Thursday, July 14, 2011

Father and Son See Shuttle Era Begin and End

Heres a wonderful set of pictures that has been circulating on the web.
Back in 1981, young Chris Bray and his father watched the first Space Shuttle take off from Capa Canaveral, and a picture was taken of the event. All these years later, they were at the same spot to see the last Shuttle mission go up. Another pic was taken. Bray posted both side by side on Flickr, and its gone viral.

I think this is a wonderful capture of a memory . . . two memories really. Theres the memory of a young man watching the shuttle go up with his father. The shuttle then just first going up, a memory many of us have from back in the '80s, when we too were younger. And now the memory, as it soon will be, of the Shuttle era drawing to a close.

And to add another shuttle connection: the elder Mr. Bray was then present to watch the shuttle because he had been commissioned to create a series of pins for the first shuttle mission.

Thank you, both, Mr. Bray, junior and senior, for the beautiful memory.

2 comments:

  1. What a beautiful memory, and a little sad, too. I'd always wanted to take my kids to see a shuttle launch but that never materialized. Not sure it ever will. I'm sure they'll hold those memories close to their hearts. I would.

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  2. Thank you for posting, Janene. It brought some nostlagic feeling to me when I saw the picture. I remember when that shuttle first took off, and now I'm seeing that era end. Bittersweet.

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