TELSTAR -- PLEMEUR-BODOU - 20 MINUTES OF AWE

Plemeur-Bodou, France

I was on the way to delivering my systematic Bible study this evening when I caught the end of the news story relating the events that surrounded the first trans-Atlantic transmission of television images by satellite.  I was really surprised about the news because satellite transmissions of television images have passed into the fabric of our lives.  We don't even know where the images we have before us originate.  
Soon we will be watching the Olympic Games unfold in London.  Just about the only discomfort we will feel is the time lag between London and North America.  There will be no watermark on the television screen reading "Transmitted by Satellite"  just as used to happen in the not too distant past.  
When I heard the tail end of the story, I remembered certain things just as though they were yesterday.  Better, even.  This is all the more amazing since I haven't had this event in the forefront of my grey matter since the week after I witnessed the entire historical event in a Paris sitting room.  We had read all the newspapers and we had seen the time schedule of the transmission in store-fronts and in the school lobby.  We [there were three of us] made up our minds that we would not miss this for anything.  It would be the signature historical event of our lives.  So, there we were, in the sitting room of a religious monastery in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, France.  We were sitting there a good thirty minutes ahead of the announced time.  We knew that the images would only appear for some 20 minutes.  Since the satellite was in motion, and there was but one, it would come into range and fly out of range.  Yes, this going to be quite a show.  If my memory serves me correctly, it happened in the early evening, sometime between 7:00 and 8:00 PM.  We knew that the satellite was named Telstar and that the signal would be received at the Brittany area installation called Plemeur-Bodou.  I remembered these details immediately upon realizing what was being celebrated on the car radio this evening.  
Suddenly, right before our eyes, the television screen became snowy, flickery, and flashed in and out a few times in rapid succession before steadying with a very clear picture of the American Flag waving in the wind accompanied by the Stars Spangled Banner.  When that stopped, the voice-over was a man's voice but I do not remember whether or not it was Walter Cronkite  or Edward R. Murrow.  The Statue of Liberty was followed by other pictures from around North America.  If I am not mistaken, I think that Niagara Falls was one of the featured landmarks.  The pictures remained clear and the quality of the voice-over was quite good until suddenly the reverse of what had initially happened began to manifest itself.  In about thirty seconds the connection was lost and we were isolated in a sitting room some three thousand miles away from our homes.  Yes, it was quite an experience.  Yes, it has stuck with me as one of my cherished historical moments that I can brag about simply because I am so old, I was there.  Truly not a great "accomplishment" but a "cool" memory.  I have many of them, but that's not the point for this article.  Just remember when you watch the Olympic Games, this all started exactly 50 years ago.