June 26, 2006
ROCKET SCIENCE
Patrick from Athens writes:
"You may have noticed that the address on the mailing label for your Sears typewriter is to a man living at 3910 Telstar Circle in Huntsville, AL.
Telstar is an interesting name for a street in Huntsville. Though the town was in the deep south and Jim Crow was in effect throughout much of the region, Huntsville is where the rocket scientists lived. Huntsville is where NASA has its research labs in AL, and It's where the famous Space Camp is located.
Telstar Circle is probably named for the Telstar Satellite, the first communications satellite, pictured here.
I grew up in this South, at a time when Sears would mail a man a typewriter, and most of the streets were named for old white men and their families: Eberhart Ave, Woodruff Court, Britt David Elementary School. I lived on a road too far out in the country to have a name: it was just Route 2, Box 288.
A street named "Telstar Circle" resonates neo-futurism. I imagine the original owner of this typewriter and his neighbor thinking Deep Thoughts for a living. (Of course, Edmund Teller—father of the H Bomb—worked in Huntsville for years, so we're not talking about saints, here.)"
Posted by Sasha at June 26, 2006 01:47 PM | TrackBack