posted 05-23-2002 07:27 PM               

This thread, then, is for all of us to share our memories of this great man. Please contribute!

posted 05-23-2002 08:05 PM               

Unprovoked, Sonny took the placard from the center of his table, inscribed the autograph to me (misspelling my last name, but I have no complaints) and handed it to my teacher. It was delivered several weeks later at my hospital bed and I couldn't have been more thrilled.

I always regretted not having the opportunity to thank Sonny for the signature. I didn't leave the hospital until after his accident and didn't learn of his passing until several years later.

posted 05-23-2002 09:59 PM               

As a behavior specialist working for our local board of education, I often am called to visit students at Sonny Carter Elementary School, whose lobby is a veritable tribute to the Shuttle Program. Huge murals and photographs of launches and the shuttle in orbit line the walls and halls. The school emblem is the actual STS-33 mission patch.

Even the heavy rubber entrance way floor mats are emblazoned with a 4-foot diameter STS-33 patch amid a black field. It's kind of neat for me (the only collector we know of in town) to step over the names of Blaha, Musgrave, etc. every time I visit this school in an official capacity during my work day. What a treat!

The school mascot is the Falcon, as Sonny was an Air Force Academy graduate. It's a top-notch, six- or seven-year old elementary school in a beautiful facility.

In the main office, there is a large photo of Sonny (blue jumpsuit) with a white mat on which Sonny dedicated the portrait to the Bibb County School System around the time of his flight. This signed portrait originally was hung in the Board of Education's central office until the school was built after Sonny passed away, at which point the portrait was transfered to Sonny Carter Elementary.

Sonny is spoken of very often and highly in our city, and is remembered fondly by the hundreds of people with whom grew up and the thousands of citizens he knew. Sonny is Macon's contribution to the American Space Program and our favorite native son.

posted 06-02-2002 09:17 AM               

One of the fond memories that I have is that he was a big rock-n-roll music trivia buff. During the middle of a training session in the water tank, he would ask us instructors trivia questions. (He would call out the questions while working in his space suit.) We rarely knew the answers until we found a colleague in another building who kept a rock-n-roll trivia book at his desk. So, we would call him up to get the answers! There were a couple times when Sonny actually seemed impressed that we we "knew" the answers. I can't remember if we ever told him about the book. :-)