December 2, 2025 • 7 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Richard Muniz remembers a night in the mountains of northern New Mexico when a long delay, an old station, and a clearing sky created a moment he didn’t expect. As he stood beside his father, he watched a small, steady light cross the darkness, and that quiet evening became the first time he understood how big the world above him really was.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
including your story. Send them to our American Stories dot com.
There's some of our favorites. Up next, a story from
a regular contributor, Richard Muniez. Today, Richard shares with us
the story of a magical moment in his life when
(00:30):
he was young, his first time being a satellite. Take
it away, Richard.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
If you stop and think about it, it's really funny
how memories work. I'm not saying funny, ha ha. I'm
saying funny strange. When I stop and think about it.
Before six years old, my memories are they're kind of
spotty at best. But there is stuff that sticks out
more than others, and that sticks out more than some
of the other ones. Is the first time I ever
recalled seeing a satellite. I wasn't even five years old yet,
(01:11):
and we were going into the mountains. Now, when I
talk about the mountains, what I'm talking about here is
a tract of land in northern New Mexico. In years
to come, we'd follow Highway seventeen up and around Cumber's
Pass and come intrough a different road. Now, this led
up to our summer range, and this is where we
took our cattle in summer. But this time we took
the road up through Osier. Now, at the time it
(01:36):
was nothing more than a large water tank for the
steam engines that used to move between antony Too and Chauma.
The other thing I recall about Osier is the station itself.
At the time, it wasn't open. But in this particular memory,
what had happens. We'd started out for the mountains, and
it was already late in the day and it's been
very stormy. What this was was a family and extended
(01:58):
family trip and we were going to go up to
the mountains. We're going to say what we called the
green Cabin, pretty nice cabin. The reason we had his
name was guess what it was painted green. We as
I'd mentioned, it was pretty stormy. It had rained very heavily.
It was rained so heavily up the mountains. Of fact,
we kind of bordered our trip up into the mountains.
We had two wheel drive pickups. The soft mudd was
(02:18):
threatening to get them stuck, so unable to go forward,
unable to go back, we stopped and spent the night
at Osire, the old station was unlocked, so we took
refuge there. I recall everyone bringing in their beddy and
we found a corner to sleep in. A fire was
started in the old stove and a mill was prepared.
(02:39):
We ate and everyone sat around talking. I liked listening
to the old timers talk. I almost told such interesting stories.
I remember my old granny talking about coming out here
with the Mormon expansion. My grandfather talked about coming out
here as a boy from Lebanon. Well later that evening,
the strum cleared out and the skies opened up, washed
by the rain, the stars were hard and bright, and
(03:00):
I remember Echo is supposed to be passing over. I
remember someone said Echo. Yes, that balloon satellite they put
up a few weeks ago. So we all went out
into the night to look for it. As a four
year old boy, had no idea what an artificial satellite was. Oh,
I'd seen TV shows and stuff like that, So what
I was expecting to see was a full size nineteen
(03:23):
fifty style rocket thundering overhead. Of course, that's not what
I got. The Project Echo satellites were launched in nineteen
sixty and nineteen sixty four. The idea behind him was
one we take almost for granted today. Now, way back
in nineteen forty five, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clark,
the same guy wrote two thousand and one, a space
artisty came up the idea of using satellites as a
(03:44):
means of communication. The following year they tried some experiments
using a more natural satellite, in this case our Moon,
to reflect microwaves for communications. Well, once Sputnik was launched,
Clark's ideas were right on the verge of becoming reality.
Now the first thrill attempts at using this idea but
pretty simple. Put a big aluminized balloon up in space
(04:06):
and bounce the signals off that. Now, it took two
tries to get the first echo satellite up, the first
one on May thirteenth, nineteen sixty. While that satellite ended
up in the Atlantic, The next attemp came a few
months later, this time on August twelfth. This time the
satellite settled into the orbit some thousand miles or so
above the Earth. So what we have here is one
hundred foot across a luminized balloon miles above the Earth
(04:28):
catching the sunlight. This made it a really easy target
for the eye to spot, so we stepped down to
the cool mountain there, and I remember I looked up
and there's the universe sprawled up before me. I almost
got dizzy looking up standing there on a loading platform
an h train station. I stood at the edge of infinity.
