Original Noise dave.fla - Original Noise

Back to the Future — On that day, (September 29, 1988) the launch of the space shuttle Discovery was to be America’s anxiously awaited return to space … NASA’s first manned mission since the Challenger disaster, two years before.

“Just Say Go” Signs and green ribbons were everywhere that afternoon, all around the Space Coast, expressing Brevard County’s renewed optimism. Nowhere was the hope higher, and more on display, than in the small village that connects two of Florida’s oldest communities. Cocoa and Rockledge rest comfortably on the Indian River, across from Merritt Island and Mosquito Lagoon, a front-row seat in the world’s most exciting theater.

Five miles north of my house on Coquina Road on the palm and oak-lined River Road, a dilapidated, corrugated-metal building (Hub’s Inn) marked my favorite spot to watch a launch. Looking across the Indian River, toward Mosquito Lagoon, the monstrous VAB (Vertical/Vehicle Assembly Building), with its NASA logo and American flag visible from ten miles away, stands large on the horizon, a line of palmetto scrub, on the long, sandy cape that defines Florida’s East Central Coast.

Next to the VAB, two steel gantries rise like post-historic, skeletal remains, marking what might be our planet’s most SACRED GROUND.

Launch Complex #39 — Where America’s most accomplished pilots, engineers, scientists, doctors, and military officers (Astronauts) spent the last moments on Earth. The time, just before their being launched into space.

SIGNING OFF — Every rocket launched from The Cape leaves an after cloud, every mission’s signature in the sky. The cloud, here, was left by the space shuttle Discovery (STS-133), after it’s final launch (February 24, 2011) to re-supply the International Space Station. There were only two shuttle mission to go.

It was thought that STS-134 could have been the last, with most Republicans in Congress opposing the funding required to launch STS-135, but as soon as February, NASA announced definitely that STS-135 would fly, “regardless” of Congress’ denial of funding.

July 8, 2011 Taking advantage of the time and preparations necessary for STS-335, the “On Need” launch, the mission that would have been necessary if the STS-134 crew became stranded in orbit. That made Atlantis (STS-135) the last. Two weeks after launch, upon its return and landing at the Kennedy Space Center, the 135th mission, and the entirety of NASA’s 30-year Space Shuttle Program, was over.

Ormond Beach
Quest for Speed (1900s-1930s)
Ormond Hotel
Henry Morrison Flagler
John D. Rockefeller
Henry Ford
Harvey Firestone
Thomas A. Edison — Ft. Myers
Daytona Beach (The World’s Most Famous)
NASCAR 1950
Beach Racing
A1A
New Smyrna Beach

Canaveral National Seashore
Playalinda Beach
Apollo Beach — “Nude On The Moon”
Banana River — Intracoastal Waterway

Rainbow Springs
“Curse Of The Witches Well”
Cottage on the Rainbow River
Dunellon

— Interior Florida. Clear, Cool, spring-fed river.
A retreat from the family estate in Belleair.
On the west coast, north of Tampa, where Henry Plant terminated his Railroad, near Clearwater, north of St. Petersburg. THE BELLEVIEW-BILTMORE HOTEL
Henry Plant was Henry Flagler’s rival, fellow Railroad baron, and Florida Pioneer, who turned his tracks west, toward Tampa, while Flagler decided to continue south, down Florida’s East Coast, with a dreamer’s eye on Key West, the land developer’s, industrial age, FLORIDA MOON.

De Leon Springs
Blue Spring (Actually Green)
St. Johns River
Orange, Florida

(HWY40)Go West — Ormond Beach, Ocala National Forest, Silver Springs, Crystal River, Yankeetown, Withlacoochee Gulf Preserve,
Deland (HWY44)
Cassadaga — GEO MAGAZINE (German) PICTURES
Daytona Beach (The World’s Most Famous)
Daytona 500
NASCAR (Beach-A1A/Super Speedway
Port Orange
New Smyrna Beach (HWY44) Atlantic Ocean
Cassadaga
Deland
Orange, Florida
BLUE SPRING
ST. JOHNS RIVER
(HWY50) — THE ROAD THROUGH SPACE & TIME

FOSSIL FUEL
[ GOD / GAS / GUNS ]
Weeki Wachee
TWO SPRINGS
Florida Swimming Holes

International Space Station
Galactic Waste Management
Richard Branson
Virgin Atlantic
Elon Musk
SpaceX
Private Property?
Space Force?

