Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

The view from Wendy's World

Wanted: One rocket. Must run since Im not at all mechanically minded and a broken rocket ship is probably no good to me. Id prefer that it seat more than one, but would be open to space for lawn chairs. Color doesnt matter but must have a CD player since Im not at all certain what radio stations I could connect to from space.

I actually hadnt realized until this weekend that I dont have a rocket. Okay, maybe somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I didnt have one, but it had never occurred to me that I might need one.

I made the discovery while having an in-depth conversation with my granddaughter this weekend. It started as one of those questions only a kid can ask. Kind of like the, If the Incredible Hulk and an alligator got in a fight, which one would win? Only this was the granddaughter and she happened to be looking up when she came up with the question.

If you fell down from the Earth, what would happen?

Shes seven and has now had enough schooling to know that sometimes our point on Earth is actually down. I - in my ignorance - started by thinking about the question from my adult point of view.

Youd die because theres no oxygen.

But what if you had a space suit?

Hmmm.

Ive learned that a good hmmm can buy you several minutes during which time the kid doesnt yet know that the adult has no clue.

Well, I offered tentatively, I guess youd eventually starve to death.

The kid wasnt impressed with my views on mortality and she sighed. I recognized that sound. Its code for, Im going to have to explain this better so the grown up brain can wrap around this notion.

But what would you SEE? she finally asked.

We talked at length about stars, sky, clouds and planets with me pulling up everything I felt I could talk about with any measure of intelligence.

That part of the problem solved, we moved on.

What would happen when you fell back to Earth?

Youd die when you hit the atmosphere and started going really fast.

I actually thought Id handled that one pretty well, and I waited for the next question and hoped that I could come up with another acceptable answer.

Then how do space men do it?

They have a rocket ship, I answered.

I expected yet another question. Instead, she came up with an incredible observation.

Thats why you should always have a rocket ship.

I was dumbfounded. Shes right. It took a 7-year-old to point out the obvious. Ive been running around without a rocket ship for my entire life. Its only my good fortune that Ive not needed it before now. But Im not about to continue to tempt fate, so, if you have a rocket ship or know where I can find one, let me know.

Oh, and Id probably prefer that its mounted on a trailer. After all, whats the point of having a rocket if I cant pull it around with me