Rocket Boys: A Memoir

Citation preview

PRA1SEFQR ROCKETBOVS

"COMPELLI NG ... Rocketrygi,·es Hickam 'sstoryof hi s teenage yean in the 1950·5 and early 6O·s a unique twist. Fulfillment of a OOy·5 dreams il what makes Rocker soar:·

- Chimgo Trihune " A GREAT READ ... Rocker BoY' is onc man's engaging account of

growing up and leaving home, but ... it is much more !han that ... One closes the book with an immense feel ingof5atisfoction:· -

The AII(mw JOllnral-ConstitUlKm

·lA I NOSTALGICAA'D ENTEIITA1NlNG MEMOIR:· - People "Roc:k~1

Boys ... rewards every mother and tcacher who evcr

told children they cou ld be anything thlly wanted if they worked hard enough .. . . The memory ofa 5pccial1ime remains for Hickam and evcryone who ever dreamed of soaring \0 1he stars:·

- The Orlando Sentinel

''11 IOROUGHLV CAPTIVATING'·

- The Chris/MIn Science Moni/or '·A REFRESlilNGLV HOPEFU L BOOK about pcrsonaltriumph and achieving onc·s dreams, a book thaI can be recommended to all. ... Hi ckam has wrinen a wonderful story about when kids had to make their own fun with what was at hand. It·s an adult book about remembering childhood: · - &111 Alllonio upre.u-News

.• Rockel Boj's. wllile a true stOl)', reads like . well-written novel. It deals with a wide r:ange of issues, including the bittersweet upericncc of coming of age. It alS(! provides an intimate look at adying town where people still allowed kids to dream and lIc1ped tllcm make those dreanu ~omc rcality:' - Rocky Mountoin News "A WONDERFU L READ ... Rocket ofhopc and accomplishment:'

Btl)'s

is [a 1 message

'"As our emotions are stirred and our no~ta lgia 3"'a kcned, th is " 'ondcrful and inspir:ational story really treats us to an enduring depiction about fami ly. hope and love.

··UPLIFTING.'·

- BookPoge " It 's a big story. and Hickam tells it expertly •.. a second-tonone tale of hope and self-realization." - Charles/on G=elle ~EN TIIRA LLING

... Hickam recall s stories ... wi th vivi d de

tail and historic accuracy. Rockel Bo)'$ is much more than the 5tOl)' o(six boys wbo wanted to build. better rocket. It's the Story ofa young man looking for ~ from his life than wkat his dying community will be able to provide:'

- lIuou";lIe Times (Ala.)

''Great memoirs must balance the univena l Bnd the particular, Too much of tile fonner makes it overly familiar: tOO much of the lancr makes readcrs ask ",hllthe ~IOry has 10 do "'ith them. In his debut. Hickam walks that line beautifully. No maner how jaded readers have become by tile onslaught of memoirs. none will want to miss the fantastic voyage of BeMA, Auk and Coalwood." - Publi.lherJ 1I'1:ekly (starred review) "A BSORBING." - BookliJI

''So skillful and moving is th e prose that he would surely have won his way free of Appalachia using a gift for words if an affinity for science had nOI opened the door firs\. Hickam portrays people who were importan t to hislif, ... [and] draws thue and other figures with a dell hand that many aUlhors never achieve. The book also offers somelhing unusual Ihese days: enthusiasm and hope thilt almost seem 10 come from n different civilization Ihan our own."' _ Tbe Stm Diego Union-Tribune "I~ickam

wrilcs with the wisdom of an adult embracing boyhood perceptions ... it's a small SIOry aboul big dreams and blasting into new frontiers. - Pillsburgh PfUl-Ga:::el/e M

" DIFF ICU LT TO PUT DOWN , .• a poignant rem inder of an extinct town. Hickam has a marvelous grasp of lBnguage. especially in his descriptions. Far from it being overly scientific, everyone should identify with som ... thing in these memoiTlt."· - Loui,n'ill... Eccen/ric Obsen'er

ROCKET BOYS A

Memoir

Home r H. Hickmam , Jr .

--"

A 0.. ... BooI; ....... U.bed by 0..11 l'ubIiIhq; I divUioa or Raodom Houle. I ... 1S40 Brood".. y N...· Vort.. N... Yor\; 10016

I, . AII/~ 1M G_. by Chorl", G.... D.... n Ind Cotl Si"",n. lynco .. printed """"coy or MaJO' S0 S of the manuscript as it developed, especially Linda Terry, who saw it from the first very rough drafts and helped me to improve it through all the versions that followed. My thanks further to Linda for her love and support during the entire period of creation. I could not have done it without her. Much help also came from Bi gCreck High School classmate Emily Sue Buckbeny, who kindly ofTered historical cOITe ago. to Mrs. Jan Siers. who gave me permission to include Shennan. to my brother Jim. whoasscnted tomydrcdging up Our teenaged connicts, to several high-school classmates who wish to remain anonymous but assisted me and are in this book in one guise or another. and to my mother. who ltas maintaint-d her sense of humor ovcr the sometimes strange maneuvers of her second son 10 this day. - Homl.'r H. Hickam, Jr. May 1998

CONT E NTS

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Ou .. the COllrage /a leorn .... hor s inside il. - Ali.,s Freido Joy Riley

COALWOOD

UN"TIL I DEGAN to build and launch rockets, I didn't know my hometown was at war with itscl rover its children and that my parents were locked in a kind orbloodless combat over how my brother and I would live Our livcs. I didn't know that ir a girl brokc your heart, another girl, virtuous at least in spirit, could mend it on thc samc night And I didn't know that the enthalpy de at Cape Canaveral in Florida, desperately working to catch up with the Russians. It waS as i fthe science fiction I had read all my life were coming true. Gradually, [became fascinak'{\ by the whole thing. [ read every art icle [ could find about the men at the Cape and kept myself pinned to the television set for the latest on what they were doing. I began to hear about One particular rocket scientist nam~'{\ Dr. Wemher \'on Braun. His very name was exotic and exciting. I Saw

