I’m a sucker for coming of age stories. From books – My Side of the Mountain and Growing Up, to movies – Breaking Away and Stand by Me. Among my A-List is Homer Hickam’s Rocket Boys, better known as its 1999 film adaptation, October Sky.
Rocket Boys is the first of Hickam’s autobiographical, three-book
series about growing up in a West Virginia coal-mining town during the
late 1950’s and 60’s and how his passion for rocketry allowed him to
escape the destiny of a lifetime in the killer mines. I became enamored
with Hickam's
prose and went on to many more of his works, a rich collection of
fiction and non-fiction. Along the way I came to learn we shared our
alma mater, Virginia Tech, and I found many anecdotes of his exploits
and legacy there.
This
past October I revisited Virginia Tech. My wife and I enjoyed a
gorgeous autumn weekend hiking and dining with our oldest son, a soon to
be engineering graduate. Accommodations were at a premium because it
was a football weekend, so through the generosity of friends we stayed
at a cabin in nearby Pembroke, Virginia.
Bill
and Alice’s property sits on a rocky bluff overlooking a bend in the
bucolic New River. Railroad tracks run along the river’s edge and
throughout the evening the whistle of West Virginia coal trains evoked
memories of Hickam’s rich narratives. Sunday morning I hiked down to the
tracks, and the early morning mist created such a sense of timelessness
I felt as if Hickam’s adolescent band of BCMA rocketeers would emerge
through the trees. Though separated by generations, Hickam
had set the stage for my own coming of age, and now my son’s in this
majestic setting. It is a blissful moment.
(click on any picture for full-screen photo-roll)
