Sometimes I’m surprised by parade units in the Tournament of Roses Parade and Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade.

It might be a band from the Upper Midwest, a new giant balloon, a colorful float or some other attraction. There’s usually at least one surprise each year.

Earlier this month the Rose Parade included a float commemorating one of my favorite childhood television shows. It’s the 60th anniversary of Star Trek, 60 years since the Enterprise first appeared on television screens.

I was a big fan of Star Trek reruns in the late 1970s. I was a Trekkie. I had the Enterprise play set, action figures and books like the Starlet Training Manual.

Even on a nice Saturday or Sunday I’d often take a break from outdoor games like Spud and Kick the Can to go to my parents’ basement for a Star Trek episode.

The show ran for three seasons. It inspired movies, an animated cartoon, photo novels and much more. It had a big role in America’s pop culture.

Star Trek coincided with the space race to the moon. The late 1960s were a time of unrest in America with Vietnam War protests, youth counterculture and two assassinations of leading public figures. The moon effort helped to preserve some unity in America. It was something everyone could support.

In the 1970s we had Skylab and plans for space shuttles. It seemed like the NASA space program was accelerating. The 1977 movie Star Wars benefited from that interest. My dad and I stood in a line that stretched around the block in order to see Star Wars at the Marshall Theater.

Some professional futurists and plenty of amateur futurists predicted big things. We thought astronauts would land on Mars by 2000. We thought that by 2025 we’d go beyond the solar system.

I remember watching the space shuttle Columbia launch for the first time in 1981 in Mrs. Malo’s library at Holy Redeemer School. I went home for lunch five years later as a high school senior, turned on the television and was shocked to hear news of the Challenger explosion.

Then the space program slowed down. I’m not sure why. I think society lost some of its idealism when it comes to exploring space.

When I was growing up space was explored for the sake of science. It didn’t matter if the missions made money.

The same kind of fascination applied to the ocean depths with The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau and with the 1977 movie Jaws. It applied to the legends of Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and Yeti the Abominable Snowman. We wanted to find them.

If you ask mountain climbers why they climb mountains, or if you ask through hikers on the Appalachian Trail why they hike from Georgia to Maine you’d probably get one of two simple answers. The first is just “because it’s there.” The second is “because I can.”

Star Trek was based on the same kind of motivation. Writers made many things up. Some like the hand held communicator, the laser and the computer came true.

Other features were more far fetched. We might never travel at the speed of light, let alone the fictional warp speed. It’s doubtful that anything like the transporter will be invented. We might never meet humanoid aliens with clothes and languages.

Then again you never know. When you think of the vastness of the universe, it’s hard to imagine that Earth is the only place that supports intelligent life.

For all we know there might be alien societies that are more advanced than we are. They maybe watched with interest as we went to the moon and sent out space probes. They’ve maybe wondered why we pulled back.

The anniversary of Star Trek is an occasion to ask ourselves if the space program should expand. Finances are likely to limit things nowadays because there’s no urgent need to send astronauts to Mars. The goals will have to be attainable and affordable.

It could be an investment. If we didn’t have to build weapons for war there could be more invested in space exploration and other sciences, things that are peaceful. It’s a worthwhile goal.

— Jim Muchlinski is a longtime reporter and contributor to the Marshall Independent