"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.
Mark Simonson
Oneonta reacted to John Glenn's historic space flight in 1962
- Mark Simonson
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A Main Street facelift for Oneonta in the 1920s
It has been just a little over 30 years, 1980 in fact, that Main Street in Oneonta went through a major transformation in appearance. Even now I'll hear mixed comments about the changes, which included antique style lamps, trees, planters and brick trim. Some liked the changes while others liked the wider street with the even-sized sidewalks.
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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.
100 Years Ago -
Recalling the Hindenburg, John D. Rockefeller in May 1937
A young person of 75 years ago may still recall where they were or what they were doing in the month of May, as two big news events took place. They were the Hindenburg disaster and the passing of billionaire John D. Rockefeller. There were some local connections with both news items.
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Oneonta residents had diversions aplenty in the spring of 1952
It is always good to keep up with current events. However, it is starting to become an unwritten requirement to seek some diversions from staying up to date on news, as for some it can become overwhelming or depressing.
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Damaschke essential to ensuring Oneonta baseball in 1927
Oftentimes, in the distant past, the place you worked for became a social nucleus in the village or town. Employees at large companies such as Endicott-Johnson Shoe Co. or IBM in the Binghamton area took part in activities after work such as sports, music and theater, both in and out of town, to represent their company.
- Monday, May 7, 2012
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Area tunes to WONT in November 1972
As a youngster growing up in the area and having a fascination with radio broadcasting, I used to consider it a part-time hobby to put the earphone into my transistor radio and go exploring what was out there to listen to, up and down the dial. It was indeed a long-distance journey at night when listening to AM radio, as you could hear live and locally staffed stations from Chicago, Windsor/Detroit, Atlanta and New Orleans, to name a few cities. I never spent a lot of time listening to FM radio 40 years ago, simply because there wasn't the same "excitement" of the long-distance journey. Little did I realize, things were changing locally on that "other" band of radio frequencies that included decimal points.
- Saturday, May 5, 2012
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Congressman Fairchild added downtown growth in 1912
Another case of wandering imagination struck this historian recently, while learning about the building at 244-248 Main St. in Oneonta, storefronts for the Autumn Café and Razzle Dazzle. This structure is known as the Fairchild block, and it turns 100 this year.
- Monday, April 30, 2012
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From no TV to saving eagles, it was life in April 1982
No television. No place to pay the phone bill. No more Spaulding's baked goods. Possibly no more Center Street School. While these were some of the noes in the news of our area in April 1982, there were some yeses as well, including a new structure at Corning Inc. of Oneonta and help to save bald eagles.
- Saturday, April 28, 2012
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A daily newspaper for Oneonta was an achievement in 1887
Depending on the electronic device you have these days, accessing news can be made nearly as soon as something happens. Oneontans of 125 years ago got their news on a weekly basis, courtesy of The Oneonta Herald.
- Monday, April 23, 2012
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Area saw Hollywood stars up close in April 1952
It has been a mighty long time since Greer Garson, Victor Jory, Don Taylor and Audrey Totter drew big numbers of people at the box office of our local movie theaters. Make it 60 years, in fact. Now generations removed from popularity, some are still able to remember the names of these four movie stars who paid a visit to our area in late April 1952.
- Saturday, April 21, 2012
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Spring tree plantings were numerous in 1927
None of my calendars at home or at my other workplaces show that April 27 of this year is Arbor Day.
- Monday, April 16, 2012
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Nuclear weapon debates were plentiful in April 1982
Plan for a nuclear war -- or seek a nuclear weapons freeze. That was a frequent debate going on in our region during the month of April 1982.
- Saturday, April 14, 2012
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A Titanic survivor stopped in Oneonta days after disaster
Edward Bean was one amongst the lucky one-third of the passengers aboard the Titanic who lived to tell about the disaster of the ill-fated ship that sank after hitting an iceberg on April 15, 1912. Only about a week after the disaster, Bean was in Oneonta, on his way home to Cincinnati.
- Monday, April 9, 2012
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Simonson: April 1952 brought educational developments in Oneonta
There were some interesting new developments in education in Oneonta during the month of April 1952. These took place in the public and private schools, as well as on the Hartwick College campus.
- Saturday, April 7, 2012
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Oneonta's first automobile exhibition took place in April 1917
An automobile show as large as those in Albany or Utica. That was the heady claim of the organizers of Oneonta's first such show, set for early April 1917.
- Monday, April 2, 2012
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Thruway bridge collapsed 25 years ago into Schoharie Creek
I had just started my evening music shift at a Binghamton radio station on Sunday evening, April 5, 1987, with a network newscast at the top of the hour.
- Saturday, March 31, 2012
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Oneonta responded to declaration of World War I
"President Asks For War."
- Monday, March 26, 2012
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Devastating fire, loss in sports status, education made major area news in March 1982
A fire destroyed a foundry in Morris, Hartwick College basketball dropped a division level, two schools considered a merger, and a local Odyssey of the Mind was born. These news items and more made for a busy month in March 1982.
- Saturday, March 24, 2012
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Useful advice for farmers came to the area in 1912
It is practically a rite of autumn for high school students, or college students looking to transfer to a different college.
- Monday, March 19, 2012
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St. Mary's Church of Oneonta dedicated 55 years ago
"With solemn, historic pageantry, the Most Rev. William A. Scully, bishop of Albany, yesterday dedicated the new St. Mary's Church."
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A Main Street facelift for Oneonta in the 1920s