“Change Is Gonna Come”
The Inaugural Falcon — A look into the Future of space travel, and a reminder (warning) of how Donald Trump not only didn’t make America any greater, he nearly destroyed our effort to boldly go where no man has gone before.
“I’ll break your fucking camera, if you take a picture of me.”
Unlike an invitation to a tall glass of sweet tea and watching a countdown on the host family’s primitive black and white television set with its aluminum foil-wrapped rabbit ear antenna.

Far from the fondest of memories, watching all the “manned launches,” starting with Alan Shepard’s most exhilarating, 15-minute, up and down ride anyone had ever seen.
From our front yard on the Cocoa mainland, my mother, my sister, my brother, and I watched the yellow flame rise into the clear blue Florida sky, and after it disappeared, we went inside to begin what would be a life-long, Space Coast ritual.
Closing the screen door behind you, and sitting down in the living room, listening to one of the network newsmen, writing (telling) America’s history as they saw it.
We, like most, listened to Walter Cronkite, the voice of CBS news, the Truth in America.
Walter Cronkite — an honest man who told us what he saw.

Same Space, Different Time — For the dozen Apollo Astronauts who walked on the Moon, the last spot on earth they touched before stepping onto the heavenly body was on Cape Canaveral, Florida.

On this day, nearly 40 years later, the Space Shuttle Discovery sat quietly on the same spot, it’s crew waiting anxiously to ride atop an explosive fountain of fire, launching their spacecraft off The Cape and toward the International Space Station, orbiting 300 miles overhead.

The deteriorating, corrugated-metal building is Hub’s Inn, a Space Coast seafood restaurant and lounge, popular in the 1920s. Indian River lore having it that Hub’s was a favorite of Al Capone, to where he and his Miami mob associates sailed their motor yachts, up the Intracoastal Waterway, and bought exclusive time at Hub’s Inn, enough time to satisfy their near-insatiable desire for Wine, Women, and Song.

A Day In The Life — Ten minutes on Florida’s Space Coast, including watching, with a young family, seeing its first manned launch (the space shuttle Discovery), its fiery launch and rapid ascent, streaking across the mostly clear blue, Florida sky, away from the Cape, on its way to the International Space Station, orbiting 300 miles above, outside the atmosphere of Earth.
A reminder of my mother (who is present this day), fifty years earlier, taking me, my sister, and my brother into our front yard in Cocoa, to watch Alan Shepard become the first American to see outer space.

On this launch day (2005), you’ll hear Grandma Rose shriek excitedly, before loudly calling out to her young grandson,

Sebastian Inlet — The dividing line between Brevard and Indian River Counties, and known as one of the finest surf spots, not only in Florida, but the entire east coast of the United States.

TITUSVILLE
Moon-Light Drive-In
Canaveral National Seashore
Playalinda Beach
Apollo Beach
Mosquito Lagoon
Indian River
Merritt Island
Tropical Trail
Banana River
Northern Mangrove
Red Morgan (Alligator Beach Capture)
Canaveral Pier
Ron Jon’s
Port Canaveral
Nuclear Submarines
Shrimp Boats
UFOs
Trident Missiles
U2
Patrick Air Force Base
Test Range

Banana River (The World’s Most Famous)
South Tropical Trail (The World’s Most Famous)
Mather’s Bridge
Dragon Point (Merritt Island’s southern tip)

Apollo Beach — Clothing optional on the Canaveral National Seashore. (“Nude On The Moon”)

1959 — (Oct.4) — First photographs of another world from space: the far side of the Moon

1969 w/ “Ball Of Confusion”
Rage, Violence, and Hope … The World had never been less certain.

