Postscript: Dr. Goddard's Anniversary Day

Since you live close to Worcester, Mass.
...think about observing October 19th.

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   On that day in 1899, 17-year old Robert Goddard climbed into an old cherry tree, on a farm near Worcester, to prune its dead branches. Instead, he began daydreaming:

   "It was one of the quiet, colorful afternoons of sheer beauty which we have in October in New England, and as I looked toward the fields at the east, I imagined how wonderful it would be to make some device which had even the possibility of ascending to Mars, and how it would look on a small scale, if sent up from the meadow at my feet."

     ... "I was a different boy when I descended the tree from when I ascended, for existence at last seemed very purposive."

This became his personal holiday, his "Anniversary Day". Read more on
http://www.phy6.org/stargaze/Sgoddard/htm