I remember that after the successful landing on the moon, all of the tension in me evaporated and nothing was left but pure exhilaration. I could barely contain myself as we all waited to head over to my grandparent's house and watch a man step onto the moon for the first time. Finally, sometime after dinner, my parents loaded all five of us(mom was about 3 months along with the littlest sister, Patty) into the car and we headed over to watch history.
My grandparent's had a big color TV, something that we, and if I remember correctly, most homes, didn't have at the time. Not that it turned out to matter. We gathered together in that living room, the adults sitting on the furniture, the kids sprawled all over the carpet. I remember being alarmed at first because the first images looked like crap. In fact, I think I was about ready to burst into tears. But somebody at NASA fiddled and faddled with the contrast and we could soon make out Neil Armstrong on the ladder.
We all cheered. The time was 9:56 P.M. CDT. I remember Buzz Aldrin joining Armstrong and watching them walk around and plant the US flag, but I don't remember how long we stayed. Most likely, all of us kids one by one fell asleep and I bet dad ended up carrying a couple of us to the station wagon to go home way past our bedtimes.
It was a tremendous moment that I will never forget. They would spend a total of 22 hours on the moon, roughly 2 1/2 of those walking on the surface. They were still a long way from home and there would be risky moments after that, but I don't remember worrying about them. If they had made it that far, I figured everything else was going to work out too. And it did.
Recent Comments