“One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for Mankind”
— Neil Armstrong as he stepped onto the Moon.

A short documentary, including the launch, the landing, and the celebration of Apollo 11, and Neil Armstrong becoming the first man to leave a footprint on the moon.

Robert Rauschenberg was an influential ’60sPop Artist who often used news clippings and photographs in his collage-style prints.

July 21, 1969 — The Day Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, and answered one of Earth’s oldest mysteries. Since the first man looked up and saw stars twinkling in the sky, all mankind has imagined how it would feel … The Day Neil Armstrong touched another heavenly body, the body with our complete and timeless attention. THE MOON.

What A Day — The Day Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, legendary (CBS) newsman, Charles Kuralt sent members of his team of journalists around the United States, to document everyday American life, on that most extraordinary day. After the report was written, edited, and produced, it was stored on a shelf for the next 25 years. Its airing in 1994, was the opening of a time capsule, Kuralt’s intention was to let the photography and reporting mature (without manipulation) and stand as a most accurate document of time.

Fernandina Beach
“Sunshine State” b/ John Sales
Pirates
Amelia Island vs. Fernandina Beach
Large, red brick, large windows open to the Atlantic Ocean, bar on a corner of A1A, and a road that continues onto the flat-sand beach.
Mofro-like, Florida/Georgia line, Swampy Juke Joint music.
Two BIG brothers, one singing and playing guitar, the other playing drums, both wearing appropriately, blue denim, brass-buttoned overalls, just as any North Florida/South Georgia rock n roller would.
Allman Brothers —
Lynyrd Skynyrd —
The Outlaws —
Tom Petty —
The Mavericks —

FERNANDINA BEACH — Driving on the Beach, a Florida Tradition, lasting into the 1980s on the northern most beaches, but eventually put to an end by a growing movement of environmental protectionists.

Jacksonville
St. Augustine
Conch Island
Anastasia Island
Palm Coast
Flagler Beach
Ormond Beach
Daytona Beach
New Smyrna Beach (HWY40)

DAYTONA BEACH — Just before the super speedway was built, stock car racing was done on a track with two, long (2-miles) straightaways, one on the flat-sand beach, and the other up on A1A, both connected at the north and south ends by wide, 180 Degree, banked turns through the sugar sand dune that ran the entire east coast of Florida.
1957 — Daytona video, with vintage US Air Force Thunderbirds flyover.

Ormond Beach (Quest for Speed)
HWY40 — west to Yankeetown (on Gulf)
Yankeetown
Withlacoochee Gulf Preserve (Gulf Of Mexico)
Ocala National Forest
Silver Springs
Ocala
Cattle / Horses
Citrus, yes, but much more the trees
Lumber
Paper
Pulp
“That Smell” — Lynyrd Skynyrd
Driving north (Pedro Only 370 miles)
around Jacksonville, that mysterious smell (burning pine pulp) that offended any 12-year-old’s most sensitive sense of smell.
TURPENTINE — Like Mississippi Cotton, Slave Labor
“Turpentine” b/ JJ Grey (MOFRO)
“Lochloosa” — MOFRO
“Ten Thousand Islands”
JJ’s HWY40 ride the way it’s supposed to be, two narrow lanes cut through the still dominant, interior Florida lanscape (Jules Verne description in his 1860 adventure, “From The Earth to The Moon.”)

CONNECTICUT SUMMER
Marianne
Driving North
St. Augustine — The oldest city
Oldest Roadside Attraction
16th Century Kitsch
Ripley’s Believe it Or Not Museum
A National Geographic sideshow, Florida’s Coney Island Freak Show
Whodini — “The Freaks Come Out At Night”
Edgar Winter — They Only Come Out At Night (1972) Albumn
alongside:

The Fountain of Youth
and the Spanish, French, English, and Native Floridian history that defines the city.
St. Augustine
Kitschy roadside tourist attraction. Sightseeing trolleys by day, and a mellow, quaint, North Florida town by night. Upstairs Blues.

