Newsletter

Interesting week! What was most remarkable this week is that this is the latest that my newsletter has ever been published! For that, I'd like to give a hearty apology along with an old-fashioned "whoops!" I haven't been feeling very well, with some nagging sore throat being at the root of it. But I have an interesting story about my Cass County adventure this week, specifically about the opening of the Clayton Anderson: Heartland Astronaut exhibit!

 

EVENTS

 

Cruisin' Main Street 

Books on Sale, Art and Wine, what more could anyone want?

Aaron James Booksellers &
 Stephanie's Wine Cellar

430 Main St., Plattsmouth, NE 68048
Phone: 402-296-5353
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.arronjamesbooksellers.com
www.stephanieswinecellar.com

Cruise on down to historic main street in downtown Plattsmouth Nebraska for the Annual Cruising Main celebration.  We expect over 200 cars and will play 50's-60's music . The event starts filling with cars around 5:00PM.  Aaron James Booksellers / Stephanie's Wine Cellar  will celebrate by holding their first Wine Tasting. Nebraska wines from Soaring Wings will be featured. Whiskey Run Creek, Arbor Trails, and other       foreign and domestics will also be sold. The cost is $5.00 per person and includes free dessert and Tapas.
Wine Tasting—This Friday October 5, From 5:30 till close 

 

Cruisin' Man Soup Supper Fundraiser

Date: October 5th

Time: 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Place: Platssmouth Community Center 

Menu: Chili with all the fixings, chicken noodle soup,

corn bread, coffee/tea

Price: $5, extra bowl $1

 

German Heritage Festival 

 Dinner, Bazaar, and Bake Sale

Date: October 6th

Time: 4:30 PM - 7:00 PM

Bazaar and Bake Sale open at 4:00 PM

Place: St. John's Lutheran Church, 322 N. Molly St. Bennington, NE

Price: Adults - $8, Children 5-12 $5, Children under 5: Free!

 

Influenza Vaccine

Date: October 17th

Place: Plattsmouth Community Center

Questions? Call Carol Grey 296-3181

 

Ice Cream Social

Come discuss arthritis pain, diabetes, and joint pain... With ice cream!

Date: October 30th

Time: 12:00 PM

Place: Plattsmouth Community Center

Door Prizes at 10 AM!

 

So, this past Saturday I managed to get myself to a formal event. The one in particular I attended was the opening of the Clayton Anderson: Heartland Astronaut exhibit. First I would like to say that I absolutely love the SAC Museum. I have a friend of mine that considers it to be a museum of death because it contains so many of the tools of war that have been used to take human lives. But then again at the same time, these are the instruments which also saved so many lives and made the world a safer place to live in for everyone. How many countless lives would still be bleeding away if we had lost World War II, after all? But enough with my morality lectures! Let's get on with the event!

 

 

The SR-71 Blackbird, fastest jet in the world.

 

Clayton Anderson is an astronaut who is remarkable not only for his new appointment to the International Space Station, but also because of his heritage. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and raised in Ashland. In spite of what might seem to some to be humble beginnings, he has gone on to pursue his dreams of space to the fullest extent. This exhibit is a monument to what can be achieved, no matter where you come from or what you want to do with your life. He is proud to represent the often mistakenly overlooked state of Nebraska, just as I am (if not by something as remarkable as going to space; but newsletters aren't bad!).

 

The event itself was an opening of the exhibit, and brought some A-list names to the SAC museum. I was going with my father, since this was his event to cover for The Journal and not mine! The triumphant adventure began by accidentally turning into Mahoney State Park, though the KETV Channel 7 news SUV went the wrong way as well and we could see them turning around behind us as we corrected our course to arrive at the proper destination.

 

It wasn't at all busy when we arrived, although there was a tantalizing array of appetizers which awaited me. I resisted their allure due to the thinness of the crowd, instead opting to head beyond the party in my flat-heeled shoes to the massive bay which contains the aircrafts so that I could get some pictures of them. For those of you who haven't guessed, I have acquired a new camera that doesn't make my insides churn with disgrace, so the pictures came out relatively well! To let you know in advance, none of the people pictures had such a turnout unfortunately, so in spite of the faces with the names that came, I don't have anything worth showing of them.

 

An assortment of planes!

 

FS-714.

 

Propellar!

 

Anyway, after I wandered around in there for a while (despairing that the flight simulators were not open for me to play with), my father called me back to the main event since people were filtering in. Having eaten nothing all day, and almost in defiance of my elegant attire, I loaded up my plate with the appetizers and went to have a seat. Senator Pankonin was at our table, along with a Mister Swanson who reminded me very much of a friend of mine no one here knows. There was some light discussion until the speeches began.

 

Mostly the speeches were pretty good material! Senator Nelson's included a kudos to the troops, and many inspiratonally stirring words. Clayton's wife got the best laugh of the evening, relating that her husband should be feeling more at home soon since he would soon have a female commander on the ISS. There was also a big to-do about the SAC Museum becoming an affiliate of the Smithsonian, with a certificate to follow. All in all, it was a nice prelude to the exhibit opening. Even Clayton Anderson gave a speech by video, with his massive wrist watch floating haphazardly on his wrist in the zero gravity of space.

 

In the exhibit itself, there were a number of games, suits, photographs, models, and pieces of equipment. One of the games involved landing a space shuttle onto a landing pad, which I only got the chance to try once in spite of my rampant curiosity as to its workings. The astronauts may have survived the landing I stuck, but I probably would've ruined the shuttle if it had landed as I stuck it! If you want to know what exactly there is to see and do, I'm not going to tell you here! You'll have to go for yourself, and I reccomend that you do. It's well worth the time to see history in the making. By the time I finally managed to get home, I was feeling very intellectually satisfied, even though aforementioned shoes were beginning to hurt my feet!

 

Tomorrow too is another noteworthy date. It is the 50th anniversary of the space age! It was 50 years ago tomorrow on October 4th that the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into the skies, making it the first satellite in orbit. It could be seen with the naked eye, and presented to the United States a defiant challenge of Soviet power. It was not only the beginning of the space age, but also the space race, the emphatic contest to see who could land a man on the moon first. And while we know now that America managed to slip past the Soviet Union to the metaphorical punch, it was still none the less powerful and moving when John Kennedy declared that before this decade was over, we would land a man on the moon. Sputnik, however, was little more than a 148-pound round, blinking orb. It didn't even have any scientific equipment on it due to the speed at which it was required to be finished. Today, there are more satellites than I'm willing to count in the air, and an international space station that we share with the former rival Cosmonauts of Russia.

 

It's amazing to see how far we've come.