"Boy, that was a real fireball of a ride!"
While one might think that could've been used as a quote by the New York Giants success after their 2011 football season and the win in Super Bowl XLVI, it was made by another giant in history nearly 50 years earlier. It was made by John Glenn, astronaut, as his capsule, Friendship 7, descended to Earth Tuesday, Feb. 20, 1962.
At the time Glenn was as big a hero in America as the Giants of 2012 are in New York. Glenn later paid Oneonta a visit in the fall of 1970.
The Oneonta Star of Wednesday, Feb. 21, 1962, had extensive coverage of Glenn's space flight, which covered three orbits around earth and ending about 700 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral, Fla. What was then called a two-traffic light town had been jammed with 55,000 people to watch the historic launch into space Tuesday.
"Though the U.S. achievement lagged some 10 months behind that of the Russians, there was no doubt that Glenn's flight was a tremendous boost to the morale of the Western world and raised hopes that the United States would really catch up," it was reported by The Associated Press on the Star's front page.
A few days after the flight, President Kennedy arrived to present Glenn with the Distinguished Service Medal of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Around Oneonta the day following the flight, an "inquiring photographer" from the Star talked with a few students at Oneonta High School, then found on Academy Street. They were asked if they had any hopes or expectations of someday riding a space rocket to the moon or another planet.
The response was an overwhelming yes. Barbara Morehouse, a senior, even said, "I want to go to the moon for my honeymoon." Donna Brown, also a senior, said the trip wasn't for her, but it would be "fun to see those itsy-bitsy moon men."
Business was brisk at the Oneonta post office, then at 258 Main St., today's City Hall. A four-cent stamp commemorating Col. Glenn's flight went on sale the day of the flight. By 5 p.m. Wednesday, the post office had sold nearly 8,000 of the new stamps.
Outer space captivated many young people's minds with Glenn's flight, and by October, NASA had developed the "Spacemobile," to travel to schools far and wide. It was created to show programs and projects for peaceful use and exploration of space. The specially designed panel truck first paid a visit to fourth, fifth and sixth graders at Center Street School on Monday, Oct. 8, 1962, and then to the Oneonta Junior High School on Oct. 11.
Almost eight years later, John Glenn made an appearance at the State University College at Oneonta on Thursday, Oct. 8, 1970. It had been just over a year since astronaut Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, and the feeling of politicians was that the U.S. should aim for travel to Mars.
"I don't believe we should think about going to Mars right away," Glenn said in a news conference on the SUNY Oneonta campus. "The idea of going to Mars as soon as we got to the moon is not what the space program is about," Glenn said.
"The main part of the space program is to be able to conduct thousands of research projects scientists have wanted to do," he said.
Glenn was one of many speakers in the 1970-71 academic year at SUNY Oneonta in a symposium entitled "Can We Live Together." Glenn spoke with students that evening more as a political figure than as a pioneer in the U.S. space program. According to The State Times, Glenn "presented his views on the problems in today's world and suggested possible solutions in the course of the hour and a half presentation."
Glenn said that social changes had not kept pace with technological advances, and saw reductions in space appropriations of the time as a "reasonable move in our attempt to allocate more funds for social reform."
This weekend: Anything but a "fine kettle of fish," regarding fishing in Schenevus in 1912.
City Historian Mark Simonson's column appears twice weekly. On Saturdays, his column focuses on the area during the Depression and before. His Monday columns address local history after the Depression. If you have feedback or ideas about the column, write to him at The Daily Star, or e-mail him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is www.oneontahistorian.com. His columns can be found at www.thedailystar.com/marksimonson.
Columns
Oneonta reacted to John Glenn's historic space flight in 1962
- Big Chuck D'Imperio
- Cary Brunswick
-
-
Some wisdom is best passed down through books
I was visiting a friend out-of-town recently and the subject of providing a "reading list" to young people came up in conversation. He said years ago he had asked a respected acquaintance in Oneonta to compile such a list for his teenage daughter, to help her be better prepared for life, culture, education, politics and people.
Continued ... - Let pragmatism, not politics, determine birth control debate
- As Center Street Elementary goes, so goes Center City
- U.S. intervention in Syria's uprising would be a gamble
- Santorum, Obama both got it wrong on Honduras
-
- Chuck Pinkey
- Guest Column
-
-
If we don’t develop a sustainable system, who will?
