There's a reason why the decades following World War II are known as The Fabulous Fifties and The Soaring Sixties.

Baby boomers remember post-war America during the 1950s as a time of optimism, stability and economic growth. Families that had struggled through a Depression and World War II found their lifestyles much improved over what their parents endured in the previous two decades.That feeling of personal self-worth translated into an era of national pride with the election of an energetic young president in John Kennedy. With such an air of optimism and with a handsome president, his beautiful wife and young children in the White House, Washington was even called Camelot in the early 1960s.There were problems - with Russia and Cuba posing a Cold War threat, civil rights riots and an escalating war in Southeast Asia - but people seemed to dwell on the positive. It was an exciting time to be growing up - big-finned cars, new space-age technology including color TV and transistor radios.President Kennedy also set the tone that brought Americans together by challenging our brightest minds to literally reach for the stars and more specifically - the Moon - to surpass the Russians in the space race.The original Mercury Seven astronauts were the very first group ever selected by NASA. Scott Carpenter, one of the originals seven and the second American to orbit the Earth back in 1962, died last month in Denver of complications from a stroke at at the age of 88. Hundreds gathered in Boulder last Saturday for the funeral to honor his life.Eight years after Carpenter's historic flight, as a college journalism student, I had the opportunity to hear Carpenter speak. It was an experience to be in the same room with such a lion of the baby boomer generation.In his one space flight, Carpenter missed his landing by 288 miles, leaving a nation on edge for an hour as it watched the drama live on television. There were other complications. He was low on fuel and a key instrument malfunction forced him to manually take over control of the landing.After NASA's Mission Control lost contact with him, CBS newsman Walter Cronkite solemnly reported, "We may have ... lost an astronaut." But Carpenter survived that harrowing re-entry, and later called his four hour, 39 minute mission "the nicest thing that ever happened to me."Carpenter saw life as an adventure and hoped that others might experience it."Every child has got to seek his own destiny," he said. "All I can say is that I have had a great time seeking my own."When fellow Mercury Seven astronaut John Glenn launched into space to become the first American to orbit the Earth, Carpenter, who was his backup pilot for the flight, wished his fellow astronaut, "Godspeed."America has lost a true space pioneer. Throughout his life, Scott Carpenter proved not only to American baby boomers but to the world that he had the right stuff.By Jim Zbickeditor@tnonline.com