Astronaut Bob Behnken And Me 
Are Almost Old Buddies!

I was totally shocked, surprised and a little bemused, to discover, from my niece, Julie, that astronaut Bob Behnken is from my home town, St. Ann Missouri, and went to Pattonville High School, where I matriculated!! 

Niece Julie

Three clarifications, for you super observant readers:

1. I know you can only matriculate in college, but I love the word.

2. Whenever I did matriculate at Pattonville High School, the janitor mopped it up.

3. I went to the OLD Pattonville and Bobby (that's what I call him) went to the NEW Pattonville.

Old Pattonville

New Pattonville

From way back in the earliest days of  traveling around the globe in what's called an orbit, with monkeys in cute little space suits, I have admired and respected astronauts!

I was there when John Glenn and Alan Shepard did their phenomenal feats of flight, when I watched them on TV at St. Ann Grade School!

Did Bob Behnken attend St. Ann Grade School? Ancient astronaut theorists say YES, but I don't know for sure. 

Satellite view of St. Ann, Mo.

Even though I graduated from Pattonville in 1968 amd Bobby graduated in 1988, I still feel a deep, abiding kinship with him due to our remarkably similar roots. 

It makes me imagine him and me eating White Castle hamburgers together, going to Skylark Bowling Alley together, going to the Airway Drive In Movie Theater in my old English Ford, where it was only a dollar a carload, together, and sharing our ideas about space engineering, rocket science, and cosmic background radiation. 

Cosmic background radiation

Right at this very moment, Bobby is up on that space station, doing space experiments, and probably thinking back to his happy childhood of  hot summer days in St. Ann, going to Northwest Plaza, rooting on the Pattonville Pirates sports teams, and paling around with his old buddies, which would have included me if I had been born twenty years later!!

Green and white, fight fight fight!!

Way to go, Bobby! I'm so happy you applied all the teachings I NEVER taught you!!!