Merry Christmas and Season's Greetings!
Since I will be away for part of December, I thought this would be a good opportunity to post some Christmas/Holiday related art. To see other holiday related items, select "Category-Holiday" from the "Content by Category" list on the right.
As I mentioned, I also collect a variety of aerospace items, including artifacts from the early space program. This has afforded me an opportunity to meet new folks. In 2005, I received this image from Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov (here's the bio) aboard the International Space Station.
Notice all the Disney material in the background! Even in outer space...
Disney Aboard the International Space Station
I grew up in Colorado Springs during the height of the cold war. Certainly the launch of Sputnik in 1957 helped fuel the belief that the central part of the U.S. could be the target of a ballistic missle (ICBM). A number of homes around ours built fall-out shelters because Colorado Springs was the center of military command and was considered a high probability target. Ent Air Force Base was the headquarters (where the U.S. Olympic Training Center is now located) and was just a few miles from our house and many of our neighbors were in the military. By the way, a decade later the operation was moved into a facility hollowed out inside Cheyenne Mountain.
Here are Google photos of Colorado Springs, the Olympic Training Center (old ENT Air Force Base) and a shot of the Cheyenne Mtn. Facility
Satellite Shots of Colorado Springs
If someone had told me that 40+ years later I would be receiving (1) an electronic, non-paper photo (2) from an outpost in outerspace (3) from a Russian -- I would have thought they were crazy! How things have changed!
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Christmas 2005 photo sent to me by Salizhan Sharipov from the International Space Station. Sent as JPG file [11x14] Acquired 2005. SeqID-1462
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