Comments by "Mike Black" (@RevMikeBlack) on "The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered" channel.

  1. I grew up in the 1950s & 1960s. My grandfather was a salesman for a company that made molded plywood for furniture. During the summers he would take my grandmother and me on the road with him. We stayed in every Howard Johnson hotel from Virginia to Alabama. I loved it, too! At the end of each day, my grandfather would reward my good behavior with a "ride" on the Magic Fingers bed. He'd drop in the quarters, say ready-set-go!, then press the starter button... and I was allowed to act crazy for the next five minutes. My grandparents have been gone for fifty years, but many happy memories survive, of which Magic Fingers is one.
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  2. Sometimes things just go wrong. You might think you've anticipated every possible issue, then something like this happens.
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  3. My mother was a civil service employee at Myrtle Beach AFB hospital in South Carolina. The Air Force was heavily involved in community activities and USAF officers often visited our school, always with ultra cool stuff in hand. One day in June 1969 a Minuteman arrived in Myrtle Beach to "show the colors" in our annual Sun Fun parade. I was the alpha science geek in my sixth grade class, so my mother asked the Base Commander if I could visit the Minuteman in the hangar where they were storing it and he agreed. Boy howdy did he agree! The next day I was instructed to wait in my Scout uniform on the front steps of the base hospital for further instructions. At the appointed time, two APs pulled up in a VIP vehicle, got out, saluted tiny little me and said, "Sir, we have orders to escort you to the Minuteman missile." They loaded me in the car, drove me to the hangar and let me play on the Minuteman for fifteen minutes. It was beyond awesome! In hindsight, I'm sure the missile was completely inert and almost certainly a public relations parade item, but on that June day in 1969 I felt like I was king of the planet... and the United States Air Force nade a friend for life.
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  4. As a United Methodist pastor for forty-four years, I have been blessed and honored to know and serve many WWII fighters. I've also had the sad duty to lay many to rest. Having been raised in a Navy family, I always enjoyed hearing the sailors tell their stories. A common thread in all their accounts was the fear of submarines. They said it was like being at home in the dark, knowing that someone else is in your house with a weapon, but you don't know where they are. God bless all those brave young men. They saved our freedom at great personal expense.
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  5. I had never heard about this explosion before today. What a horrific event. I grew up in a small town of only a few thousand people. I can only imagine the devastation if it would have happened to us. Thank you for listing the names of the casualties.
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  6. Very interesting story. Maybe the plane just lost electrical systems and crashed. Regarding the personnel list, that's a whole lotta captains and colonels in one place (other than the officers club), especially to be riding in a cargo plane.
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  7. Great story! Thank you for keeping America safe and strong.
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  8. Fascinating story. Thanks! Being a reasonably prudent person, I'm pretty sure I would NOT have walked out on the river that day. (By the way, Theodosia Burr Alston lived and was last seen boarding a boat where I live in coastal South Carolina. I grew up with her legend and, according to some, her ghost.)
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  9. I grew up in Murrells Inlet SC, one of Blackbeard's safe harbors. As children, we were always aware of his legend.
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  10. Wow. Compared to the regular THG presentations, this one is a mess. Who can listen to this for an hour?
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  11. I had two high school friends who owned them. Both cars were problematic. In hindsight, they remind me of the Lada. Not good.
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  12. It was a fascinating aircraft and an incredibly important step forward in lifting body vehicles in air and space.
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  13. The XB-70 crash sent emotional shock waves through my fourth grade science club. This was one of the super-planes that hailed the future. How could it crash? I realize that all experimental aviation is dangerous, but this accident was preventable.
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  14. The Law of Unintended Consequences!
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  15. I'm old enough to remember NO television set in our home in rural coastal South Carolina. My grandparents were the first buy a TV, mainly to watch farm reports, bluegrass & country music and religious programming. Whenever Rev. Billy Graham televised a Crusade, our entire extended family came to the farm for a potluck supper, then we'd pack into the tiny den to sing hymns with George Beverly Shea and then watch Rev. Graham make his incredibly logical arguments for the existence and love of God. The same was happening in every other farmhouse on Highway 701. That tiny black & white TV brought us together as a family, as a community of faith and as good citizens. It's not that way now. I mourn the fact that TV is now primarily a source of malice, division and narcissism. There was a time when it wasn't that way.
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  16. Candy corn and circus peanuts are very popular in my home. We eat them year round!
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  17. I've known two guys who served as NCOs on Polaris missile subs during the Cold War. Both were orderly family men, very patriotic and also faithful to their oaths of secrecy. Neither man would discuss ANY aspect of the submarine service other than the food, which they both liked.
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  18. I find it amusing, but not surprising, that insider traders co-opted the system almost immediately.
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  19. That's flat-out brilliant! Thanks!
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  20. Initially, I agreed with Pluto's downgrade by the IAU. It looked like a big comet and it wasn't on the ecliptic like the other planets. However, the New Horizon data and imagery changed my mind. Not only is Pluto a planet... it's a planetary system more sophisticated than several other planets including our own.
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  21. My family owns a small farm in coastal South Carolina. The nearest white pine is over a hundred miles away. I think I'll try to grow some currants.
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  22. There is no law in the South Carolina Code of Laws regarding fishing with yo-yos.
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