What I Know Now That I Didn't Know Then

Today Grams is kicking off a new series intended to pass on the wisdom that comes with aging. Honestly, I'm kind of afraid that by mentioning it last week I've given it more of a build up than it deserves.

This new series was inspired by Anna, who I first met through her blog I Am Nanny Anna. Now she has a new blog, Mid-Life Mama. When she interviewed me for my feature it got me thinking about the things I've learned just as a result of getting older. Clearly women of a certain age have learned a few things just by virtue of experience and age.

Sometimes this will be a serious column intended to illuminate a serious subject. More often it will be tongue in cheek or clever. (I hope so anyway.) I'm also hoping to be able to reduce most of these observations to a one or two line graphic that could be pinned to a Pinterest board. "Hello, I'm Grams and I'm a Pinterest junkie." If you don't already, you can follow me on Pinterest.

So, when I started giving serious thought to things I didn't know about getting older, I realized that there are a few things my mother didn't tell me about getting old being a woman of a certain age. I don't know exactly why women in general haven't shared some of these less than delightful tidbits. I decided to start with this one.

I welcome your input and I will gladly share the credit. If you have words of wisdom to share that would be appropriate for "What I Know Now That I Didn't Know Then," please email me at vicki.valenta(at)gmail.com.

The Space Age Has Been the Time of My Life

When Grams was born in 1954 the space age was in it's infancy. I grew up with America's space program. I was seven years old when President Kennedy challenged America to put a man on the moon within the decade. I remember when Alan Shepherd became the first American in space and when John Glenn became the first American to actually orbit the earth.

The names Gemini, Mercury, and Apollo were synonymous with exploration, adventure, excitement, and the advancement of America. And while we soared with accomplishment there were hardships and sacrifices along the way.

I was amazed when Edward White of Gemini 4 walked in space. That was 1965 and I was 11 years old.

I remember coming home from school in 1967 to learn that Gus Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee had died in a fire on the launchpad while rehearsing the launch of Apollo 1. I was 12 years old.

It was Christmas in 1968 when Apollo 8 became the first flight to actually break free of the earth's orbit. They sent beautiful pictures of planet earth along with Christmas greetings on the mission that orbited the moon for the first time. I was 14 that Christmas and was especially moved to hear the crew read the beginning of the book of Genesis from space. Go here to see and hear it yourself.

Just a year later, I sat on the living room floor with family and friends and watched a live television broadcast from the moon as President Kennedy's challenge was met. There were easily a dozen people crowded around that 19" television. We watched silently with anticipation and pride. We cheered when Neil Armstrong took that monumental first step. We heard him speak the words that still ring through history "That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind." That was July 20, 1969 and I was 15 years old. I distinctly remember walking outside that night and looking at the moon as it hung in the night sky. It has never seemed the same to me since Neil Armstrong took those steps.

For my generation, every single launch was an event worthy of celebration and national pride. There were only three television networks back then, but all three of them preempted programming for every launch and splashdown.

In 1970, the entire nation held it's collective breath when Apollo 13 was almost lost. The mission had to be aborted when the module was damaged by an explosion. Jack Swigert reported "Houston, we've had a problem." From April 14, when the problem was reported, until April 17, when the module splashed down, we watched and listened with morbid fascination, wondering if there was going to be yet another tragedy. Their safe return was a huge accomplishment and the nation was relieved. The crew of Apollo 13 received the Presidential Medal for Freedom from President Nixon in 1970.

The idea of space exploration has never lost it's mystique for me. If there was a television nearby, I watched every launch, splashdown, and landing. We got a close up view of the Space Shuttle Enterprise at the Louisiana World Exposition in 1984. As of September 2010, only 518 people had flown in space. I actually got to meet and talk with one of them. I met Astronaut (and now NASA Administrator) Charles Bolden when he came to Corpus Christi to speak at a United Way luncheon.

When researching for this post, I realized that the first space shuttle flight took place six months before my son was born. He'll be thirty years old in November. For him, spacecraft have always landed like airplanes. He never saw astronauts emerge from a module that was floating in the ocean and then be lifted out to the deck of a U.S. Navy ship.

In 1983, I was 29 years old, when the space program reached two big milestones.  In June of that year, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. And in August of the same year, Guion Bluford became the first African-American in space. The flight of Sally Ride really struck home with me. She proved without question that women really could do anything men could do. The sky was NOT the limit! When these two joined the elite ranks of people who had been to space, in my opinion, the civil rights movement had succeeded and truly anything became possible.

I was watching when the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated on liftoff. I saw the unusual smoke pattern or vapor trail and thought it was odd. But I didn't understand right away what I had seen. As the news coverage continued and it became clear what had happened, I was heartbroken. I knew my children were watching in school that day in anticipation of a lesson from space by teacher Christa McAuliffe. I knew I would have to explain this tragedy in words that my third grade daughter could understand. The year was 1986 and I was 33 years old.

I had just turned on the television on the morning of February 1, 2003 when I heard that Mission Control had not been able to re-establish communication with the Space Shuttle Columbia after their re-entry into the earth's atmosphere. Then I heard that the vehicle had broken up and the entire crew was lost. I was packing for our first cruise that morning. I was 49 years old. Later that week, we sailed from Galveston. In traveling to the ship, we drove right past the main entrance to NASA and witnessed the huge gathering of media there for a memorial service.

I've been wowed by photos taken by the Hubble Telescope. I've been amazed at the length of time individuals have remained aboard the International Space Station. By the way, the record for longest continuous stay in space is held by Russian Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov who spent 437 days, 17 hours and 58 minutes in orbit from January 8, 1994 till March 22, 1995.

