Are you *beep* kidding me. I've lived here my whole life. COCOA and COCOA BEACH are completely different. COCOA doesn't have a beach. You would think the writers wouldn't get something as simple as that wrong. It may seem small, but around here that's a HUGE annoyance. I cannot believe they said that.
shareIt may seem small, but around here that's a HUGE annoyance.
Really?
shareWell, they also had Rene Carpenter leaving the Holiday Inn to go to a hotel on the beach where she could see the launch. Since the Holiday Inn was already on the beach, I'm not sure where she needed to go. Clearly their knowledge of the geography of the Cape Canaveral area is not great.
I think that the point they were really trying to focus on was at that time the beaches in the area were still segregated. And that is true.
I grew up in Cocoa Beach, and I agree with you Cocoa and Cocoa Beach are not the same!
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It could just be that the young boy abbreviated by saying Cocoa.
If he said, "the beaches in Cocoa Beach..." It would have been awkward and redundant.
It ain't the Ganges, but you go with what you got." ~ Ken Talley, "The Fifth of July"
That is a good point
shareNo. Doesn't work that way around here lol. No one that lives in cocoa beach would EVER call it cocoa.
shareEven at the time?
shareYes. People around here know the difference between Cooca and Cocoa Beach. Merritt Island has always been in between the two cities. They are approximately 8 miles away from each other separated by rivers. Just search on a map Cocoa, Fl to Ron Jon's, Cocoa Beach. (If you type just Cocoa Beach it will take you downtown).
I'm sorry, but locals around here get really annoyed by the common mistake. Cocoa is ghetto and has multiple shootings weekly. A cop is actually in critical condition currently. Cocoa beach is amazing and a peaceful beach town. They couldn't be more different. I lived in cocoa for 18 years, the cape canaveral (cocoa beach's northern neighbor) for 5 years, and now Merritt island.
That's pretty common in Florida. I lived in Pompano Beach for a while. If you're east of Rt. 1, it's generally nice. Between Rt. 1 and the first set of railroad tracks, it starts to get dicey. Between the 1st set of railroad tracks to I-95, then the second set of railroad tracks, it's pretty much South Central LA or or Southside Chicago. Ghetto city, a couple of miles wide and 60 miles long north to south.
West of the second set of railroad tracks, it starts to get a little better. It keeps getting better as you go west until you hit the Everglades or, further north, you hit rednecks.
People in Miami Beach will quickly correct you if you say they live in Miami. Cocoa/Cocoa Beach is the same, if you live in Cocoa Beach and you say Cocoa, they'll straighten you out quickly.
The person who said it on the show did not, presumably, live in Cocoa Beach, but in Cocoa. Considering that he was black, it was 1962 and he was the son of a woman who worked as a maid at a motel, I'd guess he lived in the not-so-nice area: either Cocoa, or perhaps somewhere else.
To be totally accurate, I suppose he should have said "All the beaches near Cocoa are whites only." Saying "in" doesn't seem like a wildly unlikely slip for a young kid who was probably not particularly sophisticated or well-travelled, and probably didn't personally know anyone who lived in Cocoa Beach.
The knowledge of the astronauts doesn't seem extremely relevant, since none of them were actually there in the relevant scene. FWIW, I don't think they'd necessarily be highly familiar with local geographical terminology: they all lived in Virginia at the time (and later in Houston), and just stayed in a motel in Florida when there for a launch or launch preparation. It seems quite likely that Rene Carpenter had not spent a lot of time in the Cocoa Beach area.
The kid was probably meant to be abbreviating it. Saying "all the beaches in Cocoa Beach are white beache"s is very redundant. It's not really that big of a deal.
shareI am not as familiar with the geography of Florida as you are. However the thing that got to me about that scene was that, that has been the only mention of the segregation and racism that was so prevalent in this country at that time.
I know the show is about The Astronaut wives and I am learning that I had no idea about some of the difficult things these ladies had to endure.
O relate as a woman. But as an African American woman the fact that so much of the country was oblivious to segregation, racism etc. effects me as well.
Exactly, it would have been dumb to say "cocoa beach" .. I live about 30-40 mins away from Cocoa Beach. And all of us say " do you want to go to Cocoa or Melbourne?" we dont say "cocoa beach or melbourne beach" ... we already know we are going to A BEACH. So he was just probably abbreviating, like the previous poster said.
shareLol well good luck going to the beach in Cocoa, considering it's at least 15 miles west of the beach with 2 rivers, 3 bridges and a city in between the two.
shareThe show takes place in Houston, though, and the characters only briefly spent time in Cocoa. Therefore, they might not have been as aware of all the intricacies of Cocoa Beach geography as you are. I live in Miami, and I don't really know (or much care about) the difference. And I can tell you that people in other parts of the country assume that everyone in Miami is on the beach, and that's not the case either.
"Arguing with trolls is like playing chess with a pigeon . . . ."
only briefly spent time in Cocoa Beach(!)*
Lol come on
The Gemini guys spent a lot of time at Cape Canaveral. Most people don't understand that the Houston space center hadn't been built yet, so almost everything to with astronauts was either at Cape Canaveral or at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, VA during the Mercury days.
After the MSC (later Johnson Space Center) was fully up and running, the astronauts during Gemini and up to the end of the Shuttle spent a smaller percentage of time at Cape Canaveral/Kennedy. Far less, but they still spent time there. I assume they will again whenever we start sending astronauts back up again.