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On television wllere Dr. von Bmun lIad given an interview and lie said, in a crisp German accent, tllat if lie got tile go-ahead lie could put a satellite into orbit within thirty days. Tile newspapers said he'd have 10 wait. Illat the program called Vanguard would get the first chance. Vanguard was the United States's Intemationill Geophysical Year satellite program, and von Braun. since lie worked for the Army, was somellow too tainted by that association to make tile first Amcrican try for orbit. At night before I went to sleep, I thought about what Dr. von Braun might be doing at that very moment down at tile Cape. I could just imagine him high on a gantry. lying On his back like Michelangelo, working witll a wrench On the fuel lines of one of lIis rockets. I started to tllink about what an adventure it would be to work for him,lIe1ping him to build rockets and I~unching tllem into space. For alii knew, a man with that much conviction might even form an expedition into space,like Lewis and Clark. Eitherway. [wanted to be witll him. [ knewto do that I'd lIave to prepare myselfin some way. get some skill s of some kind Or special knowledge about something. [wa s kind of vague On what it would be. but [ could at least see I would need to be like thc heroes in my books-brave and knowing more than Ille next man. I was starting to see myself past Coalwood. Wernher von Braun. Dorothy Plunk. My song now had two nameS in it. Wilen tile papers printcd that Spurnik was going to l1y Over southern West Virginia. [decided Iliad to see it for myself. [told my mother, and prelly soon tile word spread. fence to fence, tllat I waS going to look at Spurnik and anybody else who wanted to could join me in my backyard tile evening it was sclleduled to appear. It didn·t take much in Coalwood to create a gatllering. On the appointcd night, Mom joined me in the backyard, and tllen otller womcn arrived and a few small cllildren. Roy Lee. SlIerman. and O'Dell werC there too. The lildies clustered around Mom and she lIe1d court. Since Dad was who he was. shc could always be counted on to know tile latcst on whattllc company was planning and wllicll foreman waS up and which waS down. Watching her, [couldn·t hclp but be proud at how preuy she was. Later in life, looking back On those days. [realized shc was mOrC than preuy. Mom was beautiful. When she smiled it was

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like a hundred-walt bulb just got switched on. Her curly hair fell past her shoulders, she had big hatd-green eyes. and her voice, when she wasn't using it to keep me and lim straight. was ,oft and velvety. I don't think there was a miner in town who could get past the front gate when she was out in the yard in her shorts and halter tending her flowers. They'd stand there, tipping their helmets, grinning with their chewing tobacco-stained teeth. "Hidy. Elsie, them flares sure are lookin' good, that's for ,ure,"they'd say. But I don't think they were looking at the flowers, It got darker and the stars winked on, one by one. [sat on the back steps, turning every few second. to check the clock On the kitchen walL I was afraid maybe Splllnik wouldn't show up and even if it did, we'd miss it. The mountains that surrounded uS allowed only a narrow sliverofsky to view, I had no idea how fast Splllnik would be, whether it would zip along ordawdle, I figured we'd have to be lucky to see it. Dad Came outside, looking for Mom. Something about seeing her out there in the backyard with the other women looking up at the stars vexed him. "Elsie? What in blue blate. are you looking at?" "Sputnik, Homer." "Over West Virginia?" His tone was incredulous. "That's what Sonny read in the paper." "President Eisenhower would never allow such a thing." he said emphatically, "We'll sec:' Mom intoned. her favorite phrase, "['mgoing- " "To the minc," my parcnts finishcd in a chorus. Dad started to say something. but Morn raised her eyebrows at him and he secmed to think better of il. My father was a powerfully built man. standingjust undcrsix feet tall. but my mother could easily take his meaSure , He plopped on his hat and trudged off toward the tipple, He never looked up at the sky, not OnCe. Roy Lee sat down beside me. Before long, he waS offering me unwanted advice On how to gain my beloved. Dorothy Plunk. "What you do, Sonny:' he explained, putting his arm around my shoulders, "is take her to the movies. Something like Franken." ein Meets the

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Wolf Man. Then you kind of put your ann On the back of her chair like Ihis, and then when things get scary and she 's not paying attention to anything but the movie, you!t1 your hand slide down over her shoulder until. , ." He pinched One of my nipples and [jumped, He laughed, holding his stomach and doubling over. [didn't think it was so funny, Jim wandered outside and contemplated Roy Lef ...

he said . •'] guess J don't know whal an engineer does,"] said. "Alil know is I want to work on rockels," r added,just in case we werC having an

argumenllhal wasn't apparent yet. ''There 's a 10\ mOre \0 engineering than rockets." he >aid gruffiy. He smoothed his voice, as if catching himself. He picked up my drawing and looked it over. "If you're thinking about being an engineer, you need \0 sec what One doc. for a living." He pul the drawing back on my desk and looked around my room. one of the first times I think he had ever done that. I had a couple of Allk casements on my dre.ser. which he stared at for a moment. "All this rocket .tufTthey·re doing down at CapeCanavcrnl," he said, "is just burning up taxpayers' money to scare the Russians. A real engineer builds things to make money for his company." "Yessi.. " [thought by agreeing with him, maybe he'd go away. ''['m going to show you firsthand what an engineer does:' he said. Then he lold me his plan. It w~s the most remarkable thing. Ijust gaped at him. "Are you sure?'" [ puffed up a bit. This was something he'd never asked lim to do. ''['m sure:' he s~id ... It's about time you see what this lown' s all about:' BASil was at the next launch with his notebook pad. writing furiously. The response from his articles had be{,n so great he had decided to make uS a regular feature. W~tching uS were about fifty spectators. allracted by his articles and our notices. I hoped we wouldn't disappoint them . Allk XI!. on the p~d, was built to the design we had more or less standardized, but how it would perform loaded

