It’s hard to believe it was 50 years ago, July 20, 1969, when man first landed on the moon. It’s one of the few vivid memories of my childhood. Just an adolescent, I had been an avid follower of the space program, and this was the culmination of that effort. It marked the greatest adventure that has occurred in my lifetime. It also makes me feel a little old.
I can’t seem to get enough of watching the coverage these days. The photographs and films are beautiful and in color, and I have to remember back when I was watching it all we had was black and white. The landing happened at 2:17 pm in the afternoon where I was with the famous line “Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed.” The first step onto the moon occurred at 8:56 pm, and the EVA lasted around 2 hours. I remember it well, as my family had gone over to my cousins’ house where we were helping them lay a tile floor in their unfinished basement. I distinctly remember working on that floor and watching the moon walk on a small B&W TV. As we drove home well after midnight, we could look up in the sky and see the moon, and were all amazed at what had just happened.
