Remember the movie Apollo 13? It came out a few years ago, about the ill-fated third moonshot in 1970. I found the story of its making at least as enthralling as the movie itself. Director Ron Howard and stars Tom Hanks and Gary Sinise shared a memory of their childhood, one I shared with them. There was a lot of faking the flu to stay home those years and catch every patch-out and wheelie of the lunar rover as it rounded Taurus-Littrow crater.
Adult visitors had to watch what they said around our house. The slightest passing comment about how marvelous it was that we were going to the moon was my invitation to roll out my 1:96 scale Revell Apollo/Saturn plastic model kit, with all the parts snap-fitted together, so that I could demonstrate staging, Lunar Module acquisition and trans-lunar insertion burns. In today’s parlance, I geeked out on NASA. (I can remember a nun in our Catholic school, who had to be 137 if she was a day, ask me, “So, you like Nassau?” I answered “yes” to be compliant, and I realized what she said much later.)