Many items that we take for granted are by-products of the space program. Such everyday items as hand-held vacuums, smoke detectors, foam insulation, cordless power tools, water filters, and light emitting diodes (LED) are all items developed by or for the space program. Products like Tang and Velcro, which have long been associated with the space program, were not actually developed for the space program but were used by it.

Scratch resistant lenses are possible because NASA needed the technology for helmet visors. Memory foam and temper foam were developed to ease the impact of re-entry. Infrared ear thermometers that take baby's temperature in the ear are possible because of NASA's need to measure heat in space. Athletic shoes use NASA technology to put that spring in the insoles and provide shock absorption. Modern telecommunication is the direct result of NASA and their satellites. Smoke and gas detectors were developed for Skylab. NASA was the first to experiment with safety grooving of concrete to remove water from landing surfaces making it safer. We use it on highways for the same water removal.

The need for small computers was driven by the space program. That led to the development of micro-chips and laptops. Prior to that, computers took up entire rooms.

Many advancements in medical technology have resulted from the space program. CAT scanners and MRI technology are both results of technology that was developed for lunar imaging. Invisible braces are a by-product of NASA's ceramics research.
 
Mammograms are more precise and breast imaging is safer as a result of NASA video imaging. Solar cells (used on spacecraft) have been coupled with X-ray imaging to reduce radiation exposure for patients.

Robotic microsurgery and laparoscopic surgery resulted from micro-technology originally developed for the space program. Cardiac devices, telemetry, angioplasty, the use of catheters and lasers in heart surgery have all been improved and enhanced by space program technology.

So when I woke up this morning and tuned my television to The Today Show, I saw video of the Space Shuttle Atlantis landing for the last time at the Kennedy Space Center. I am 57 years old. Not only did I grow up with America's space program, I've grown old with it. The end of the American manned space program is sad. What will drive the development of important technology? What will fuel our need to explore and expand? I can't help but feel melancholy. The Space Age has truly been the time of my life.

Sources
Space.com
NPR
NASA
Lunar and Planetary Institute
Hubble Site

All photos from NASA web site.

Family - It's Where You Came From

One of the things that has been occupying Grams these days is planning for my family's first ever family reunion. My family name is Skelton.

My grandfather, Charles Ira Skelton, died long before I was born. My grandmother, Dotsie Zachary Skelton, affectionately known to all of us as Granny, lived in a little tiny house in Bryans Mill, deep in the piney woods of East Texas. They had five children. All three of the boys, James, Buster and Charles, married and had families. Among them they had 13 children. Aunt Nava never married, but she was much beloved by all of her nieces and nephews. Aunt Ava married but had never had children of her own.

To the best of my recollection, Granny died sometime in the late 1970s. She was an amazing woman and quite a character. She was the glue that held our family together and we all loved her dearly. For many of us, she was the one constant in our lives. She was always there in that little house which was always a safe place to go. I promise that in the near future there will be a blog post dedicated solely to my Granny.

Before we moved to the coastal plains of South Texas in 1964, we often lived with Granny in this little house. At varying times some or all of the grandchildren and some or all of her adult children and their spouses lived with Granny. After we moved 500 miles away, we only got to go back and visit Granny a couple of times each year. We rarely saw any of our cousins after that. We simply lost touch with them. Over the last 45 years, we've only seen each other a few times for short visits and family funerals.

Last fall, my brother Charlie, my sister Bylinda and I spent a day together in the Hill Country. As we sat and talked that day we decided that the time has come to get back in touch with the family.

Bylinda took on the job of building a contact list for our first cousins. She was able to locate many of them. She forwarded the list to me and I went to the internet and to Facebook and started tracking down the others. Between the two of us we've been able to contact almost all of our first cousins. And we're working on identifying their spouses and descendants.

What I have found so far, though not yet confirmed, is that my grandparents, Charles & Dotsie Skelton, have at least 94 descendants. My grandparents' five children had a total of 13 children which makes up my generation. Twelve of the thirteen are still living. (My cousin Tommy died in 2000. I didn't even know until we started this research.) We have 24 children. As far as I can tell from my research, so far those 24 children have 24 children. That generation is still young and just starting to have children. When you add all the spouses, I have Identified 94 descendants to date. I really had no idea that there were that many of us.

The sobering reality is that, none of my grandparents' children or their spouses are still living. That means, my generation is the oldest living generation of this family. The oldest of my siblings and cousins are only in their sixties and not a single one of our parents is living. That's not encouraging news as we approach our "golden years." My dad was the baby of the family. He lived to be 78 years old and I think he outlived all of his siblings by quite a few years.

There will be value in finding out our collective medical history. There is so much I don't know. I know my family has had problems with morbid obesity from way back. I know Dad had a series of strokes as well as hardening of the arteries which is what ultimately caused his death. I don't know what any of the others died from. It would be good to find out, just for the sake of sharing that medical family history.

But what I'm really looking forward to is getting re-acquainted with my cousins, people who came from the same roots I did. I've learned from my research that we've made great lives for ourselves and are very successful. I haven't seen these cousins in years and I don't know any of their children, but I know they have beautiful families. Granny's descendants have taken all sorts of career paths. We are teachers, artists, engineers, designers, social workers, stay-at-home moms, preachers, and accountants, just to name a few. But we have a common bond ... we all came from and were shaped by a Granny who loved us. I know she would be proud to know that the Skelton clan is prospering and growing.