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A Match Made In Space Coast Heaven
Afroman & Mom
Watching It Like A (Rockledge, Florida) Native

— dave.

October 23, 2007 — On this day, Constance Perrone Hogerty (Connie), a sixty-year resident in Rockledge, Florida stood with Kathy’s and my summer traveling companion, Afroman, on the bank of the Indian River, on the River Road, in North Cocoa.
Afroman was a sculpture given to us by an artist (Afroman’s creator) named Denise (Dinny) Murphy, sister of our good friend Mary Murphy, who we were visiting at her home in Haverhill, Massachusetts, a small town on the ……… River, north of Boston, near the New Hampshire state line.
After receiving Afroman, we were off to Niagara Falls, west to Detroit, down the Mississippi River, through St. Louis, Memphis, Natchez, and New Orleans.
On the way back home, we made a quick stop in the Panhandle to see the Florida Caverns. After that, we drove directly down the Turnpike and I95, making our way home to Fort Lauderdale.
A couple months later, when mom called, asking if I was planning to drive up (to Rockledge) to shoot (pictures) the launch. (DISCOVERY) launch, I said yes, and was bringing Afroman, because I thought having his portrait taken backed by such an exciting moment would make a good end to Afroman’s (East-Of-The-Mississippi) American Adventure, so I’d count on her to handle Afroman, and position him for his “I’m A Spaceman,” Florida Portrait.
For the record, my mother was the woman who took me into the front yard to watch Alan Shepard fly (May 5, 1961) just before we moved to Silver Pines, when Fisk Blvd was a narrow dirt (sand) road, an at its end (long before Viera), was an unlocked wooden gate, that residents were welcome to drive onto Duda & Son’s ranch, where they grew watermelon, St Augustine sod, and Brahma Bull and beef cattle, today, the road to Publix, McDonald’s, and Dunkin’ Donuts.
Also for the record. This is the one-year anniversary of Rockledge, Florida, Space Program Pioneer, a long-time member of the League of Women Voters and the NAACP. Always an activist, who fought for the Civil Rights of everyone around her.
This will be the first of Connie Hogerty’s decades-long traditional Christmas Eve party, to which she won’t attend. Everyone (all vaccinated) will remember Connie’s spirit, the spirit that will live forever.

sts-120

— NASA

The “official” Government pictures of the “Afroman & Mom” launch of Discovery.