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witll melted rocket candy was ~ complete unknown. I feared an explosion, and Quentin was certain of it. ""II' II take at least three rockets loaded in this manner:' lie predicted. "'before we get the rigllt combination." Sherman weIll overto the road to make sure people knew tlley needed to st~y back and it would be best if they got behind their c~rs and trucks. Buck and some of the football team showed up too. They stood apart. quietly sullen. Except for the football boys. Our autlience waS festive. ""Go, Big Creek:' ~ome people calletl oul. just as ifwc were the football team. Then. whcn we ran up our BCMA f1~g, they began to sing tile school ligllt song. "On. on. green and .... hile . ....e ore righl for Ihe fighllonight! Hold IhO/ hall and hilthO/line. every Big Creek slOr .... iII shine. . . I had never kn own whal il felt like 10 be on lhe receiving end of lhat song. I liked it. A foolball boy yelletl somClhing tlerisive. but lhe people kepI singing. Afterward some young latlies chanletl like cheerleaders" ""Go" rockel boys. got" Disgusled. Buck and tile otller team members gol inlo lheircars ~nd left. This was also Our lirsllaunch with an electrical-ignition system. I touchetl a wire 10 a car bauery (an old one O' Dell got for free from a War junkyard), and Auk Xli ShOl otTthe pad and leaned down-range. Quentin ran oulside the bunker and fumbled wilh a new invenlion he called a ""lheodolile." It was a broomstick w,lh an upside-tlown protractor atlached on one end and a wooden straighledge on lhe opposing side lhat rotated around a nail. He jammed the stic k in lhe slack and went down on his knees and >quinted along lhe straightedge at tile rising rocket, smoke squirming from ilS tail. while againsl lhe brillianl blue of the cloudless sky. At lhe height of the Auk's climb, Quenlin looked at the angle the ruler made with lhe prolraclor and called it out, lhen snalched a pencil stuck behind his ear and wrole it down on a scrap ofpap{'r. Ifhi s theodolile worked, lrigonometry would give uS lhe altilude of Our rocket. Auk XII's exhausl Irail was slill a fasl Slream whcn tile rocket faltered and began 10 fall. lt eonlinued to smoke vigorously even after it slruck lhe slack. While Our audience cheered. we ran afterourrockel and walched the lasl of its spul\ering rockel candy bum up. I

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immediately saw the reilSOn our rocket had lust its thrust. "The nuz:zle 's

gone,"llold the otheN. ·'It must have blown out." We looked closer. The weld was inlact. The ccnler orlhe nozzle

waS simply eaten away. Quentin Came stepping up to us. "Three hundred and fony-eight," he said. finishing his count by bringing both his feet together al the final slep. ''I'm figuring about two poinl seven-live feel per step. That would 1Je"- he made a quick menial calculation- "nine hundred and fifty-seven feet." Jake', trig book was under his atm. He mn his finger down the functions in the back. "Let's see, the tangent of forty degrees is about point eight-four. Call it point eight. Multiply thai by nine hundred and sixty ... " We wailed anxiously while Quentin worked it out in his head. It didn't take long. "Seven hundred and sixty feet'" O'Dell whooped and did a lillIe jig on the slack. Auk XIII jumped from the pad in a similar blurred frenzy to its predecessor. Rocket candy was defini tely hot stufT. The rocket leaned over, pufTed a big cloud of smoke, and sped ofT into the sky. When it fell back, it disappeared into a dense thicket of trees. We heard it hit brunches as it fell. a big oak tree waving its golden lcaves at uS as if signaling. Come and gel il. Rockel OI'er here. O'Dell knocked over Quentin's theodolite in his excitement, so we didn't get an altitude

estimato, but it was obvious it hadn't gone as high as Auk XII. When we found the rocket. the noule was completely worn through. "Maybe it just can't take the heat," Billy said. [ studied the nozzle. "You know what'! It looks to me like it's corroded,"I said. "Rapid oxidation!"' Quentin said, snapping his fingers. "Sonny, my boy. how quick you are! Of course! I should have seen it myself! Just like in Miss Riley's class. Heat combined with a steady flow of excessive oxygen - it makes sense. What we need, gentlemen, is a material capable of withstanding heat and oxidation." When we eamO down ofT the mountain wi th our rocket. all the observers were gone, but Buck and the football team were back. They were at our blockhouse. tearing it apart, board by board, using fire ,rons.

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We roared and ran allhcm. "Come on, lillie sislcr morons!" Buck screamed, red in his face. We were no malch for lhem, bUl we had 10 do somelhing. J pickcd up a rock, and lhe olher boys did lhe same. We IN loose a barrage. missing for lhe mOSl parI bUl making lhcm dodge. They charged us, and we knew we wCre doomed. Then we heard a car hom and Tag Fanner drove his old Mcrcury oul on lhe slac k. While we, foolball boy. and rockel boys, all froze in place, Tag leisurely gOI oul and pushed his conslable's cap 10 lhe back of his head. "So, whal"s going on, boys?"" he drawled. "Nolhing,"I said. I wasn'laboullO lurn Buck in. Boys in Coalwood jusl didn'l do lhal. "We were jusl cleaning up lhe range:' Tag nodded loward Buck and lhe olheN, slill standing wilh lheir fists balled and tire irons in lheir hands. "They helping you?"" "Yessi r.·' Tag strolled over 10 the blockhouse, musing OvCr the planks that had been ripped oul. " Buck?"' he called softly. Buck meekly went to the conslable. "YessirT "You a carpenter?"" "No--no, sir." .. It might be time 10 learn. Looks like some boards came loose On this blockhou!iC." "Yessir." "You going to take Care ofthisT "Yessir." Tag nodded. Buck stooped and picked up lhe boards. [came over and handed him a hammer from thc tool chesl we always carried with us, and he got busy. Tag chuckled and stayed around until everybody left. ON Sunday morning, I pretend~>d to oversleep, part of Dad's plan to avoid trouble, and Mom flung open lhe door to my room. "GN up Or you're going to miss Sunday school!" I was aboul to fib to her, but I had decided it was okay since it wa. for her good. "['m pretty worn oul. doing so much homework and all.