Leaving Florida …
Upstairs of many of the downtown gift shops and other touristy businesses are many small, late night cafes, serving up properly frothed cappuccinos, flaky danish, and a usually sophisticated fusion of rock n roll, jazz, and blues music.

What a Difference a Day Makes
Privatization
Branson
Musk
SPACEX
INAUGURAL FALCON: 50 YEARS AFTER
A reminder of Donald Trump’s making America Great Again.
“I’ll break your camera if you take a picture of me mother fucker.”
Unlike being invited in for a glass of sweet tea, while watching the countdown on the family’s portable black and white television set with the rabbit ear antenna.

Far from the fondest of memories, watching all the “manned launches,” starting with Alan Shepard’s most exhilarating, 15-minute, up and down ride anyone had ever seen.
From our front yard on the Cocoa mainland, my mother, my sister, my brother, and I watched the yellow flame rise into the clear blue Florida sky, and after it disappeared, we went inside to begin what would be a life-long, Space Coast ritual.
Closing the screen door behind you, and sitting down in the living room, listening to one of the network newsmen, writing (telling) America’s history as they saw it.
For the Hogerty family, we liked what Walter Cronkite (CBS) saw.
An honest man who told the truth as he honestly saw it.

“From the Beginning”
FOSSIL FUEL
Houses Replace citrus, after a freeze. St John’s Crossing. Crossing I95, Old School east to Titusville/ US1 & HWY50)
VAB
HWY50 — WEEKI WACHEE/VAB SPRING HILL, Sinclair Dinosaur, inland Florida swimming hole, as compared to the Venetian Pool in Coral Gables.
Turpentine, Pines, Plywood and stinky pulp

While on the Miami Herald Staff [ 1993 ], contributed as a photographer, editor, and designer to the Herald’s Public Service Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of Hurricane Andrew.
Diversions was a 16-page, broad sheet, weekly section, made with the (“Best Of”) the Miami Herald’s previous week’s content, including that written for Tropic, the Herald’s critically acclaimed, and internationally praised Sunday magazine. Diversion was developed as a vehicle to deliver important public service messages to those Miami, Dade County, and South Florida residents who didn’t subscibe to the Miami Herald … significantly more than the two million, Sunday subscribers at the time. In the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew, Diversions more than showed its meddle, delivering entertainment and valuable, life-saving information, making Diversions and important public service of its own.

August 24, 1992 — For decades, travelers driving south on I95 were greeted as the entered Miami by the legendary Coppertone Girl, whose bathing suits bottoms were being tugged down by a cute, little dog, exposing her un-tanned bottom. The day after Hurricane Andrew had ripped through South Miami, the little girl was missing. OriginalNoise.Org

Miami Records — Betty Wright/ Ghetto Soul/ Overtown
After show playing in clubs, near the hotels where black musicians were forced to stay, after playing shows, on the beach, at the Fontainebleau and Eden Roc Hotels.
Ella Fitzgerald
Nat King Cole
Sarah Vaughan
Dorothy Dandridge
Arrangements made for Sammy Davis Jr. (A Made Member of Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack)
Frequent Miami Beach visitors, especially after Jackie Gleason made his move to Florida.
Frank Sinatra — Tony Rome (1967)
Making Movies by day and hanging out (drinking, partying, whoring) in and around the Miami Beach hotel bars, nightclubs, and lounges … and making the regular ride across Biscayne Bay to listen to the more psychedelic, experimental protest music of the Coconut Grove Underground.
1965 — Jackie Gleason meet Wayne Cochran and the CC Riders.
Jaco Pastorius — Confident (closer to arrogant) teenage bassist in Fort Lauderdale, who sharpened his tool, playing with the seasoned, old, and wise Jazz and Bluesmen who sat proudly in the small neighborhood clubs, playing late, into the early morning, Sistrunk Boulevard night.
LAS OLAS AFTER DARK
Jaco joins Wayne Cochran’s Big band, doing gigs on the Fort Lauderdale strip, at the Elbo Room, at the corner of Las Olas Blvd and Ocean Drive (A1A), where, as Hollywood said in 1960, The Boys Are.

