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Do you remember 1979?  Do you remember Skylab?  The U.S.’s first space station was disintegrating and due to fall back into earth’s atmosphere, breaking up into small pieces that COULD FALL ANYWHERE!  I remember!  Did I worry, like thousands of people around the world, about suddenly being hit on the head by a piece of the debris?  Did I contemplate the damage that might occurs should a piece fail to disintegrate sufficiently and fall into, say, a nuclear power plant? Hell, no!  I saw a MARKETING potential!


I was in Pittsburgh.  It was right around the time of the annual Three Rivers Arts Festival at  Point State Park – the place where the Monongahela and the Allegheny meet and form the Ohio River.  My eccentric friend Tim was visiting from Ohio (I, of course, being the grounded, down to earth part of the friendship...)  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?  Let’s do it!”  So it was off to a surplus store where we found and purchased around 35 plastic helmet liners.  We made a stencil, and bought a can of black spray paint.  Those cheap, fifty-cent helmet liners became, in the blink of an eye, SKYLAB DEFENSE HELMETS, specially manufactured to aerodynamically deflect any falling debris to a point away from your body, each one complete with the name and the anticipated date of entry of Skylab into the atmosphere!

Tim and I took our creations to the Arts Festival and, not deigning to buy a permit, strolled casually around the grounds, each wearing a helmet.  As we walked past festival goers, we would point dramatically towards the sky and say, simply and ominously:  “It’s falling…”  Should any interest be shown (as opposed to people grabbing their children, moving away and glancing around for any nearby police officer), we would quickly explain the benefits (and historical and conversational value) of the scientifically designed helmets, available for a short time at the special price of only $5.00.


Yes, capitalism at its best…..

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