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Would you mind if] skipped today? JuS! th is once?" She turned and went out of the room. "[fyou want to be a healhen, who am I to Slop youT' She went bawling after Jim to get oul of the bathroom and drive her to church. He answered back that he had only been in there for a couple of minutes. I figured il had been at lew;l an hour. After Jim and Mom left for church. I walked up the path \0 the

tipple, where Dad waited for me. [was almost shaking with excitement. I'd lived in Coalwood my whole life, but had never been where Dad was going \0 take me. J was going in the mine! And the facllhal he'd asked me, not Jim, had grown evCn mOre importanllhrough the week whenever [ thought about it. He eyed me carefully when [ came into his office. "You didn' t say a word about this to your mother, did youT ··No, sir!'· I said it loud and proud. ""Right. We'll get you washed up afterward and she won't ever know the difference," That part of Dad's plan I had my doubts about, but I happily went along with it. He knew Mom better than I did, after all. ""Come over ht.,-e,·' he beckoned, spreading a mapofthe mine on a table, He pointed at a winding black streak that ran across it. "1'I1at's the Number Four Pocahontas Seam" the finest and purest soft coal in the world, These lines I"ve drawn represent the tunnels we've driven through it since the mine has been opemtional." He opened a dmwer and brought OUi another drawing. "This is the side view ofa typical Seam. The coal is overlaid by a hard shale called draw rock. Underneath is what we call jack rock. Engineers have to know how to hold up the draw rock to keep it from falling and how to muve the jack rock out of the way. ""Doing the engineering in a mine takes a lot of experience and careful calculations:' Dad continued while searching my eyes. I think he was looking fora glimmer of understanding. ""Men who work undt-r those roofs depend On the mining engineers to do it right the first time. It's not like your rocket men- those c razy Gennan scientists just throwing something up to see ifit will work." [resisted the urge to anSwer that charge, and Dad lectured on. The coal company used the block system, he said, each block being seventy-

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five feet by ninety feet. Entries were driven through them in sets of four. After that. the blocks were taken out by continuous-mining machines, one by one, until each of them was only about fifteen feet square. Those remain ing blocks were called pillars, which were also eventually mined. During all of it, roof bolts and posts and cribs all had to be calculated and set to hold the roof up. Then Dad went ofT into his favorite subjee\: ventilating air through the mine. "I f the air .tops circulating, methane will seep out of the coal and build up," Dad said. "One spark and the whole mine could explode" To keep that from happening" we use a pressure system. Fans raise the pressure in the mine to a lillie greater than the surface pressure" The methane is blown out through the vents:" ""You designed that?'" J asked. ""[ did a good portion of it," he answered, glancing down at his drawings. [was confused On this point. '"So you"re an engineer?"" He toyed with a slide rule. ""No. An engineer has a degree:' I decided to use some of Mr. Hartsfield's deductive reasoning" ""Jake Mosby"s an engineer:" [ said. '"That"s right:" ""You know a lot more about coal mining than he does.'" "'That"s true:" I shrugged. "Then you"re an engineer, right?'" Dad shook hi s head" ""Sonny, you have to have a diploma from a college to be an engineer. I don"t have One. That means I can never be an engineer:" He looked at me speculatively. "'But you could:' Not knowing what to say" J didn't reply, but kept studying the drawings. '"This is intere.ting:" I said, and meant it. Dad led me to the bathhouse and opened his locker and handed me a one-piece coverall, hard-toe boots, a white foreman"s helmet" and a leather utili ty belt. When I joined him at the man-hoist, he showed me how to clip a lamp batt~'1)' pack onto my belt and the lamp on my helmet. With the lamp atlached, the helmet felt heavy. I moved itaround until it felt comfortable. He appraised me and readjusted the helmet, then my belt until the buckle was squared in the front and the battery

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hung ex~ctly off my right hip. I Celt like ~ soldier under insped down the packed snow left by its palh. "Tell your daddy, nOw. Will you promise?" I nodded. "Yes, ma'am. I promise. Thank you for saving me." "Hell, child, don'l go on aooul thaI." A big dump truck soon appeared.loadt-d with coa!.1 waved al Geneva and Ihen fell On my sled in the tire tracks and slid quickly down the mountain, coasting all the way to the mine. When I got off the sled,l could see my house. There was a lighl in every window. As soon as I put a foot On the back porch, Ihe door opened. I could see the worry in Mom's face, but she wasn't aoout to let me know il. "Don't track snow in the housc:' she warned. She looked me over. "You don't look any worse for wear." Dad appeared, the evening paper in his hand. "I was aoout to get in the truck and go looking for you, young man." I was filled with glory. "I went all the way to Big Creek and back On my sled!" J reached inside my coat and pullcd out my book, "And look what Miss Riley gave me." J handed it to Dad, He read the title and tentatively tW11ed some pages, .. It secms to be thorough:' he said. The black telephone mng, and he answered it after handing the book back to me, "Get Number Two going if Number Three goes down!" he shouted, and I knew he was worrying about the ventilation fans losing power during the snowfall, I went upstairs, Jim was in his room. I opened his door. He was lying on his bed, reading a magazine. "We sk-dded all the way to Big Creek," I told him. "Nobody's ever done that before." "You morons went to school?" he growled. "We wcre supposed to stay home. Next time they'll make us all walk overthcre." I went to my rOOm. J snapped On the lamp On my desk and began to eagerly read my book, relishing the titk-s on each of the chapters, until r remcmben.'ll Geneva Eggers. I went downstairs and found Dad slumped in his easy chair, back to his paper. Mom was in the kitchen. "Dad, a Mrs. Eggers up on Coalwood Mountain invited me inside her house

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and got me warmed up. She wanled me to tell you that" Dad peered al me ovcr the paper. "A Mrs. whoT ··EggeN. Geneva EggeN." He sludied me and then earefully laid the paper down on the footstooL ··You wCrC in Geneva Eggers's house?" '·Up On Coalwood Mountain. That shack o!fthc road, about a third of the way down. She fixed me French loasl. She wanled me to be sure 10 tell you about il." The black lelephone mng, but he didn't jump up to anSwer il. It was the firsl lime I had ever known that to happen. He fixed his eyes on me. '·What else did she doT '·Nothing. Ju.t gol my panls dry." '·You look your panls om" His voice was stmined. ··She gave me a long shirt to wear." He frowned, ·'And nothing else happt'1lcd? You're sure?" '·Yes. SiLl'm sure," Mom finally Came in from the kitchen to anSwer the phone, When she answt.,-ed iI, there was a pause, and then she said, '·1 don't know, Clyde. He must have died or you'd be lal king 10 him instead of me." Dad kept looking at me as if trying to figure oul if! waS foolingwilh him in some way. Then he went to the phone and started shouting orders again. It was slilllOO icy for the bus tomn the next day, but we rocket boys didn't try to CrOSS the mountains again. We'd done il once and that was enough. We were sure to go down in the record book of teenage Coalwood heroes by the stunt ThaI night, Dad came into my room and closed the door behind him. '·Let me tell you a story:' he said. and! stopped TC'dding my rocket book. He sat down On my bed. Whatever;1 was he was going to say. he didn'llook happy aboul;1. '·When I was a lillie younger than you," he said, ··a house On our row in Gary eaughl fire, Those old Gill)' houses were just clapboard and tar paper. One spark and Ihey burned up like straw. [ was Out in Our backydfd for something and saw the fire, There didn 'I seem to be anybody else around, so [ went inside, thinking maybe there was somebody trapped in there. [ tried 10 see. but it was 100 smoky. Then [ heard Ihis

