My Rocket Boys

Last week my blog was about some of the creations that the boys have brought home from school. I've been pretty impressed with the things that they are learning, and proud of how excited they are about their projects. This week was no exception. Billy came home yesterday with a rocket he had built in Tech. Ed. He said that I could take his picture with it only if the dog was in the picture too. It's never as easy as it looks around here.

I think that the rocket project was especially fun for Billy because one of his favorite books is "Rocket Boys" by Homer Hickam, Jr. It's a story about a 14 year old boy living in a mining town who decides he wants to build rockets. It was set in the late 1950's. Sonny and his friends, the rocket boys, experimented with model rockets with the hope to get a scholarship so they could leave the mining town and it's bleak future. The story was made into a film in 1999 called October Sky. Billy thinks that the book is a lot better than the movie. Penny thinks all this typing is making her tired.

In school the kids assembled their rockets and painted them. The class went outside and launched them. They got a jelly bean if they caught their rocket as it was coming down. Now that's my kind of grading system! They also launched a larger rocket as a class. Whoever caught that one as it fell from the sky got a whole bag of jelly beans. Guess who dove on the wet ground to catch that! Billy and another boy caught it together so they split the bag of jelly beans.

Billy's been very generous about sharing them...turns out he doesn't even like jelly beans. Figures. I liked the paint job he did on the rocket...the top looks like copper.

When Brian was in 8th grade he made a rocket too. I don't remember hearing about any of the jelly bean stuff with him. Maybe he just ate them. I do remember that his rocket went really high. His is black with flames, it's still in his room....next to Bart.

The boys and their rocket launching brought back some memories of another rocket boy. Eric was into rockets when he was young too. This picture was taken in December of 1980, next to the baseball field at our old K-12 school. Don't you love the glasses?? Eric is launching this rocket to impress some girl.

It must have worked....I married him! And about those burgundy pants and the bright red jacket...I have no idea. Actually, I think it might have been right after church and I borrowed a jacket from Eric....that's it, and I'm sticking to it.

It's always fun to see the kids picking up things that we are or were interested in. I always wonder if the things that they do are influenced by our interests or if it's something that is genetically passed from one generation to the next.

That being said....if this is inherited....it must be coming from Eric's side!

As for me, I'm looking straight ahead towards the weekend.

Hope you have a happy one!