Zark Street: Sputnik Spell

Did you ever see a Sputnik necklace? My mother had one and at some point, gave it to my sister who gave it to me. Unfortunately it got lost, never to be found again.

The real Sputnik was a tiny space satellite (about the size of a beach ball, pronounced Spoot-nik). It was launched by the Russians in October, 1957, orbited the earth and challenged Americans to start what we now call the space race.

The necklace fascinated me. It had an odd shape I can't even describe. It was speckled with round little bits of colored glass that I now know were the long tentacle-like tubes coming out of the original.

The necklace was the opposite of pretty, but I loved it. And since my Beat Street series takes place all in 1958, I'm fascinated by Sputnik even more these days.

First of all, the name. What does it mean? According to the BBC Sputnik page, the word means "one one who is on the same path with someone." It also means "companion" or "fellow traveler."

I also read Sputnik was more or less the precursor to inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), which are long-range nuclear missiles. That doesn't make Sputnik as benign as my necklace--in fact it's the opposite, a weapon of war. I'm guessing you know we were in the middle of a cold war with the Russians in the 1950s.

Sputnik took America and the world by surprise, which pleased Russian leaders tremendously. This year, there is a new version of Sputnik: the Russian version of a vaccine aimed at preventing COVID. A recent review of the vaccine in the medical journal called The Lancet found it was highly effective.

I guess this means the Russians and Americans are still rivals and things haven't changed much since 1957. While I wish we could cooperate, I hope the Russian president Vladimir Putin gets thrown out of office soon and has to #FreeNavalny and all the other political prisoners he's taken. I also want to see justice for all the people he's murdered. On the other hand, I'm glad both countries have vaccines that seem to be working.

Right now, I'm still trying to find out what the jewelry-and-object craze was about in 1950s America. Besides necklaces, there were earrings, chandeliers and other stuff. Why were Americans wearing Sputnik objects?

All I can find online is a piece from The Casket of Fictional Delights (great name)! The piece talks about how Sputnik inspired many jewelry designers, but doesn't say why. Maybe it was a way of minimizing or making fun of Sputnik? Or maybe it was just such an odd little object that it engaged people's curiosity. I don't know, but I'm glad we have these things. It could be the new vaccine will inspire a new wave of Sputnik jewelry.

Or maybe we have plenty already? I just went to Etsy and oops! Now I've gone and done it--a necklace full of mini-Sputniks is on its way to me. It looks a lot like the one I had, only there are lots of them.

Still under the Sputnik spell, I guess, and it's too late now. Something to share with a grandchild one day? Maybe. But I'm going to keep it as long as I can.