The Magic Transporter. Why Should Kirk Have All the Fun?

 

I don’t remember the specific date when I used the Magic Transporter for the last time, but I think I was about eight or nine. I do remember the events that were going on the night it happened. 

My dad was very interested in the space program. So, if some event was going on, he’d call me into the living room to watch it on TV. I’d sit on the floor and listen to Walter Cronkite as I watched whatever NASA was up to on that particular mission. On that evening, the lunar lander had landed safely on the moon, but there was a lengthy delay between landing and when someone actually stepped out of the capsule. That knowledge narrows it down a little, since there were six crewed landings between 1969 and 1972.

I recall laying on the floor in front of the TV, and covered up with a woobie my dad had brought home. I remember Cronkite talking with his cast of experts and broadcasting live audio from Mission Control. Every radio transmission ended with a distinctive beep. 

At some point, I no longer heard the beeps as exhaustion overtook me and I fell asleep. 

What happened next was something almost everyone can relate to. Somehow, after falling asleep in one place, you mysteriously found yourself in your own bed, tucked under the covers, when you awoke the next morning. Of course, folks who were kids before Star Trek began in 1966 had to call it something else besides the Magic Transporter. Whatever you call it, it was an experience many of us share and I count this among the many wonderful memories I have of my childhood.

When I became a father, I found out what it was like on the other end of that magic, when I served as Magic Transporter for my children, taking them from wherever they fell asleep to their bed. Just like me, not one of them questioned how that magic happened. They just accepted it as part of life and went on.

Night before last, I served as transporter again. I had rocked my youngest granddaughter to sleep and with that mission accomplished I picked her up, put her in her bed, and covered her up. The next morning, she made no mention of the magic that moved her from one place to another. I know at some point in the future, she will take over my role and I hope that when she does, she remembers her rides on the Magic Transporter fondly.

By the way, something is simple as my dad sharing his interest in space, led to my own interest in it. Which, probably led to me taking my son to Space Camp. Yes, it is a real place.

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It Started By Staying Gold

 

Whenever a discussion takes place about what and when you began reading, I’ve always said the first book I ever read was Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham. It was the very first book I ever read by myself, and, since we are far beyond any statute of limitations.  I'll admit it was the first book I ever accidentally stole from the library. I had the book checked out from the  Ft Ord Elementary School library, then a few days later my father got orders and we were moving to a new base. Somehow, the book got packed with everything else in my room and I never returned it. My bad.

Even though Dr. Seuss’s book was my first book, it wasn’t my first novel. It never really occurred to me which complete novel I read first into low was writing my last entry. The very first novel that I read from beginning to end and owned several copies over the course of my life (not stolen from a library) was S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders. It wasn’t something we studied in class; it wasn’t something I read in the report on for extra credit, nor was it something that anyone recommended to me. While I was looking through the books in the Scholastic Books flyer, I discovered it and ordered it.

I am far beyond doing a report on that book now, so if you’re not familiar with it I would recommend you check out the write up on Wikipedia. It is kind of amazing that the book was still in the flyer considering it was released originally in 1967, and I discovered it in 1973. 

The book’s Tulsa, Oklahoma setting coincided with my time living on Ft. Sill, but aside from that and the fact that I was also fourteen, there was not really a lot of similarity between my life and Ponyboy Curtis’. I did not have older brothers; I was not in a gang, and both of my living parents were alive. What drew me into the book was the things he was going through emotionally and the common situations that all junior high school students run into. All the way down to the girl named Cherry who was from a different part of town but somehow ended up with Ponyboy. It was exactly the right book at exactly the right time. The next year, I was dealing with a similar situation with a girl from the civilian side of town. I’m sad to say I don’t remember if her name was Jennifer or Jessica, but I’ll never forget her beautiful, long, red hair.

What the book provided to me during that period of my life was reinforcement that all the things I was feeling were not just being felt by me. Those years can be difficult for some, and confusing to all. A little reassurance that you are not alone in what you feel is beneficial and helps you move forward. Books like movies sometimes just come to you at the right time.

Immediately upon finishing the first reading of the book, I read it again. There’s only been a few books that triggered immediate second reading. The thing was, I needed to know the characters and situations better. Not that I had poor reading comprehension, but the book was so important to me, I wanted to make sure I had missed nothing. Looking back, I don’t remember if I discovered anything or not. Since that time, I’ve read the book a few more times, and I took time to see Francis Ford Coppola’s movie version of the story. While the movie was okay, I’m glad I discovered the book first.

I read the sequel to the book, That Was Then, This Is Now, but I've never read Rumble Fish, the next S.E. Hinton book. I went from those books to My Darling, My Hamburger, which I thought was written by S.E. Hinton, but it was by Paul Zindel. From there, I moved on to topics that varied widely. I remember reading Go Ask Alice, and several other books about teenage drug abuse and teen pregnancy. Luckily, I guess these books served as warnings to me and I avoided those pitfalls.

It was somewhere after I started high school in Virginia that what I read became wide and varied, limited only to what I could find in the library. At that point I had become such a ferocious reader there was no way I could afford to buy everything and at some point, during this period Scholastic Books flyers disappeared. I also went through stages, reading only biographies or history, then on to horror, then fiction set in the present day. Even now, I have a tendency to read three books at once: one self-improvement or philosophy, one history, and one just for fun. I can we hope that kids in middle and junior high school are discovering the joy of reading in whatever way they can. It broadens the possibility that they will find a wide range of topics that interest them and makes for a more well-rounded life.

When my son was attending H.H. Arnold Middle School in Wiesbaden Germany, his teacher assigned the book not only as required reading but they spent an entire semester trying to understand the nuances of what it meant to be a Greaser or Soc. Because I wanted to discuss the book with him knowledgeably, if he chose to, I bought a new copy of the book and read it again. I could connect with him about the book, and that made it even more special to me. I’m wondering now if he will turn his kids on to The Outsiders.

Finding our that S.E. Hinton is a woman wasn't a disturbing revelation. I never really thought about it back then and when I found this out years later, my reaction was no reaction. She captured the emotion and I could relate to it. That’s what matters. Check here for more on S. E. Hinton. 

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