6/19/2023 0 Comments Homer h hickam![]() ![]() ![]() In this "company town," where company houses were painted white only to turn gray with coal dust, the mine superintendent's son measured his days in shifts. ![]() The story originally appeared as a feature in Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine, February/March 1995.ĭuring the heart of the Cold War, Coalwood was an unlikely launching pad. Filmgoers will find the tale brought to the screen in the Universal Studios new release, October Sky. Hickam's story of how a teenage boy's handmade rockets lifted the hopes of a hardscrabble town is told in his charming memoir Rocket Boys. But when he was 14, his life was changed by a space launch on the other side of the world. Hickam, Jr., might well have followed his father and grandfather into the mine. ![]() Raised in Appalachian coal country, Homer H. Had the mine blown up? Were the Russians attacking? But when the echoes died away, folks shrugged and said, "It's just those damn rocket boys!" The first blasts terrified miners and their families. Throughout the summer of 1958, explosions rocked the hills and hollows near Coalwood, West Virginia. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |