Red Rocket

posted by Momo Fali on July 19, 2011

Someone shared this picture with me today and it brought me to tears. It is of a father and son at the first space shuttle launch and, again, at the last one.

Father and Son: STS-1 and STS-135I

Photo courtesy of Chris Bray

It reminded me so much of these.

This is my husband at Cedar Point Amusement Park, circa 1975. Please excuse the watermarks. This is what happens to your pictures when you’re old.

This is my daughter at Cedar Point in 2003.

And, this is my son on the very same ride in 2007.

I got so choked up looking at the picture of that man and his father; I think because his dad looks so young and spry in the first photo and in the second one, all signs of youth have been covered by gray hair and softened skin. It feels, to me, that 30 years goes by in a fleeting moment.

Already, my daughter looks nothing like that little girl in the red rocket. My son looks exactly the same, but dudes, the kid doesn’t grow.

I’m sure that someday I will look back on his photo and think how quickly he changed from that little boy into a man, the way that I look at my daughter and barely recognize her here. Last night we were talking about how, in six years, she’ll be 18. EIGHTEEN. And, six years goes by like that. *snap*

I hope that someday my kids recreate a picture of their childhood with their own children and that they cherish the shared memories. And, I hope that I’m around 30 years from now to see that they do. Gray hair, soft skin and all.

But, more than anything, I really hope that Cedar Point gets some new rides.

    Comments

  • Varda (SquashedMom)


    This is just so lovely. That passing of time in a blink thing so gets to me, too. That pair of photos up top is just amazing — what thirty years will do to a person. Well, not me, of course, I still look exactly the same as I did at 21 (snort).

  • chinese grandma


    you’re killing me. time drags with babies, then all of a sudden it’s hyperdrive. this post reminds me of the site http://dearphotograph.com/ – which is brilliant but so wistful. thanks.

  • MidLyfeMama


    Great shots. I love Cedar Point!

  • Miss Britt


    That first picture is so cool.

  • Angie [A Whole Lot of Nothing]


    I’ll leave the sentimentalities to everyone else.

    I’m still stuck on you naming this post “Red Rocket” because I was expecting to read about your dog’s weenis.

    • Momo Fali


      That would be SOME post, because both of my dogs are female.

    • Amie


      That’s what I was expecting, too…I’ve never been happier to be disappointed!

  • JJ


    Love this! I *love* seeing the photos like this–the :time held in space: — so very cool!

  • Jamie


    Love that. I was there on the beach for the first shuttle launch. About ready to graduate from high school. I would have seen the last one if it hadn’t been scrubbed the first time in April. Was in Florida with my children on their Spring Break. Beautiful example of what photography can do.

  • always home and uncool


    Imagine the number of pukes that have been scrapped off the seat of that rocket.

  • AlisonH


    Wow. What are the chances that someone would snap a photo of the same two in the same position with the same… They must have remembered the first photo? But wow.

    My dad, my little sister and I got to see the last Apollo liftoff in person the summer I was 16.

  • UP


    Great pictures, great memories!

    UP

  • Lynne


    Those space shuttle photos are incredible…..and sad. My kids used to be little….they’re not anymore, and it is bittersweet.

  • anymommy


    Oh, this stuff kills me. Tears. (And I can’t believe that the son is wearing the almost the same shirt in both shuttle launch pictures.)

  • meleah rebeccah


    Oh, Momo! Now I am all choked up!