Fifty years ago today, the first two humans landed on the Moon, Neil Armstrong, and Buzz Aldrin. Neil is often given credit for being “first”, but Buzz likes to say that he “landed at the same time” as Neil.
For much of human history, going to Moon was a metaphor for something impossible. “I’ll give you the Moon” was, and still is, a term for a gift of huge value.
Much of the world watched it happen in real-time, including me. I was in the fourth grade and nine years old. My life was in chaos as my maternal grandmother had recently died and my mother had not taken it well, and in her grief was quite emotionally abusive to everyone around her.
I had been quite interested in the space program. I used to get up early to watch launches and missions on the black and white televisions. I remember many times setting my wind up “Little Ben” alarm clock and getting in the dark of the early mornings to watch launches alone.
However, at that particular time, the chaos of my family had changed my perspective. In particular, my mother, who before had been indifferent to the space program, suddenly took a huge interest in Apollo 11 and forced me to watch the mission coverage under pain of being slapped painfully if I moved away from the television. From the launch, I had been watching because my mother insisted this was historic and I would regret not watching. I would have been more than happy to watch otherwise as I’d been a little nerd and I knew much more about the mission at age 9 than any of the adults in the room, but my mother’s oppressiveness made me want to escape.
When Neil stepped off the lander footpad, I remember sitting in the living room of the very house in which I’m typing this now. I don’t remember who else was in the room. I’m not sure if my younger siblings, ages 7 and 5, were in the room. If they were, I don’t know if they remember. The only person I know for sure was there was my mother.
The shadowy black and white image of Neil said: “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for Mankind”. There is a long debate if the lack of the (a) was due to a mic cutout, or if Neil did a “speako”, like a typo, leaving out a word like mistyping a letter on a typewriter.
I am now glad that my mother forced me to stay and watch the mission from beginning launch to ending splashdown, even I would otherwise have been eager to do so if not for her behavior. I used to have a lot of resentment for my Mother’s attitude, but she had an extremely hard life and was a product of her upbringing. Mom’s been gone for over twenty-five years now and I have far more bad memories than good, but this is ultimately one of the good. I have continued on in my interest of space exploration since, continuing to study missions through Apollo, Space Shuttle, Space Station, Viking to Mars, Voyager to the outer planets, Pluto, and now SpaceX and more.
#jtg
NOW IT’S YOUR TURN!
POST YOUR APOLLO 11 STORY
IN THE COMMENTS!
If you are a youngling, tell us your parents’/grandparents’ story(s).
Saturday, Jul 20, 2019 · 9:24:29 PM +00:00
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jtg
I have just started a new Daily Kos Group entitled
This group will be more than a “gee whiz” fan group.
Democrats for Space Exploration is a group to discuss and promote space exploration, both Human and uncrewed. We will discuss the various issues of human exploration of space including the establishment of human settlements, social justice, and human rights, labor rights both on Earth, environmental issues, and the establishment of social human organizations all types including future space-based territories, colonies, states/provinces, and nations.
We will educate against the common argument that "we need to solve all the problems of Earth before we go into space" in that that space exploration has and potentially will continue to produce great benefits to those who remain on the Home Planet.
We will also education against the "giggle factor" in that often space exploration is dismissed as childish, "Buck Rogers", or something to be laughed about.
If this sounds interesting to you, go to the group home page and join us.
#jtg