Homer Hickam Revisited

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.

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