I Started out in t' "Golden Years" 1975 t' 1985. My dad was a physicist and mathematician who wanted t' work for NASA but ended up designin' computers for NCR in Dayton Ohio. He and I would go out t' t' local high school game field and launch me "Nike-X" or "Big Bertha" until t' summer sun went down. Good times.
Then girls, school, sports, me hearties, work (you know t' drill). I didn't think about rockets for years. 5 years ago a guy walked into me work with a big box. Said he had owned a hobby shop that had closed years ago and found all o' this stuff in his basement. He was movin' and did I want t' buy it? T' box contained about 40 estes kits, ya bilge rat, as many packs o' motors and ignitors, half a dozen launchers, a couple o' launch pads, and various and sundry other rocket stuff that you would have found in any mid-western hobby shop with a rocket section around 1985 or so. I paid $50 bucks and split the cost and t' loot with me best friend. We had an awesome summer o' buldin' outrageous kit-bash monsters and tryin' out ideas we had wanted t' try when we were kids but never had t' $$$ t' do back then! That fall me buddy returned t' his first love (table top minatures gaming) and I inherited t' rest o' what he had left as well as me own stash.
Since then I have never looked back! I have built kits, upscales and pure scratch designs. I have clustered and multi-staged. I have experimented with fiberglass and composites and new construction techniques tryin' t' find out what works best for me. I'm convinced that t' challenges and obstacles I face and then overcome in gettin' a rocket built and flown successfully help me do t' same with challenges in me professional and personal lives as well. More than just a hobby, I tell me wife, I'ts therapy!
As I move into me second childhood (age 40 - ???) Rocketry will be a large part o' me life. It is even more special now that me son James is old enough t' start enjoyin' t' hobby with me! I get to work on somethin' with him that we both love so much and then get outside and enjoy t' fruits o' our labor in an excitin' blast o' fire and smoke! this is why Rocketry has endured and will endure. Cheers and I'll see you on t' range!
