Oh, the memories of Sputnik! My mother was young...twenty-five years old; I was seven. She made golden sputniks to hang on our Christmas tree, golden sputniks to hang from the dining room light; she had sputnik-making parties, glue everywhere and jars of gold paint and glitter. She embraced sputniks and the excitement of the period. I really didn't experience the fallout from Sputnik until I was thirteen-years old in Fairfax County where I encountered 'the new math'--and I remember distinctly liking the new math much better than the 'old.' Cannot imagine why. It was there when the Cuban missile crisis occurred and I began to hear about bomb shelters and the possibility of World War III. That's when the 'Russian nightmares' began for me.