This is a
moment I will never forget. Of all places we watched the moon landing in the Yankee
Clipper bar in Santa Barbara, California. I was with John Larralde, John O’Malley
and Eric Stocking, our version of the rat pack. We used to go to the Yankee
Clipper occasionally because they had a girl who could really sing for entertainment
and an aquarium with a really ugly frog that was twice the size of any of the
fish. I think the attraction that night was the larger TV, it must have been at
least thirty inches, black and white. As they say those were the days. When you
stop to think about this accomplishment, it was truly amazing. The fact that
this was accomplished without supercomputers and all the technology we have
today is unbelievable. The personal courage and expertise of those astronauts
is something I did not realize at the time.
3 Comments
Arewenearly thereyet
Sadly I want even born, so I don’t remember at all, but I totally agree with you about what they accomplished. I find it totally fascinating. I would love to go into space, but not sure if I would be brave enough, and that is with all the supercomputers we have today! There is lots of fun stuff about exploring the moon at http://www.discoveryboxbooks.com/july.php plus a special project to design your own space mission patch – If you have a go you will get an official Certificate of Flight, which is a special souvenir of the International Year of Astronomy. Good blogging with you 🙂
Patrick McHugh
I was at Yankee Stadium watching my first professional baseball game. I was 7. I was unhappy that I was at the game because I wanted to be watching TV. But it was my brothers birthday and he wanted to go to the game. It was also Bat Day at Yankee Stadium and I got a regulation Mickey Mantle Bat. The game was stopped when they announced that Apollo 11 had landed and we all sang “God Bless America.” I don’t think they have bat day at Yankee Stadium anymore, but I used that bat for years afterwards. It was a really good bat. The yankees played the Washington Senators that day and Ted Williams was still the manager of the Senators.
tim
“Don’t tell me sky’s the limit when there are footprints on the moon” -unknown