Spacey

"Maintain an even strain."

I often repeat this mantra to myself to prevent my temper from flaring when the Rising Family™ feuds inside our car. I first read those words during my teens in "The Right Stuff," penned by the incomparable Tom Wolfe. 

I mulled the deeper meaning of it all – how to stay calm and collected when irritated – as we drove down to Huntsville, Alabama. Appropriately, we were heading to visit the US Space & Rocket Center, a museum dedicated to the US space program. 

You see, Thing 1 and Thing 2 were having another round in their ongoing sibling slugfest. On board an SUV going 70-plus mph the only choice for a parent is to ignore the screeching and crying, or crash and burn. The trip to Huntsville takes only 90 minutes from the Nashville area by car. But when your kids are fighting without heed to terse parental orders and promised retribution, the vehicle’s interior can feel like an existential black hole. It's like the vacuum of space, sucking the fiber of one’s being into an endless void of nothingness. Is that depiction stark enough to evoke the helplessness felt when animosity envelopes an enclosed metal space hurtling at high speed? Thus, “maintain an even strain” comes in handy as a psychological safe zone during family outings.

Anyway….we departed on a sunny Sunday morning and headed south to 'Bama. Being an unrepentant space geek, I was eager to begin this visit. When you’re a teenager, Alabama seems a long way from Ontario. As an adult, I was yearning to experience all the museum had to offer. The Space & Rocket Center did not disappoint. The place was chock-full of old spacecraft and mega military hardware that made loud booms. 

The many artifacts were set in chronological order together with historical displays that set the geopolitical context. We saw early German V2 rockets; NASA projects Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules; SkyLab modules; and the Space Shuttle program. All these hurtling machines were showcased from the prism of the Cold War and the Space Race.

Courtesy of NASA

Famous Americans such as Alan Shepard, Chuck Yeager, John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and John Young were lionized all over the exhibit halls. I was proud to see Chris Hadfield there. I totally geeked out and had to be dragged from one section to the next. I wanted to read everything. To me, these relics of beat-up space metal were tangible history. I felt awe and the forward-looking simplicity of those times and my mind drifted. Then the baleful stares of my wife and daughters caught my attention, telegraphing a vehement hurry-up  message. Did they enjoy all these monuments to superpower rivalry and space exploration? Sure they did. Just not as much as I did.

Visiting the Space and Rocket Center was a nice coda to my boyish glee when I first read about these cool spacecraft that had made history. It was an awesome family outing. You should read Wolfe’s classic book about astronauts, keeping your s**t together while under stress, and American identity. It entertains. And I believe its lasting message does help prevent dads from pulling the cord to the ejector seat.