Landing on the Moon 40th Anniversary

I was much too young to realize the gravity of the event, but I certainly learned much about the lunar landing on July 20, 1969 as my life progressed.

Minds like those of H.G. Wells and C.S. Lewis wrote books about the possibility of visiting the moon, and some of the earliest movies entertained the awe inspiring thought. The only problem was how we would be able to defy gravity to get there in the first place, be it through some anti-gravity chemical painted on the panels of a giant sphere, or by using an oversize gun to shoot the capsule into space.

Then, along came the rocket.

The race for space became a political one. John F. Kennedy made it his goal to put an American Astronaut into space, and ultimately on the moon.

During Lyndon B. Johnson's presidency, the lunar landing became a reality.

Neil Armstrong was the first to take a step onto the lunar landscape.

I don't remember that moment, but my parents do. I was too busy playing with my link-n-logs, or stacking blocks, probably, to care that history was being made. I wasn't watching the small black and white television screen in our little living room when Neil Armstrong stepped off the Apollo 11 lunar module and onto the moon's surface and said his now famous line: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

But I was alive, and that event fascinated me for the next forty years as I grew to understand the importance of that day.

Today is the 40th anniversary of the moonwalk, and the memories of that historic voyage has ignited the memories, and the imagination, of a generation that dreamed with the astronauts. It was a day of pride. It was exciting to be an American, as that American Flag (with wire in it to make the stars and stripes visible on the windless moon surface) was planted into the moon's soil.

Within a year or two, I was fully aware of the event, and hoped that one day I may be able to do the same.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

By Douglas V. Gibbs