1963
The Mixsons
Beth
in Front of Mom and Dad
David, Larry Brenda
The year started out like previous years with Uncle Bob calling Mom on their common birthday January 16th. Easter came and we I started doing better in most subjects in school with my interest in science picked up at the end of the school year when…
On May 15, 1963, Gordon Cooper made the last flight of Project Mercury setting another U.S. endurance record with a 34-hour and 19-minute flight, and 22 completed orbits. There was talk on the news about the newer Gemini rocket but even more exciting was the Apollo program which I read about in Popular Science Magazine, Dr. Wernher von Braun and his giant Saturn rocket and how it would fly astronauts to the moon and back.
In
May I joined Cub Scout Pack #84 and wen
t
to weekly meetings at a house on what which was just a couple
streets over from our home on 36th Drive. The meetings were run by
the mother of the boy that lived there. At the meetings we did we
had snacks and did activities, one of which I really liked was the
building a
Pinewood Derby car for which we were given a box with a block of
pine wood, metal axles, four
wheels and instructions on how to carve the block of wood into a
race car. Over the course of the next two weeks, I carved the block
into a race car shape, attached the wheels the and the next meeting
we raced the cars down a ramp. I don’t recall if my car won or not,
but it was great fun. Pinewood Derby’s are still built by Cub
Scouts today and there are national racing events for kids and
adults. After a few meetings, completed the required adventures
Lion’s Honor, Fun on the Run, Animal Kingdom, Mountain Lion, and
King of the Jungle and earned my “Lion” badge.
Updated: 08-18-2022