Guestblogger Arthur Goldwag is the author of "Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies: The Straight Scoop on Freemasons, The Illuminati, Skull and Bones, Black Helicopters, The New World Order, and many, many more" and other books.
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"You put in other details"
Can't listen to the podcast at work to find out how he ended up, but it looks like he had a great career in management ahead of him.
Where did the name Dean come from? It says Dennis on the letter, and in the other articles.
It says "Denis" on the letter. Perhaps he'd gotten tired of everybody singing that Blondie song at him.
I can't see how old he was when the letter was written, but he did well to only miss one letter in Mordialloc. His house still there:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=26+chute+street+mordialloc+victoria+australia&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=33.764224,56.513672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=26+Chute+St,+Mordialloc+VIC+3195,+Australia&ll=-38.007813,145.092509&spn=0.0082,0.013797&t=h&z=16
Nice big back yard, and with a hills hoist no less. Lots of space for an imaginative young kid to dream.
I love the way he original addressed it to a scientist and then thought, 'No, dammit, this is important. This needs to go to the TOP scientist!'
This remind me of a letter I wrote when I was 11 or 12 (in mid 80'). I read about solar sailing in some magazine. I wrote to the JPL scientist (in broken english) to get more information on the subject.
Now I don't recall who it was but it did wrote me back with additional material (shame on me, it seem that I lost it when I moved out from my parents place).
I felt really happy when I got the answer. I will never forget that.
I never became a rocket scientist like I was dreaming then, but never the less, it was a great experience.
REading the letter I thought gee that looks like something I would do at that age. Though I would have had more "Air torpedos"
Then I noticed the post mark. That was the day I was born.
Dude was tracked down and interviewed...
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2009/s2695819.htm
52 years later and still no reply? Come on woomerans, it's not rocket science...
"Then a miracle occurs..."
I wonder if this child's letter is in reference to the Hugh Walters science fiction novel "Blast Off at Woomera" that also came out in 1957.
This is awesome. Reminds me of the
Letters to Mt. Wilson exhibit at the Museum of Jurassic Technology.
Forget the content, look at the postmark! It's just like HotMail and getting random endorsements attached to all your mail.
They were heartless enough not to reply to that letter? I hope the kid grew up to be a government bean counter who cut all their funding!
a "Rocket ship" powered by jet engines...
yaayyy museum of jurassic technology!! reminds me of 'letters to mt. wilson', too -- 'cept with less of the crazy, and more of the totally cool and inventive.
i sent a rocket design into a nasa scientist when i was in first grade and got back a big info packet and a letter from the guy
I think this is basically what Reagan handed the DoD when he started the "Star Wars" program in 1983.
yeah, i remember blondie being around on the 30th of october 1957... it's a day i will never forget!
Someone should give this design a nice 3D CG treatment for him. Maybe I will.
Probably some sort of advanced scramjet technology
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=SCRAMJET&aq=f&aqi=g10&oq=&fp=c807e9ccc08a197a
52 years later, because of the magic of the internet, we can now put in the other details: http://www.youputinotherdetails.com
Here is a quick rendering, just for fun.
http://www.digitalartform.com/archives/2009/10/cg_render_test.html
Ha, very nice JFrancis! This kid's(man's) dreams will come true one way or another!