By Charles Owens
For Bluefield Daily Telegraph
“There is a book that I’m fascinated by in part because the hero of the story came from a similar part of the country I came from called Rocket Boys. And Rocket Boys was later turned into an amazing movie called October Sky. If you have kids its an incredible family movie because its got something for the adults, and its got something for the little ones as well. But fundamentally the story is that you take a kid in rural West Virginia. A kid who did not have a lot of obvious prospects. His name was Homer Hickam, who was a real NASA engineer.” — Vice President J.D. Vance
A story that is well known to residents across the region was shared Thursday by Vice President J.D. Vance during his appearance at the Institute of Peace.
While discussing the importance of investing in American communities, Vance used the real life story of the Rocket Boys of McDowell County to make his case.
Doing so, according to Vance, also requires building the economy in America’s heartland as well while also investing in those workers who live in rural America.
”There is a book that I’m fascinated by in part because the hero of the story came from a similar part of the country I came from called Rocket Boys,” Vance said. “And Rocket Boys was later turned into an amazing movie called October Sky. If you have kids its an incredible family movie because its got something for the adults, and its got something for the little ones as well. But fundamentally the story is that you take a kid in rural West Virginia. A kid who did not have a lot of obvious prospects. His name was Homer Hickam, who was a real NASA engineer. but because we had the resources and investment in American communities, because we had teachers who actually believed in this kid when no one else did, you had a kid who nobody thought would become a rocket scientist become a NASA engineer because we invested in him. And we believed in him. And we believed in the possibility of American talent.”
Hickam, who posted a television screenshot of Vance speaking at the Institute of Peace to his Facebook page, applauded the vice president for his comments.
”Nice comments from Vice President Vance on Rocket Boys/October Sky,” Hickam said on his official Facebook page. ”Thank you, sir. No political comments, please. This was just a thoughtful expression from the VP, nothing political about it.”
Hickam, who grew up in McDowell County, was a paper carrier for the Bluefield Daily Telegraph at one point during his youth. He later went on to become a NASA engineer before writing not only “Rocket Boys,” but several of his popular Coalwood memoirs.
”Rocket Boys” was later converted into the 1999 motion picture “October Sky” by Universal Pictures. That movie featured a number of local references from Bluefield to Welch to the former Big Creek High School. It even featured a copy of the Daily Telegraph chronicling the October 1957 launch of the Russian satellite Sputnik 1, a development that inspired Hickam and his fellow Rocket Boys to pursue their dream of launching rockets.
A Rocket Boy Festival was held in Coalwood for many years before later being moved to Beckley.
Hickman told the Daily Telegraph earlier this year that the planned follow-up to “October Sky” was in “pre production” with the help of Mercer County native, actor and producer Kevin Sizemore. Sizemore is hoping to film all of “December Sky” in Mercer and McDowell counties.
“The Coalwood Way was a series of stories that took place my last winter and Christmas in Coalwood that I took out of Rocket Boys because I felt it took the story off in another direction that wasn’t right for the original memoir,” Hickam told the Daily Telegraph earlier this year. “When Rocket Boys was a big success, I returned to those stories to fashion what became The Coalwood Way and now December Sky. As such, it isn’t a prequel or a sequel but what I call an equal since it takes place during the same time as the original memoir.”
Hickam said Sizemore suggested he adapt “The Coalwood Way” into a movie screenplay which he did, retitling it “December Sky” as a reference to “October Sky.”
Read more from the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, here
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