the weekend --- boo yah!); and all the others I've overlooked --- the vendors are great folks and I'm glad to support 'em with $$$, as they continue to make my adult rocketry as much fun as my childhood rocketry was.

I guess the best thing about NARCON was --- it helped confirm to me that there are a lot of other geeks like me who're passionate about this hobby, and are willing to travel (in some cases) across the country to be part of it. It was a hoot, and I can't wait to see where it all happens next time. I'll do my damndest to be there. :)

Estes zealots? :confused:

[DeanHFox]

Zealot: n. A fanatically committed person. In this case, one who is fanatically committed exclusively to Estes kits, esp. those from the 60's and early 70's. :)

Not saying that anyone here *is* an Estes zealot...I just didn't want to offend anyone who *was* by my obviously pro-Centuri bias.

Best part of being a rocket enthusiast these days is the large number of vendors producing kits...I envy my boys for the great selection of designs and broad support from places like this on the Web, as just one example! My son wandered around the vendor room at NARCON, obviously tickled that there were so many places to hit Dad up for money for "just one more kit". :)

[Ltvscout]

Not saying that anyone here *is* an Estes zealot...I just didn't want to offend anyone who *was* by my obviously pro-Centuri bias.
Heh, I grew up a Centuri boy myself, Dean. ;)

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

Zealot: n. A fanatically committed person. In this case, one who is fanatically committed exclusively to Estes kits, esp. those from the 60's and early 70's. :)

Not saying that anyone here *is* an Estes zealot...I just didn't want to offend anyone who *was* by my obviously pro-Centuri bias.

Best part of being a rocket enthusiast these days is the large number of vendors producing kits...I envy my boys for the great selection of designs and broad support from places like this on the Web, as just one example! My son wandered around the vendor room at NARCON, obviously tickled that there were so many places to hit Dad up for money for "just one more kit". :)

I got that. I was just wondering if that was like the Loch Ness Monster or the Abominable Snowman. I myself flew anything that I could find and afford. ;)

[DeanHFox]

Y'know, it was the strangest thing (and maybe this was true everywhere, and I'm just learning it now!)...but I always had to buy my Estes rockets out of the catalog from Penrose. When the local Hobby Center Toys store in Lima, Ohio, started carrying model rockets...they were Centuri designs. It wasn't until a couple years after the Centuri's showed up on the racks that the Estes models started appearing, too.

I thought I heard Lee say something to that effect, too, but he didn't elaborate. It wasn't until years and YEARS later that I learned about (and bought and flew!) MPC, MRI, and the like. Too bad, too --- I always thought the MPC designs were neat (I love my Theta Cajun and Moon Go) :)

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

I remember the smirk on the face of the clerk when he mentioned that he had a room with a single king for Scott and I. He looked way too ...........interested. :eek:
I remember not being impressed by cheese curds in a "not worth driving to Wisconsin for" kind of way. I didn't loathe them or anything like that, but I've been eating them from White Castle for years. No big deal.
I remember looking in a Milwaukee phone book for Arthur Fonzerelli, half expecting him to be there. I didn't know what Potsie's real name was, so I didn't bother with him, and I always wanted to punch Ralph Malph in the mouth anyway, so I didn't bother with him either.
I remember this really big Outlander, but I think it was a flashback.
I remember one REALLY nasty beer this time, and I think Scott brought it again. :D

[Tau Zero]

I'm, um, shyer and more reserved in person than I am online, so I struggled with that a good part of the weekend, but...

The most enjoyable thing about NARCON for me was meeting in person some of the great people I'd already "met" on YORF, TRF, the OldRockets Yahoo! group, etc., or knew of from the forums:
Jay Goemmer - one of the nicest guys you could ever want to meetThanks, John! I've always tried to make it a point to be approachable to everybody (unless I'm trying to get news stories done on weeknights between 4:30 and 6:00 p.m.!). Plus, I'm so used to just walking up to people and introducing myself (that's my news reporter experience), that I forget I used to be shy. :eek: (No, really!) So thanks for coming up and saying "Hi!"


Since I'm of German heritage and a lot of the people in my home town are too, I noticed the pronunciations of Scott Goebel's and Jay Goemmer's last names, too. And I also noticed that they pronounced each other's names as "Gobel" and "Gamer." It was pretty funny when we were comparing notes later. "You mean *that's* how you say your name?" ;) :D


John Dyer - though I didn't actually introduce myself
David J. Miller of Sirius Rocketry - though I didn't introduce myself
John Arthur of jonrockets.com - though I didn't introduce myself, I spent a lot of time at his vendor table and bought the last Holverson Designs Wicked Winnie he had... plus a bunch of other kits.Y'know, for not introducing yourself to a few folks, you were pretty much "making the rounds," John. ;)


Soon after I arrived, I saw Jay Apt, so I asked him, "Are you Jay Apt?" and said hello and shook his hand.Y'know, I wanted to shake his hand and talk to him briefly (we had e-mailed each other for my Lee Piester article), but I was so busy playing "Official Photographer" for Lee and Betty that it slipped past me.

*Plus,* if I'd put two and two together and figured out that EV stood for E [static burst] V [further signal interference], :eek: I would have made it a point to stick my head into the session on "Rocket Design with MS PowerPoint." Sorry, EV! :o


I'm sure I've forgotten some people, but a lot of the weekend is already a blur... and I don't even drink!That's okay. Some of the rest of us will take care of the slack.