Artesian Spring — Venetian Pool, in Coral Gables, the upscale neighborhood, south of downtown Miami, west of US 1, the line between the Gables and the Coconut Grove Ghetto, before going deeper east into the jungle, under a canopy of Sea Grape … Fairchild Gardens (Chihuly Glass/Will Calhoun Drums)
Calhoun, also with Robert Redford at the Young Arts Foundation in its newest acquisition, the historic, old school Miami Bacardi Building that has sat in its distinguished place (address) on Biscayne Blvd for as long as I can remember,
New Times (arquitectonica) — Famous architcture firm failure to sell on 35th and Biscayne, before the Art Basel/Design District Explosion.
Years before, the neighborhood on the outskirts of Downtown Miami and Little Haiti.
CHURCHILLS
Carl Juste/Pat Farrell — Educational/Cultural photographers.
Enriqueta’s Cafe (Sandwich Shop)
Miami New Times new digs. A deal (including signage) was struck to the financial satisfaction of both Arquitectonica and the New Times coporation.
ART BASEL & A DESIGN DISTRICT EXPLOSION
Private Room (ganja-filled), alley entrance, or as if you were taking the back door exit of the young and popular, Kobe Beef Taco serving, people on the edge of their chrome-plated stools.
DJ-RAMPAGE — Off the road he had traveled continuously, for the past five years, with (Ms.) Lauryn Hill. The “Ms.” because Lauryn insisted upon it. It mattered not (DIDN’T MATTER) where they played … Oslo, Jamaica, Moscow, or Mexico City, Rio, or Miami Beach, audiences around the world were frequently disappointed by the performance of an original Fugee.
“Ready Or Not” — (video) w/ new and improved, much higher than vintage Miami Vice technological, Bad Boys, Fast And Furious, Ride-Along Cop Movies.
Oct.1996 — Fugees Fashion Week performace w/ celebrity audience members.

VENETIAN POOL
Coral Gables
Coconut Grove
Brickell Drive
Tobacco Road
Miami River
Steve Pynes Architectural Tour
DuPONT BUILDING
FLORIDA’S SISTINE CHAPEL
Ponce de Leon’s Discovery
Florida History
The story of Ponce de Leon’s landing near St. Augustine, Welcomed by the Natives, and his making his Claim to Immortal Fame.
“THE DISCOVERY” is painted on a series of Cypress Panels, the 25-foot High Ceiling of a large, windowed, sunlit room, behind the ornate, brass fence, and through the gate off the Dupont’s mostly marble and chrome, Art Deco Style lobby.
ART DECO STYLE
Steve and Nancy’s wedding party on Ocean Drive.
THE PARK CENTRAL — telling a visual history of
The Original Florida Sin
FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH
Gold, Silver
Florida’s Sistine Chapel …
Florida History painted on a high Cypress Ceiling, a striking testament to Florida art, culture, and determination. A style at odds with the Dupont’s NYC-inspired, Art Deco look, but a style that could be no more revelatory, honest, and pure Florida.
Tobacco Road

FLORIDA’S LEGENDARY SPACE COAST
Cape Canaveral/ Cocoa Beach/ Merritt Island/ Indian River.

Daytona Beach (The World’s Most Famous)
Ormond (Quest for Speed)
Cape Canaveral
Playalinda Beach (The Naked Truth)
Canaveral National Sea Shore
Merritt Island (Tropical Trail / Citrus Highway)
Cocoa Beach (Kelly Slater)
Satellite Beach (PAFB)
Indialantic (HWY192/5th Ave.)
Melbourne Beach (Kate Upton)
Sebastian Inlet (SURF)
Vero Beach (Spring Baseball/California Connection)
Fort Pierce (The Highwaymen)

[ 1959 ] — NASA: The Original 7 and the Lure Of The Moon.
MAY 5, 1961 — Watched Alan Shepard become the first American astronaut to reach Outer Space.