(04:51):
Knots and tangles of stars were overhead, and a ghostly
clouds stretched from the horizon horizon, and stars of every
color and by the thousands blurred into it. I'd never
seen anything so glorious. You see the light from those stars.
I remember Dad saying, there's so far away light left,
and before you were even born. They're so far away
they may not even be there anymore. Now. The idea
(05:12):
of the speed of light meant nothing to me. But
if they were that far away, then how far it
was far? And suddenly I felt very small and very
lost in it all. It thrilled me. My cosmos had
just grown amazingly big, and I was part of something
so much bigger than me. Now, as the young kid,
the horizon is always incredibly close. As a child, my
(05:33):
universe ended at the mountains, the Ring in the sand
Loos Valley. There was a little beyond it. I never
put two and two together yet, and realized there was
more to my world than I knew, and now with
a single sentence, the universe had gotten very, very big
for me. We all appeared into the sky, each quietly
searching for something. Finally, after several minutes, someone pointed, there,
(05:53):
there it is. I looked, and here's a star moving
quietly across the sky. I watched to travel like some
magical force among the stars, and that in years to come,
I learned so well the star move is so much
quiet and dignity. It amazed me. I remember it be
several seconds riven remote breathe, so I watched the move,
it flashed, and then it faded away in through the night.
(06:17):
And even at four years old, there was a part
of me that wish I was up there riding along
with it. Today I've seen god knows how many satellites
flying over and like that four year old boy, I
still wish I was along for the ride.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
And a terrific job by Monty on the production of
that piece and the editing. And again a special thanks
to Richard Munez, who's a regular contributor here on our
American Stories. Check out Richard's blog at William alban A
LB a n dot WordPress dot com and check out
Richard's other stories at our American Stories dot com. Just
(06:58):
look up Richard Munez ni Z in the search bar.
He's got a great one on the first Black lawman
in Colorado, the Russian Migjet, and many others. Richard Munez
story about a light in the sky in the beautiful
mountains of New Mexico. Here on Our American Stories lie
(07:31):
hbib here, and I'd like to encourage you to subscribe
to Our American Stories on Apple podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, Spotify,
or wherever you get our podcasts, and any story you
missed or want to hear again can be found there
daily again. Please subscribe to the Our American Stories podcast
on Apple podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, or anywhere you get
(07:54):
your podcasts. It helps us keep these great American stories
coming
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
including your story. Send them to our American Stories dot com.
There's some of our favorites. Up next, a story from
a regular contributor, Richard Muniez. Today, Richard shares with us
the story of a magical moment in his life when
(00:30):
he was young, his first time being a satellite. Take
it away, Richard.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
If you stop and think about it, it's really funny
how memories work. I'm not saying funny, ha ha. I'm
saying funny strange. When I stop and think about it.
Before six years old, my memories are they're kind of
spotty at best. But there is stuff that sticks out
more than others, and that sticks out more than some
of the other ones. Is the first time I ever
recalled seeing a satellite. I wasn't even five years old yet,
(01:11):
and we were going into the mountains. Now, when I
talk about the mountains, what I'm talking about here is
a tract of land in northern New Mexico. In years
to come, we'd follow Highway seventeen up and around Cumber's
Pass and come intrough a different road. Now, this led
up to our summer range, and this is where we
took our cattle in summer. But this time we took
the road up through Osier. Now, at the time it
(01:36):
was nothing more than a large water tank for the
steam engines that used to move between antony Too and Chauma.
The other thing I recall about Osier is the station itself.
At the time, it wasn't open. But in this particular memory,
what had happens. We'd started out for the mountains, and
it was already late in the day and it's been
very stormy. What this was was a family and extended
(01:58):
family trip and we were going to go up to
the mountains. We're going to say what we called the
green Cabin, pretty nice cabin. The reason we had his
name was guess what it was painted green. We as
I'd mentioned, it was pretty stormy. It had rained very heavily.
It was rained so heavily up the mountains. Of fact,
we kind of bordered our trip up into the mountains.
We had two wheel drive pickups. The soft mudd was
(02:18):
threatening to get them stuck, so unable to go forward,
unable to go back, we stopped and spent the night
at Osire, the old station was unlocked, so we took
refuge there. I recall everyone bringing in their beddy and
we found a corner to sleep in. A fire was
started in the old stove and a mill was prepared.
(02:39):
We ate and everyone sat around talking. I liked listening
to the old timers talk. I almost told such interesting stories.
