Like most kids of my generation, I was treated to a feast of early science fiction television programs. One of the first shows I remember, and one of my favorites, was Captain Video and His Video Rangers. It was broadcast initially in 15 minute installments on the now defunct DuMont Television Network.

Instead of being served a fare of cartoons on Saturday mornings, we were feted with live television serial episodes of Buzz Cory, Space Cadet. These half hour shows featured Buzz as a heroic space ship captain accompanied by "Astro," the somewhat dim-witted navigator, and a less memorable chap whose job always seemed to be to man the power deck.

I really got going around the age of 10, when I began to collect Tom Swift books. The first few books had belonged to my dad, and I discovered them one day while rummaging through a trunk in my grandmother's attic. Despite the fact that they were even then the literary product of a bygone day, they stimulated my imagination intensely. Tom and his bud Ned Newton came to life in my mind, and, each time I finished reading one of these books, I felt like I had just lost my best friends!