Cocoa TODAY (Sports Stringer/Writer) 1974
Cocoa TODAY (“Inquiring Photographer”) 1975
Cocoa TODAY (Staff Photographer) 1976-1979
University of Florida (Student) 1979-1983
INDEPENDENT FLORIDA ALLIGATOR (WRITER/PHOTOGRAPHER/EDITOR) 1979-1983

[ 1980 ] — John Lennon, Tom Petty, Borg and McEnroe, Green Grass of a different kind, The Allman Brothers, Pat Benatar, Frank Zappa, The Cars, The Eagles, Elvis Costello, Andy Kauffman, Gator Football, UF/FSU, Rodney Dangerfield at the Homecoming Ball, and Olympic Miracles On Ice.

Time Magazine (Picture Dept. Intern) Summer 1982
No Nukes, Iran/Iraq w/Arnold Drapkin, visiting the boss with Michelle Stevenson, Rick Booth, Anne Stovel, The Roxy, Montreal Allstar game with Ken Reagan, Camera 5, Pete Rose, Carl Yazstremski Matthew Nathons (Columbia Launch), Eddie Adams, David Hume Kennerly loafers in Vietnam … Reggie Jackson, The Angel, stand up in Right Field, puerto rico boom boxes bleachers, 125th Street walk up and walk across …

Palm Beach Post (Staff Photographer) 1984
THE MIAMI HERALD (Staff Photographer) 1985-1987
University of Florida (College of Journalism Faculty) 1987-1989

Palm Beach
Palm Beach (CBS) w/Mo Rocca
Henry Morrison Flagler
Addison Mizner w/Johnny Brown “The Human Monkey”
Mar A Lago
Marjorie Merriweather Post
EF Hutton
Rudolph Valentino
Whitehall — Flagler’s Sea to Ocean Estate
“WINTERING”
John D. Rockerfeller
Henry Ford
Harvey S. Firestone
Thomas A. Edison
The Breakers Hotel
Worth Avenue
The Villa Mizner
JFK
TED & WILLY’s EXCELENT ADVENTURE
Reef Road
Palm Beach Inlet
Pump House

Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner?
Mollie Wilmot, the Jackie-O sunglasses-wearing, Palm Beach neighbor of Ted Kennedy was surprised the morning after Thanksgiving (1984), waking to a rusty, 180-foot, Venezuelan Freighter had crashed ashore between her poolside cabanas.

Palm Beach Daily News (Sunday Editor/Art Director) 1990-1992
Miami Herald (Feature Page Designer) 1992-1996
Miami New Times (Art Director) 1997
XS (Art Director / Fort Lauderdale “alternative” weekly) 1998-1999
CityLink’98 (Alt. Weekly for the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel) 1998

[ 2000 ] — 911 AND THE POST APOCALYPTIC AGE.
Jazziz/Music.Com (Art / Creative Director) 2000-2005

OriginalNoise.Org … after making a number of musician friends and aquaintences, while at JAZZIZ. NOW, what can I do for you? … or better yet, what might we do together?
— dave.

TV & SPACE
To go where no men had gone before
Star Trek (1966-1979)
I Dream Of Jeannie (1965-1970)
The Jetsons
It’s About Time, It’s About Space
The Jetsons
My Favorite Martian
Flash Gordon (1955)
Lost In Space (
Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea (1961)
The Outer Limits (1963)
From The Earth To The Moon (1998) HBO Tom Hanks-produced mini-series
For All Mankind (2019) If the Russians had won the race to the Moon.