I remember my old granny talking about coming out here
with the Mormon expansion. My grandfather talked about coming out
here as a boy from Lebanon. Well later that evening,
the strum cleared out and the skies opened up, washed
by the rain, the stars were hard and bright, and
(03:00):
I remember Echo is supposed to be passing over. I
remember someone said Echo. Yes, that balloon satellite they put
up a few weeks ago. So we all went out
into the night to look for it. As a four
year old boy, had no idea what an artificial satellite was. Oh,
I'd seen TV shows and stuff like that, So what
I was expecting to see was a full size nineteen
(03:23):
fifty style rocket thundering overhead. Of course, that's not what
I got. The Project Echo satellites were launched in nineteen
sixty and nineteen sixty four. The idea behind him was
one we take almost for granted today. Now, way back
in nineteen forty five, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clark,
the same guy wrote two thousand and one, a space
artisty came up the idea of using satellites as a
(03:44):
means of communication. The following year they tried some experiments
using a more natural satellite, in this case our Moon,
to reflect microwaves for communications. Well, once Sputnik was launched,
Clark's ideas were right on the verge of becoming reality.
Now the first thrill attempts at using this idea but
pretty simple. Put a big aluminized balloon up in space
(04:06):
and bounce the signals off that. Now, it took two
tries to get the first echo satellite up, the first
one on May thirteenth, nineteen sixty. While that satellite ended
up in the Atlantic, The next attemp came a few
months later, this time on August twelfth. This time the
satellite settled into the orbit some thousand miles or so
above the Earth. So what we have here is one
hundred foot across a luminized balloon miles above the Earth
(04:28):
catching the sunlight. This made it a really easy target
for the eye to spot, so we stepped down to
the cool mountain there, and I remember I looked up
and there's the universe sprawled up before me. I almost
got dizzy looking up standing there on a loading platform
an h train station. I stood at the edge of infinity.
(04:51):
Knots and tangles of stars were overhead, and a ghostly
clouds stretched from the horizon horizon, and stars of every
color and by the thousands blurred into it. I'd never
seen anything so glorious. You see the light from those stars.
I remember Dad saying, there's so far away light left,
and before you were even born. They're so far away
they may not even be there anymore. Now. The idea
(05:12):
of the speed of light meant nothing to me. But
if they were that far away, then how far it
was far? And suddenly I felt very small and very
lost in it all. It thrilled me. My cosmos had
just grown amazingly big, and I was part of something
so much bigger than me. Now, as the young kid,
the horizon is always incredibly close. As a child, my
(05:33):
universe ended at the mountains, the Ring in the sand
Loos Valley. There was a little beyond it. I never
put two and two together yet, and realized there was
more to my world than I knew, and now with
a single sentence, the universe had gotten very, very big
for me. We all appeared into the sky, each quietly
searching for something. Finally, after several minutes, someone pointed, there,
(05:53):
there it is. I looked, and here's a star moving
quietly across the sky. I watched to travel like some
magical force among the stars, and that in years to come,
I learned so well the star move is so much
quiet and dignity. It amazed me. I remember it be
several seconds riven remote breathe, so I watched the move,
it flashed, and then it faded away in through the night.
(06:17):
And even at four years old, there was a part
of me that wish I was up there riding along
with it. Today I've seen god knows how many satellites
flying over and like that four year old boy, I
still wish I was along for the ride.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
And a terrific job by Monty on the production of
that piece and the editing. And again a special thanks
to Richard Munez, who's a regular contributor here on our
American Stories. Check out Richard's blog at William alban A
LB a n dot WordPress dot com and check out
Richard's other stories at our American Stories dot com. Just
(06:58):
look up Richard Munez ni Z in the search bar.
He's got a great one on the first Black lawman
in Colorado, the Russian Migjet, and many others. Richard Munez
story about a light in the sky in the beautiful
mountains of New Mexico. Here on Our American Stories lie
(07:31):
hbib here, and I'd like to encourage you to subscribe
to Our American Stories on Apple podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, Spotify,
or wherever you get our podcasts, and any story you
missed or want to hear again can be found there
daily again. Please subscribe to the Our American Stories podcast
on Apple podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, or anywhere you get
(07:54):
your podcasts. It helps us keep these great American stories
coming
Host
Lee Habeeb
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