Cheers ("Clink!"),

--Jay

[Tau Zero]

I remember the smirk on the face of the clerk when he mentioned that he had a room with a single king for Scott and I. He looked way too ...........interested. :eek: Yeah, that was a little too... *creepy.* :eek: The clerk's response, I mean. :rolleyes: :o


I remember one REALLY nasty beer this time, and I think Scott brought it again. :D Well, he *is* the "Beer Skunk," and with people expecting him to deliver, well... There ya go. ;)


Cheers,

--Jay

[Eagle3]

Jay, did you ever mail your CD of NARCON photos?

[JRThro]

Y'know, for not introducing yourself to a few folks, you were pretty much "making the rounds," John. ;)
I did the best I could. It helped a lot that people were generally smiling and looked really approachable. It also helped a lot that many of the people I introduced myself to already sort of "knew" me.

*Plus,* if I'd put two and two together and figured out that EV stood for E [static burst] V [further signal interference], :eek: I would have made it a point to stick my head into the session on "Rocket Design with MS PowerPoint." Sorry, EV! :o
I attended that session, which was pretty darned cool, and I"m not sure when I realized that Eric was Echo Victor.

[EchoVictor]

Thanks, John. :D I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Given the amount of PowerPoint crap I put up around here, I thought that the correlation to my screen name would have been apparent....

Later,
EV

[Eagle3]

Jay's photos of NARCON 2006 are now online now.

http://www.cv41.org/personal/gallery/jg_narcon2k6

Thanks Jay

[PaulK]

Wowzo, I actually made it into a photo. Thanks Jay. Geez, I'm only 44 and I'm considered an "Old Rocketeer" :rolleyes: I wonder what we will call the old rocketeers session when we're all over 80?


-Paul

[DeanHFox]

"Old Rocketeers Never Die...They Just Go OOP".

(gee, thanks, Jay, for that great shot of my bald spot. Now I've had my 15 minutes of Internet fame, from my most flattering angle) :D ;) :))

[Tau Zero]

"Old Rocketeers Never Die...They Just Go OOP".

(gee, thanks, Jay, for that great shot of my bald spot. Now I've had my 15 minutes of Internet fame, from my most flattering angle) :D ;) :))(heavy sigh) You and me and Scott Hansen:

http://forums.rocketshoppe.com/showpost.php?p=6682&postcount=76


John Dyer of Red River Rocketry was kind enough to preserve our "Old Rocketeer Backsides" for future generations. (holds head in hands)


Cheers,

--Jay

[Tau Zero]

Wowzo, I actually made it into a photo. Thanks Jay.Speaking of embarrassing shots, would this one happen to be you? If so, *sorry!* (I've got the beginnings of a bald spot, too.):

http://www.cv41.org/personal/gallery/jg_narcon2k6/11_LeeSignsAutographs_DSCF0


For the record, the Old Rocketeer photos (and the MicroClassics shot, among others) are courtesy of John Dyer. That's how come I'm in the shot here, to the right:

http://www.cv41.org/personal/gallery/jg_narcon2k6/40_Lee_andOldRocketeers_100


You can also see David J. Miller ("Sirius Rocketry") and Betty Piester in the shot above, and my tie-dye green shirt appears in two of the other Old Rocketeer shots, as well.


Geez, I'm only 44 and I'm considered an "Old Rocketeer" :rolleyes: I wonder what we will call the old rocketeers session when we're all over 80?The *Really* Old Guys? :eek: ;) :D


Cheers,

--Jay

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

Quote:
Geez, I'm only 44 and I'm considered an "Old Rocketeer" I wonder what we will call the old rocketeers session when we're all over 80?

The *Really* Old Guys?

More like "the late, great". :eek:

[Carl@Semroc]

NARCON was a blur for us. The weeks (months...) of preparation. The anticipation. The long drive. The booth setup. The addresses by Lee (and Betty) and Matt. Renewing old friendships. Meeting new friends. Missing our friends that could not make it. Far too much fun, then it was over. The long drive back home. Then the orders and demand for what we did not have!

There has been little time to slow down and remember and pass around thanks to everyone that made NARCON 2006 possible.

Scott and everyone at WOOSH. You have made it a tough act to follow.

Jay, thanks for drawing Lee and Betty back into the fold. I don't think they would have come if you had not laid the groundwork. I started Semroc in 1967 because of my admiration of Vern and Lee and a desire to be like them. Since then I have discovered that Gleda and Betty were just as responsible for building the dream I am living in. I hope we will all see much more of the Piester's at future events.

Looking forward to NARAM now!

[Initiator001]

Looking forward to NARAM now!

Me, too!

I look forward to meeting you.

I, also, expect I will be leaving you with a bit of my hard earned $$$ for all the new kits you will be bringing to NARAM to sell! :D

See you in August!

Bob

[Blushingmule]

Hi all,

Bob here, went to NARCON '00 (held in the DFW area) before moving to Nacogdoches. Was a member of DARS and later MARS.

Not much going on here in "falling parts city" (happened upon a scorched composite piece next to my car that had floated down for hours...I can give details if interested) but there are plenty of projects ahead.

Bob