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baby crying. I didn't know where I was, couldn't sec anything. ljust went by sound, I found this baby crying in all that smo ke, like there wasn't anything in the world that was going to kill her! [picked her up and jumped out the window before the fire got uS both. It turned out the whole family was in that house and I didn't .ee any of them, just the baby. Eight brothers. the mother and father. all burned 10 death," Dad shifted on the bcd, both his hands pushing down on the ma!!ress, "I waS kind of unhappy with myselffnr a long time after that. How was it [ didn't see all those pt.'Ople in that lillie house?" [ just stared at Dad. [ couldn't imagine why in the world he was telling me this awful thing, but whatever the reason was. I wanted him 10 SlOp. For H reaSOn I couldn't define. [ had a fear oflmowing too much aboul him. Dad looked me in the eye. "Anyway, that baby was Geneva Eggers:' "Oh" waS aliI could say. 1 thought of Geneva asa helpless baby, my dad carrying her losafety. and tears welled up in my eyes, I forced them back. Dad flicked imaginary linl ofTmy bed and looked up al the ceiling, He cleared his throat. "Sonny." he said finally. "what do you know of life?" I didn't know what he meant. "Not much, [ guess," "['m talking about . .. girls." "Oh," "You haven't ever. " I nushed. "Oh. no. sir," Dad focused on One of my model airplanes On my dresser. "I "ouldn't tell anybody else about being in Geneva Eggers's house. She has sort of a business going there. Some of the bachelor miners- she's SOrt of their girlfriend." I didn't understand. "Which oneT Dad winced. "More than one ... a lot of them. The occasional manied man too." My eyes widened. and I'm sure my mouth dropped open. [ understood now. "She runs moonshine too," Dad said. his eyes still locked on Ihe airplane. " Her husband gOi killed in the Gary mine five

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years ~go. The police overthere chased hcr this way. I gave her th~t old shack and I told Tag to leave hcr~lone. Let herdo what she wants:' He got up and went to the door. "So now you know. Don't go sec heragain, and never, never tell your mother what I just told you." Dad closed the door quietly behind him and I sat alone in my room, thinking about what he had said. I thought about the young woman in the shack, how she'd treated me so nice, and then J imagined what it must have been like for Dad tu go into a burning house. I doubted I would have had his courage. I felt suddenly proud of him, more than for just his long-ago act of heroism, but because of what he had OnCe been hac k in Gary and all that he had become because of his hard work. The next day the school bus nm. I looked for Geneva Eggers uften after that as we went by, going and coming. Sometimes she would be there. standing alone alongside the rood. She studied the windows as the bus passed, smiling ifshe saw me. She didn't wave, nOr did 1. She was Dad's secret and I was hers.

14 T ~I E

P I LL AR A~b

EXP L OSION

XVI _ XIX

NOW TIlAT [had received a letter from the greal man himself. [felt almost

as if I were already on Dr. von Braun's learn. On February t, r heard On the mdio that the Russians had launched Lu"" I, the first man-made objL'ClevCr\o break away from Earth'sgrnvity. The velocityroquired for that was 25,500 miles per hour, or appro~imatcly seven miles per second.

a distance I could visualize easily because seven miles was the distance between Coalwood and Welch. As the Russian spacecraft streaked loward the moon, r wenl up On the Club House roof to use Jakc 's telescope just \0 sec whal J could SL'C. lake didn't join me, because he

was going oul on a date with Mr. Van Dyke's latest secretary, a redhead from Ohio. Allhough Mrs. Van Dyke had threatened \0 hire an ugly secretary for her Mister, somehow anolher lovely from up north had appeared. Jake called up to me. "See any Russians 00 the moon. Sonny?"" r poked my head over the edge of the roof and waved. "Not yet, Jake. See any down there?"" He threw lMe k his head and howled at the mOOn just as the redhead appeared on the Club House porch. her spi ke heels clicking. Jake took her in his anns. twirled her around while cupping one of her brea.ts in his hand. giving me the grinning eye while he did it, and then guided her into his ·Vette. He and the redhead sped, with tires sc!"t-'Cehing. toward an unspel.fSlmD my book hack across his desk. "You disturb my lunch with this nonsense? How can you expect to learn calcu lus when

you didn't understand algebra?" That was meant for me. The other boys had made A's in algebra. Quentin interceded. ··Sir. we 've llL'!:o studying trigonometry already On our own." He produced Jake's book. "We nceded it to find oul how

high Our rockets new. Bul it's unlikely we could te~ch our;clves calculus. We need your help for thaI."

Mr. Hartsfield looked sympathetically al Quentin. "Perhaps you could absorb the material." said. bul then he hung his old grny head. " Sut, no,

I see nO purpose in it. " "We need it to learn how to build better rockets, Mr. Hartsfield," [ said. "[[' s for OUT futures. don't you secT' Mr. Hartsfie ld softened for an instant, hi s watery eyes g listening. but then he s napped bilck to his usual

dourn~'Ss.

