By Peter Lyons Hall
On Saturday, February 24, 2024, an attentive and patient crowd watched outside the Elks Lodge on Chestnut Street as NASA Ambassador, Jim Hall, demonstrated what took place on a cold winter day on a frozen Greenwood Lake: an attempted launch of a rocket that, to the dismay of the onlookers, replicated what had actually happened to the 15–foot wingspan rocket that was prepared to be hurled into the sky from the New York side of the lake to the New Jersey side resulting in a launch failure.
Hall had expected his rocket, propelled by a chemical mixture of vinegar (acetic acid) and baking soda (sodium hydrogen carbonate) to climb well above the height reached by the 1936 rocket (nicknamed “Gloria” after the daughter of the Village Treasurer, John Schleich). Unfortunately, Hall’s rocket launch matched the result of the original Gloria launch too closely, ending in a dud. Hall’s chemical mixture should have produced a salt (sodium acetate) and carbon dioxide gas, which would have accumulated inside the miniature rocket’s closed system. But apparently there was a leak in the system, producing an audible sputter, a couple of wiggles, and a collective sigh from the crowd.
After the group of disappointed rocket fans reassembled inside the Elks Lodge to hear a presentation from Centennial Committee member Steve Gross regale attendees about the historic day on February 23, 1936, when the rocket actually succeeded in a subsequent launch, the Warwick Town Supervisor (and former Mayor of Greenwood Lake), Jesse Dwyer, read a proclamation prepared by current Greenwood Lake Mayor, Matt Buckley, that announced that from this day forward February 23 would be celebrated as Gloria Rocket Mail Day in Greenwood Lake.
