ODT - I doubt it was a joke… more likely it was just to set a precedent, just in case space travel does become commonplace.

You’re probably right. However, I do remember that people (and sometimes institutions) did things like this back then in a sort of “isn’t it cute that we still have to do this” manner, as if to demonstrate how fast everything was changing as a result of the increasingly widespread implementation of so many advanced technologies and their sometimes humorous effects on the entrenched mundanities of everyday life. This has the feel of one of those quaint up-to-the-minute Life or Look magazine articles.