SCI-FI MOVIES
The Day The Earth Stood Still
Earth vs. Flying Saucers
The Angry Red Planet
The Reluctant Astronaut
2001 A Space Odyssey (1969)
Planet Of The Apes (1969)
Chariots Of The Gods (1970)
Solaris (1972)
Logan’s Run (1976)
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977)
Star Wars (1977)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) Voyager
Alien (1979) Reitz Union
Flash Gordon (1980) Queen
Heavy Metal (1981)
Atomic Cafe (1982)
No Nukes Music
Artists Against Apartheid
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (1982) Times Square
Cocoon (1985)
Back To The Future (1985)
Coke Bottle From Space — Australia
Earth Girls Are Easy (1988)
Back To The Future 2 (1989)
Back To The Future 3 (1990)
The Fifth Element (1995)
October Sky (1999)
Men In Black 2 (2002)
Sunshine (2007)
WALL-E (2008)
Avatar (2009)
MOON (2009)
Men In Black 3 (2012) Apollo 11 Moon Shot
Apollo 13 (1995)
Hidden Figures (2016)
The Martian (2015)
Men In Black International (2019)
For All Mankind (1975)
The Right Stuff (1983)
Growing Up With Rockets (1985) Port Canaveral Cocoa Beach Reunion 1978
Moon Shot (1994) Deke Slayton documentary
From The Earth To The Moon (1998) Tom Hanks/HBO MiniSeries
First Man (2018)

HOME IS WHERE THE SOULS ARE MISSING —You know, all too well, that you’re talking about my home town, Pam … A place you know well, after you launched your career in journalism at (Cocoa) TODAY, Florida’s “Spaceage” Newspaper, the one taken to the moon. I think you’d agree now, especially looking back, It was an exciting PLACE TO BE, in a more honest, ambitious, and hopeful time. You understand better how it might feel, having grown up in a place where AMERICAN ASTRONAUTS embarked on journeys, away from The Cape, on their way to The Moon. AND TODAY, many of Brevard County’s most immoral, soulless, and embarrassing representatives, THE MASKLESS TRUMP SUCKERS of which you speak, are childhood friends, with whom I played Little League baseball, shot birds, gigged frogs and caught gators on the St. Johns River. Fished and netted Blue Crab and shrimp off the 528 CAUSEWAY, hanging a lantern in the channel, usually after midnight, on the Banana River, under the bridge that crossed onto CAPE CANAVERAL, near the entrance to the port, a small channel between residential Cape Canaveral and THE KENNEDY SPACE CENTER. Just inside the jetties flanking the port’s entrance, wooden shrimp boats (nets up) waited for sunrise, to go out fishing, off Florida’s Central East Coast, beyond the nicely small, eminently rideable surf COCOA BEACH (Kelly Slater) is known for. Of course we Space Coast Mainlanders had our spot on the beach, Rockledge High’s was through the soft sand dunes at 7th Street, just off A1A where you enter Cocoa Beach from the south, north of PATRICK AIR FORCE BASE and another 20 blocks past TACO CITY. Like all, we mainlanders (Cocoa/Rockledge) spent more of our “leisure” time on the Space Coast’s more western recreational activities. We, of course, appreciated (and enjoyed) the BEACH, but more often we were riding airboats, dirt bikes, and horses through the vast, undeveloped wetlands, pine woods, palmetto scrub, and orange groves that stretched west into the Florida jungle, between TROPICAL MERRITT ISLAND, with its dolphins, manatees, mangoes, avocados, bananas, coconuts, and palms, and the ST JOHNS RIVER JUNGLE, a maze of saw grass-lined, alligator-filled channels, running through grazing cattle, wild boar, panthers, turtles, otters, deer, black bears, bald eagles, otters, turtles, rattlesnakes, frogs, mosquitoes, and a variety of fresh-water fish (soft sand and clay bottom lakes, sprung when contsruction crews, digging for fill, tapped the aquifer, creating fast-flowing artesian wells that fed many of us “westerners'” favorite, most fun, and birds & bees educational, local swimming holes. HOW SAD IS IT TODAY, that my home, the place I so often describe as PARADISE, has become a These of my high school friends, who had stayed home and made government careers with NASA, and America’s truest greatness, a commitment to science and fact, and honestly and hopefully looking into the future. “friends” have lost their souls. They wallow in a right-wing, christian misery. Standing at intersections, loudly waving large AMERICAN flags, flying among the even bigger, brighter, and of course better “TRUMP TRAIN,” “QANON,” “LOCK HER UP,” and don’t forget my favorite, the screaming, hand-painted “OBAMA IS A FAGGOT” sign, made by one of the many “WOMEN FOR TRUMP,” with their WHITE hair and arrogantly announced WHITE supremacist attitude.