·'I've heard of your

group, Mr. Hickam. Mr. Turner has spoken of it, and not in positive terms:· "What if we got Mr. Turner·, permission for you to teach us?"" I asked. A smile almost played across Mr. Hartsfield·s filce. '·1 shall do what

220

R OCKET BOVS

Mr. Turner tells me to do, of course, But surely you must know there is nO hope for this class, nO hope at all." "Why notT' Billy demanded, "Because," Mr. Hartsfield sighed, looking down and shaking his head, "this is Big Creek High School. Maybe if this was Welch High. the county superintendent would appro\'e such a class, hut nOi here. We're a foothall and a coal miner's school, and that's all we've evcr been." We were outraged. "'That's not fair!" Mr, Hartsfield looked up sharply. "Who ever told you boys life was fair?" he demanded, "WELL, the pipe·bomb boy," Mr. Turner said from his desk. "And Miss Riley too? I hope you're not here to tell me you've blown up chemistry class," Miss Riley told him our purpose and showed him my rocket book. "The boys are very serious about this, Mr, Turner," she ended. "I presume Mr. Hartsfield has agreed?" he asked. "I f you approve it, he 'II teach us," I said. "A rtfully put. Mr, Hickam," Mr. Twner observed, an eytlIrow cocked, "Miss Riley, do you really believe this to be a good idea?" "Yes. sir," He tapped a finger on his polisht'ffilaTI called On a Saturday in April, saying we needed to take a break from rocket-building and go \0 the Dugout. I agreed, I was pretty worn out anyway, trying to be tough and arrogant like Dad.lju.t wanted to be a nonnal kid again and go to a dance and be with other kids too. I told Shennan I thought maybe we could catch a ride over with Jim since he had the Buick, but by the time I got around to asking, he'd

VAL E N T I NE

1J 7

already taken ofT. Mom said he'd spent even longer than usual getting ready for his date, aid. Bul no-it's not his way. 'J have \0 go.'he said. [lold him he

just couldn' t stand thai somebody else might go inside his prec1 slamming into packed mountain earth. WilUmp! ''Thirty-eight seconds!" Shennan said. Roy Lee looked at Shennan. "What good is knowing the timeT Shennan explained our new calculations to Roy Lee. Quentin and Sherman and I had discussed it after Mi ss Riley had begun to teach uS a little Newtonian physics. A falling bOOy accelerated toward the earth at thirty-two feet per scj's nest. The hornets, not pleased, chased US up the mountain on the other side of the slack. We crouched there and watched as they marauded up and down the slack like a tornado. It was nearly dusk before they finally dissipated. We found the scale in pieces, The BCMA spent the next four Saturday aflernoons cleaning up the butcher shop to work 01T our debt. Mr. Fulkr Came up from his office and watched us. He didn't say any thing, just watched. and we knew he knew what we had done. Our next attempt at measuring thrust was a variation On the theme, this time using Mom's bathroom scale. [was absolutely certain that [ would return it unscathed, because this time we had a better test-fixture design (it happened to be mine). Using some channel iron found behind the machine shop, we built what looked like a miniature oil derrick and placed it over the scale as a brace for a tube that held the rocket. Wc positioned a mirror On the "derrick" so that we could read the scale with binoculars. We put the rocket, this one named Auk XXIl-C, nose-down inside the tube and ignited it. The scale and the concrete pad was in its way, so all it could do was push. [knew it would work, and it did, In the first seconds of the firing. we were able to read the scale. Then, unfortunately. Auk XXII-C became a rocket jackhammer. It bounced up and down in its tube. attacking the scale. The scale survived the first few impacts. but thL'1l we heart! a bigsproinggg and it flew apart. When the propellant hissed down to completion. Mom's bathroom scale was

ZINCOSIIINE

113

scaltered all over the pad. I tried to put the scale back together as be,t I could, managing to at least fit all the parts back inside and pound the frame back into a rough semblance of its previous shape. [ put it back where I found it. hoping Mom wouldn't notice. The toilct was still flushing when Mom banged open the door to my room. ··1 want a new scale," she announced. ·'And I want it within one day." O'Dell came up with the new bathroom scalc for Mom. I didn't know where he got it and I didn't ask him. [just placed it in the bathroom and backed out. Wc'd gottcn ourselves into troubl e-no surprise by then -but we also had a shiny new working specific-impulse number for zincoshine, Almost anything was possible now, TilE flight of Auk XXll-D was to be the final flight in the series that used countersunk nOlZles. I had thc machinists make just onc minor adjustment with Auk XXIl-D, to shrink the size of its fins. I had noticed our old rucket-candy rockcts wobbling when they broke thc plane of the mountains and got caught in the wind stream coming across the ridgcline. Smaller fins. [ thought. would keep that from happening and make them fly truer. What I didn't know waS that O'Dell and Sherman, who had taken On thejob ofsening Our rockets up on the pad. had also noted the wind', effcct on flight. They had been compensating for it by aiming our rockets at a small angle against whatever dirC{;tion the wind waS coming. It was, as it happened. a very windy day when AukXX/I-D made its flight. The wind was whi stling aCross the slack dump, [studied the clouds, They were scudding along in the samc direction. toward the west away from the centcrofCoalwood. In an altempt to compensate, O'OcIl and Shennan leaned the launch rod more than usual against the wind, I was too busy getting the blockhousc organizcd to notice what they were doing. [ ran our ignition wire, made sure Quentin and Billy had set up their theodolites. checked with Roy L('{: that Our new fancy-looking firingoonsole was in working order. and then called for the boys to go to their stations, The word had spread after our last launch that Our big new rockets

