#UncleJoe #JosephFiktarz #imissmyuncle This is an early photo of my Uncle Joe. He just crashed his model plane but this photo gives you a good glimpse of what he was about. My mom’s brother, Uncle Joe also moved to California from Brooklyn, New York, and he got a job as an engineer at North American Aviation, where they were working on the Apollo moon launch for NASA. Uncle Joe took me and my brother to the open house there and we saw the lunar module and the Apollo capsule. I actually got to go inside the capsule. It was my uncle that got me interested in electronics, space, and amateur radio. He was a true hobbyist and loved to tinker around, like with this model airplane. Later on we used to talk a lot about computers, which he was really interested in. Also, later on, North American Aviation was bought by Boeing, and the used to have a swap meet where you could pick up old electronics real cheap. They also had a NASA store and you could get 18” x 24” high Rez photos of the moon and earth for about a buck. NASA t-shirts we’re only a couple of dollars and there were pens, space shuttle erasers, all sorts of stuff. I got most of the NASA pins and patches. Very cool! Alas the store is no more but I still remember my uncle fondly talking about space travel and all sorts of things. He died, today, in 2009. I miss you Uncle Joe. Say hi to my mom in heaven. Thank you for inspiring me. https://www.instagram.com/p/CPxtqyTMXeU/?utm_medium=tumblr