Skylab - Hit By Chunk of Your Tax Dollar

In 1979, on the night the 78-ton Skylab space station plummeted to earth, a group of my schoolboy chums spent the night huddled in a friend's basement. We played Steve Dahl's Skylab novelty song over and over, and mostly laughed ourselves silly waiting to be destroyed by a large chunk of our parent's tax dollar.

Of course, the current bus-sized spy satellite careening toward earth is what brought to mind the 1979 Skylab fiasco. Hopefully, it'll be just a lark this time around, too. And years from now someone will be selling off souvenir debris like the shard pictured here.

Skylab landed in Australia, of course, but it didn't diminish our enthusiasm or excitement. The event solidified a friendship among a half dozen boys that lasted nearly a quarter of a century. I wonder if a group of kids is planning a party, to take their turn waiting in the dark, like we did on that star-filled Chicago night so many years ago. A hundred years ago, it seems.

Where will this one land?

Comments

[Benajmin L. CLark]

I did get to see the MIR space station once. It rests in the ephemera producing monster that is Wisconsin Dells. I had no idea I would see it at one of the tourist traps there, so it was actually quite a shock to walk around a corner and there it is.

[Marty Weil]

Ah, The Dells. My paternal grandparents threatened to take me there once, but it never happened.

As always, thanks for the comment, Ben.

[Pete]

I had all but forgotten that Dahl song, but now it's coming back to me: "It's coming down down down down, maybe on this town!" (To the melody of the Rolling Stones' "Shattered.")

[Tim]

"oop-she-doobie, skylab, skylab..."

great song. steve can be found at:

dahl.com

[Marty Weil]

Yes! That's the song! Exactly. I'd almost forgotten it. It was brilliant and so much fun.

I was a very young member of the Insane Coho Lip's Anti-Disco Army. (I was not at White Sox Park during the unfortuneate incident.)

Thanks for helping to cystallize a fond memory, Tim & Pete.

[Sally J. (Practical Archivist)]

Marty,

The current situation reminded me of Skylab, too. I remembered the "I survived Skylab" t-shirts, but totally forgot about the Steve Dahl song. I'm pretty sure that was *at least* 100 years ago.