H 4

R OC K ET B OVS

were potentially dangerous to spectator>. It didn't keep them from showing up. but I saw some of the miners had brought their helmets with them. Roy Lee ran Our BeMA flilg up the pole. That was the final signal. I looked at the flag with some concern. It was snapping in the wind- pop. pop, pop. I put my wony aside. This was a big. heavy rocket. It should fly straight and true. I wcnt inside the blockhouse and knelt behind the wooden console Shennan and O'Ocll had built They had even installed a switeh salvaged ofT an old electric-train transformer. I toggled it. and the zincoshine-propelled rocket blasted ofT with a savage roar. It flew straight. slicing without flinching through the plane of the mountaintops. Sherman counted. "Ten. eleven, twelve ... " I watched as the smoke trailed ofT from the Auk. and then it disappeared-still on a heading fo.-Coalwood. "No!" I yelled, horrified. Sherman looked up from his watch. "Huh?" Roy Lee saw what I was seeing. "Oh, shilt" All of the other boys looked up the valley. and so did our audience. In unison. almost everybody repeated exactly what Roy Lee had just said. V,'e ran for his car, the erowd scanering before us. We roared up the road, plastering our faces to the car windows, looking for any sign of Our wayward Alik. "You know," Quentin said learnedly, "I suspect the velocity of a rocket also affed. THAT night. I sat in the auditorium watching the boys and girls dancing at the Christmas formal. The band. a colored one out of Bradshaw. was lively. All the girls weredresscd in pastels. formal dresses with lots of pellicoats their mothers had sewn for them Or they had sewn for themsclvL'S. The boys were in coots and tics. A vision in pink and lace came down the steps from the gym noor and sat down beside me. Melba June Monroe. an eleventh gmder, 100kL'tl me Over. She was a prelly girl. I had always liked her. '·Hi , Sonny:' she cooed. ··80y, is my date boring. I don't even know where he is. Why is a tough lillie rocket boy going stag to the fonnal? Do you wanta danceT I wanted to dance, and I wanted to take her home in Roy Lee 's backseat afterward. Did both. as ittumed oul. Rocket-boy fame. INJanuary 1960. the newspapers ran small articles about the arrival in Charleston of a senator from Massachusells who was running for president ofthe Unik'ed Dad'sgrasp of rea lily. "Well, I always figuK-dafter retirement- " .. [ can't wait until thL"11."" Mom >aid sadly. "Anyway, you'll wori< here until you drop. Not me. I'll be at Myrtle Be-dCh.·· Dad was shocked. "You're leaving me?"" "Let's say I'm setting up our retirement house in advance. ['11 come back here for holidays. or when you really neL-d me."" "But what about the boys?"" ··J im·sgone. rve got plenty of money to pay Sonny's way 10col1ege if that 's what he wants. I'll slay until the day he leaves."' Dad still couldn 't make any sense ofit. "But what will the people in Coalwood say?"" My mother's anSWer startled uS both. "" Homer:' she answered sweetly, .. [ don 't give a shi t what they say:' DURING our BCMA meeting in the Big Creek auditorium the nex t morning, I k~'Pt interrupting Billy. sure that my news was more important than whatever it was he was trying to say. I told the boys all about the shooting. concluding, ··It broke out the window, went through Dad's chair. and dug a big hole in the far wall:' 11 was only a slight exaggeration. I left out Mom's Myrtle Beach announCL"ment. That still wasn't real to ~

"What kind of bullet was itT" O'DeIi asked. "A twenty-two! Mom dug il out of the wall."' "A twenty-two?"" O 'Oclllaughed. "That's a pop gun."' "Well, it came that close to Dad 's head:' [said, pushing two fingers together. [was miffed that O ' DeIl took the shooting so lightheartedly. Billy finally managed to get his news in edgewise during my

31 2

RO C K ET B OVS

continuing elaborations. "Did you hear Miss Riley's sick? Some kind of cancer I stopped talking, my mouth hanging open. I felt as if I had been turned inside out. "What are you talking about?" I demanded. "Mrs. Tumertold EmilySue. EmilySue told me." Everything suddenly fell into place. Since Christmas vacation, Miss Riley had .tOjlpc>d standing during class, teaching in.tead from her chair behind her dt'Sk and asking one of uS boys 10 come up and perfonn ht.,. experiments. Once, in February when snow covered the ground, she'd left class and hadn't returned. Mr. Turner came to the classroom to tell uS to finish reading the chapter we were On and to be quiet. He gave no explanation for Miss Riley's absence. He looked pale, as ifhe'd seen something that frightened him, and none of uS could imagine anything that could scare Mr. Turner. In physics class that day, I tried not to stare at Miss Riley, bul I couldn'l help ii, and she caught me at it more than once. She lookt-d wan and her eyes were puffy. After class, she made me stay behind to talk to her. "It seemed like you were a million miles away today," she said. I resisted asking her about her CanCer. It had been ingrained in me by my motht.,. to never poke my nose into anybody'. blJ3iness. If Miss Riley wanted me 10 know, she would tell me. "I WaS thinking about the science fair," I said. That was al least partly lrue. It had crossed my mind. I still didn't knowexacllywhatl was going to display or how I was going 10 display it. 'Tve been meaning 10 talk 10 you about Ihe fair:' she said. "You know, only one name Can go On an enlry. You put all the boys in your club down on the fonn. 1 changed it. You're Ihe one." "But all of uS work on our rockets:' 1 prott'Stcd. "I guess [' d look pretty bad if it was just me at the fair." I thought aboul Quentin's hope to be recognized by SOmeOne enough to get money for college. "You' II represent uS at the fair," she said finnly. "lk.:ause you're the One who knows the most:' "Quentin could do it:' 1 said. "He knows as much as I do:' "Maybe," she smiled. "But you know Quentin. He'd try too hard,

SCt E N CE FAtRS

;

probably lose the judges with his vocabulary." When I just stood thero, dumbly watching hor, she lo.t her smile and said, "I presume you've heard I'm sick." She had dropped it on me like ten tons of coaL "Yes!" I blurted oul. "What's wrong?" She began to teach me. "What I have is called Hodgkin's Di sease, It's a form of CanCer that allacks the lymph nodes, Here," She took my hand and placed it on her nefCd by the state, but I heard my mother saying across the fence to Mrs. Sharitz that she was afraid people. even in Coalwood, might >oon go hungry. The Women's Club made up baskets of food and delivered them. Mom helped to organize ,he effort, but did not go on the delivery rounds. She knew the people would resent her ifshe did. Since it was a political season, and Senators Kennedy and Humphrey were crisscrossing the state running for president, the glare of national scrutiny was seuling On West Virginia. A lot of people in the state resented ,he fact that television reporters were flooding in and sending Mck reports about how ignorant. poor, and helpless everybody was in West Virgini~. Both Senator Kennedy and Senator Humphrey thought they had the solutioo for West Virginia: active assistance from the fedcml government in the form of free food, with federal~govemmentjobs to follow. [fWest Virginia agreed to vote for one Or the other of the men, food was apparently going to come into the state in dump-truck loads.

