![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
"Reasons to Love Gus Grissom
sakrea:
So Gus Grissom, a Mercury astronaut and former test pilot is possibly my favorite person ever. There’s this story in Jay Barbree’s book “Live from Cape Canaveral” about the time Gus was a total asshole to Alan Shepard and it is the best story.
So the seven original Mercury astronauts all received corvettes from a local dealer, for free, in Cocoa Beach, Florida when the space program was starting off. Kind of a promotional thing for American heroes I suppose. Anyway, Gus REALLY liked speeding along the Florida roads and pissing cops off in the early morning.
This one time, he left his house and was driving to the Holiday Inn where Alan Shepard, his buddy, was staying and where he had his own room. He apparently was going something like 100 plus mph. Part way there, a highway patrol started going after him. So what does he do? HE DRIVES FASTER. And as he is evading this cop, two more join the chase after him. So he hits the accelerator so hard that he actually manages to get out of the sight of the cops for a few moments. So he turns into the Holiday Inn and sees that the spot in front of Alan’s room is empty. So he pulls in, jumps out of his car, and runs into his room which is two doors down the hall. He changes into pajamas and waits.
The cops pull in around the corvette, see that it is still warm and immediately assume the owner is in the nearest possible room. So they bang on Alan’s door and when he opens it, they throw him on the ground and handcuff him, all the while this poor half asleep astronaut has NO IDEA WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON.
During the commotion, Gus then steps out of the door, dressed in his pajamas and shouts “Hey, can’t you guys keep it down out there? Some of us have to go to work in a couple of hours!”
Gus Grissom is the best and no one can convince me otherwise.
Gus is my co-pilot."
- Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee
sakrea:
So Gus Grissom, a Mercury astronaut and former test pilot is possibly my favorite person ever. There’s this story in Jay Barbree’s book “Live from Cape Canaveral” about the time Gus was a total asshole to Alan Shepard and it is the best story.
So the seven original Mercury astronauts all received corvettes from a local dealer, for free, in Cocoa Beach, Florida when the space program was starting off. Kind of a promotional thing for American heroes I suppose. Anyway, Gus REALLY liked speeding along the Florida roads and pissing cops off in the early morning.
This one time, he left his house and was driving to the Holiday Inn where Alan Shepard, his buddy, was staying and where he had his own room. He apparently was going something like 100 plus mph. Part way there, a highway patrol started going after him. So what does he do? HE DRIVES FASTER. And as he is evading this cop, two more join the chase after him. So he hits the accelerator so hard that he actually manages to get out of the sight of the cops for a few moments. So he turns into the Holiday Inn and sees that the spot in front of Alan’s room is empty. So he pulls in, jumps out of his car, and runs into his room which is two doors down the hall. He changes into pajamas and waits.
The cops pull in around the corvette, see that it is still warm and immediately assume the owner is in the nearest possible room. So they bang on Alan’s door and when he opens it, they throw him on the ground and handcuff him, all the while this poor half asleep astronaut has NO IDEA WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON.
During the commotion, Gus then steps out of the door, dressed in his pajamas and shouts “Hey, can’t you guys keep it down out there? Some of us have to go to work in a couple of hours!”
Gus Grissom is the best and no one can convince me otherwise.
Gus is my co-pilot."
- Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}