The "PoP-Series" of Caches are dedicated to Places, People, or things
that i've enjoyed coming to, or been part of, "Past-or-Present".
Once upon a time, a junkman had a dream.
He wants to build a spaceship, go to the moon,
salvage all the junk that's up there, bring it back, sell it.
So he put together a team. An ex-astronaut. A fuel expert.
They built a rocketship, and they went to the moon.
Who knows what they'll do next.
In January of 1979, ABC premiered a TV-movie called Salvage. It detailed the rather fantastical tale of that “junkman with a dream”, Harry Broderick (played by beloved actor Andy Griffith). Harry’s dream, as you can see from the quote above, was rather far-fetched, but he was determined. Gaining the assistance of former astronaut Skip Carmichael (Joel Higgins) and fuel/tech expert Melanie Slozar (Trish Stewart), these three went about building a spaceship in a junkyard, traveling into space, collecting NASA’s leftovers, and returning safely home again (with a few dramatic complications along the way).
Left: "Skip" Carmichael (Joel Higgins)
Center: Harry Broderick (Andy Griffith)
Right: "Mel" Slozar (Trish Stewart)
The Storyline:
Harry Broderick (Andy Griffith) owns the Jettison Scrap and Salvage Company, and is a specialist in reclaiming trash and junk in order to sell that as scrap. His dream is to recover equipment left on the moon during Apollo Program missions. He invites former astronaut Addison "Skip" Carmichael (Joel Higgins) and NASA fuel expert Melanie "Mel" Slozar (Trish Stewart) to assist him in this effort. He builds a spaceship dubbed Vulture completely made of reclaimed salvage and powered by a chemical called monohydrazine. The main body of Vulture is composed of a Texaco gasoline Semi-trailer with cement mixer as the capsule. This is augmented with three shorter rocket boosters placed 120 degrees around the main tank.
Broderick and his ragtag crew complete their first mission and go on to further adventures in the subsequent episodes of the series.
The Vulture Spaceship
Estes Rockets made a prototype of a model rocket version of the Vulture, however It was never brought to market.
A fan-made "Vulture" resin kit
This January-December 1979 TV Series only aired 14 Episodes, even though 18 were made (the final 4 never aired).
I remember sitting in the dining room eating dinner while the TV was on and watching this show. I thought it would be really, REALLY cool to build my own Space Ship and go try to recover Salvage in far-away places... and in some cases i've done just that in my many Recycling activities. This TV series almost seemed like a "strange mix" between "Star Trek" and "Sanford & Son", but was very interesting nonetheless.
I've had to come here for various things over the years...things that were salvaged, but i needed. Sometimes it's the only way to get "that thing" fixed and back on the road or even some hard-to-find items that just couldn't be located elsewhere.
As always, be aware of your surroundings and enjoy the hunt! :)
MUCH Thanks to both Don & Hank for their permission on this hide.