SCIENCE FAIRS

;

'"

When Humphrey was asked whal waS to become of the unemployed miners, he said they would be retrdined, which got a big round of applause from his audience. ""Retmined forwru.tT" I wondered. watching television at Roy Lee's house, ""Retmin miners." Roy Lee's mother lau;;ht"Cn spring storms. Jake's telescope allowed me to walk down !he rills and climb the mountains and stroll the maria of the mOOn in my mind. It helped me whcn [was sad about Daisy Mae, or worried about my parents moving to Myrtle Beach, or contemplating my future. The moon had become near and familiar, and that's why my answer just sort of popped ouL ··We should go to the moon!" I said. The senator 's cntourage laughed, but he shushed them with an irritable wave of his hand. ··And why do you !hink we should go to !he moon?" he asked me. [Iookedaroundand saw men in their miners' helmets. so I said, ··We should go thL"fc and find out what it's made of and mine it just like wc mine coal here in West Virginia." There was more laughing. until One of the mincrs spoke up. ·"That boy's right! We could mine !hat old moon good!" '·Hell." another miner shouted out. ··West Virginians could mine anything!" A ripple of good·natured applause went through !he crowd. There were a lot of grins. Nobody waS leaving. Kennedy seemed to be energized by !he response. ··[f I'm elected president." he said, '·1!hink maybe we ... ill go to the moon." He swept his eyes aCross the people, nOw attentive. ··1 like what this young man says. The important thing is to get the country moving again, to rcstore vigor and energy to the people ~nd the government. [f going to Ihe moon will help uS do thaI, Ihen maybe that's what we should do. My fellow Americans, join wilh me and we will together take this country forward .. .." The crowd respondL..:I heartily. Kennedy was lalkingabout working 10 make Ihe country great again, when Emily Sue dragged me away. ··What're you doing?" I demanded. ··['m having fun." '·We're going back 10 Philips and Cloony before they close."

A SUIT FO R INDIANPOltS

;

'"

"Whal forT "You're nOl going 10 Indianapolis in lhal orange suit It's lhe mOSI carnival lhing I've ever seen!" I slopped dead in my tracks. "I like my suit" She started to argue, bullhen said,"1 don'l doubl it" She put her hand On my back and propelled me forward. II wasallerdark by lhe time we got back to Coalwood. I came inside wearing a dark blue suit, which I hated even as Mom and Emily Suc's mOlher praised it Mom said she'd never Seen me so handsome. I could only wish she'd seen me in lhe O' Dell suiL IlOld her about the senator instead, "You wouldn't believe the things Sonny said 10 him," Emily Sue sighed, Dad came in and gave my suit a quick inspection. I told him about the senalor. "KennedyT' He frowned, "A damn pinko if there ever was one," Dad lell, heading oUiside, probably to go up to the mine. Mom looked allcr him and murmured, "A good-looking pinko, lhal's for sure." Aller Emily Sue left, 1 wenl upstairs and hung my dreary new suit in my doset Al least I had one thing to comfort me. In the j~cket pocket was a new tic I'd bought when Emily Sue wasn'l looking, II was a glossy ligh! blue, about six inches wide, and painted on it was a big red cardinal, the West Virginia bird, The cardinal was looking up at lhe sky, and its bright orange beak was open as if it was singing. II was a glorious tic, One that could be spotted clear aCross a room, which I figuR'd was an important attribute, I fl couldn 't we~r 0 'Del I's suit, I was stil I going to show the National Science Fair al least a little Big Creek Missile Agency style.

25 T ~I E

NATIONA L SCIENCE FAIR

TilE MO~ FOLLOWING the science fair in Bluefield seemed \0 flash by.

There was so much \0 do 10 gel ready. Happily, Miss Riley seemed 10 blossom with the spring. The color returned 10 her cheeks, and hcreyes

became bright OnCe more. Every day after classes were dooe, she worked with meOn my presentation skills. She also called teachers in other high schools who had sent students 10 the nationals. just to get SOme lip> On how 10 prepare and present. Every day J honed my spiel a little more so thai r could quickly deliver a learned presentation on the mathematics orlhe design of De Laval nOZl.lcs. the calculations ofspccific impulse and mass ratios, and lhe trigonomctryofaltitudes needed for an amateur

rocketry tcst range. Quentin came to my house On weekend. and helped me prepare charts and diagrams of lhe nozzle funcli ons. rockellrajeclories. and rin designs. O'Dell found a piece of black velvel somewhere on which 10 lay oul our rockel hardware. He also buill some wooden boxes 10 hold il all, cushioned wilh new'paper for prolection, Shennan and Billy took photographs of Cape Coalwood and put them in a phOlO album. Roy Lee made three·by-rive cards for each nozzle. nose cone, and casement, with a description of its dimensions and function, While the boys and I kepI our eye On the National Science Fair. the Coalwood mine continued to be idle , Somc miners. desperate 10 make

3 40

RO C K ET B OYS

some money. tried to entcr to work on the hoot--{)wl shift. but were chased away by union picketers. The company store gave credit until it couldn't anymore, Neither the company nor the union seemed to be in any mood to scllie. Mr. Caton had gone begging to Mr. Dubonnet. and the union chief had unh(,ntjust enough to let him build me the nozzles. casements, fins, and nose cones I needed for my display. One sct of nonles showed evolutionary BCMA designs, from the simple countersink version to Our latest beauty with an ahlative cooting, They were all jewels. Mr, Caton had done himsel f especially proud On one of them, culling all the waste metal ofT it until the converging/diverging angles could be seen from the nutside , I was certain it looked as good as any nozzle on any roc ket taking ofT from Cape Canaveral. I went to the union hall and thanked Mr. Dubonnct for lelling Mr, Caton do the work. "Just tell them your hardware was huilt by the UMWA," he said grimly. He had a right to be grim. I knew he was completely out of strike funds and the commodi ty food from the state was dwindling. I felt nearly ashamed 10 bother him wilh my rockels. At home, Dad still went to work every day, joining his forcmen for safety inspections and even rock dusting when ne