In Otsego County’s local elections last fall, a number of candidates — most of them on the independent Sustainable Otsego line — ran on an anti-fracking, pro-sustainability platform. They recognized that our current way of life — dependent on increasingly scarce, costly and polluting fossil fuels — cannot continue.
Continued ... - Time to get off the bus and on the computer
- Cuomo's Machiavellian maneuvers are a danger
- Home rule laws aren't a radical idea
- Sustainable shouldn't be a dirty word
-
If we don’t develop a sustainable system, who will?
- Lisa Miller
-
-
Being a parent is a constant learning process
I am sitting cross-legged on the floor in the dressing room, waiting for Allie's dance number to be called. The cave girl costume has been donned, the jazz shoes double-tied, the hair pulled back, the requisite dab of lipstick applied.
Continued ... - Healthy doesn't have to mean expensive
- A family era ends with close of Potter series
- Independent stores make up for loss of Borders
- Untethered from the cable box
-
Being a parent is a constant learning process
- Mark Simonson
-
-
Perfect attendance by Saturday’s Bread for 20 years in Oneonta
Oneonta became a settlement and has been a place to do one's "trading," whether it was the 18th century, or 2012, because of the five valleys that converge here. Only the places of doing the "trading" have changed a bit over the last 100 years, and Oneonta remains a place that attracts visitors and has always been a decent place to live and work.
Continued ...
100 Years Ago - Recalling the Hindenburg, John D. Rockefeller in May 1937
- Oneonta residents had diversions aplenty in the spring of 1952
- Damaschke essential to ensuring Oneonta baseball in 1927
- Area tunes to WONT in November 1972
-
Perfect attendance by Saturday’s Bread for 20 years in Oneonta
- Rick Brockway
-
-
Climbing is one thing, but skydiving?
OUTDOORS COLUMN BY RICK BROCKWAY ... Last week, my friend George and I returned to the Gunks for another rock-climbing adventure. After last week's column, I asked about the rattlesnakes and was told not to worry. Rattlers are usually quite timid and will avoid people as much as possible. It's the copperheads that'll give you trouble. They're aggressive and will stand their ground to defend it. Oh great!!
- Rattlesnakes may be closer than you think, so pay attention
- Spring is here, so fishing should pick up soon
- Sneaky fox may be the next animal looking to horse around
- Pass down the rush of turkey hunting to your kids this weekend
-
Climbing is one thing, but skydiving?
- Sam Pollak
-
-
I'm happy with our kids to a certain degree
It was several years ago, and I was in the kitchen, telling my eldest daughter and my then-teenaged son about the person who was taking over as publisher at The Daily Star.
Continued ... - I get by with a little help from my 'friends'
- It’s not easy for a politics junkie to get off the stuff
- The Encyclopaedia Britannica in print, unmourned by me
- Angelo Dundee was always a good man to have in your corner
-
- William Masters
-
-
Time for lawmakers who put needs of society first
Richard Lugar, after six terms as a Republican senator -- known for his middle of the road rationality and his foreign policy finesse -- has been ousted by a Tea Party extremist backed by outside right-wing funding.
-
War not worth gambling with lives of soldiers
Are you not tired of our war in Afghanistan? It had a point, once, after 9/11. Bush couldn't distinguish his myopic personal agendas from the nation's needs and let Osama escape, dropping the ball entirely, causing many deaths.
-
Titanic was a microcosm of U.S. economic disparity
Haunting reminders of the Titanic tragedy have wafted over us with the centenary of its sinking. The maiden voyage of an impressive, state of the art vessel, was a little like that of the Challenger space shuttle, at the cutting edge of developing technology. But the shuttle carried our pride in science and space exploration, not hundreds and hundreds of people.
-
William Masters: Nation stands divided between 'us' and 'them'
In February, Trayvon Martin was shot dead as "suspicious" by a volunteer neighborhood watch man. The case has aroused community reaction in Sanford, Fla., and is still echoing across the country.
-
A quarterback can't win the game alone
What is the relationship between democracy and wealth? Democracy is a political system, while wealth relates to economics. We have equal political rights, but we don't all have money. Extreme differences destroy the continuity of community solidarity.
-
Time for lawmakers who put needs of society first
