Moony Eyed

"How did you celebrate the moon landing 50 years ago?"

The question has been asked a lot lately. Which makes sense, given the upcoming anniversary of Apollo 11, when a trio of astronauts landed on the moon, effectively winning the space race with the Russians. 

USA! USA! USA!

July 20, 1969.

I was 10 years old, and we were at my grandmother's house in Lima, Ohio. Dad was trying to explain how historic the event was. 

"Look up at the sky, you see the moon? There are guys walking around up there."

I couldn't see anything. Clearly, my dumbass 10-year-old self was not as impressed as I should have been. Disgusted, Dad gave up.

I can't speak for my elder siblings, who were clearly old enough to grasp the full significance. It's not something we've talked about, although now that I'm thinking about it, maybe they will weigh in with their perspectives. As for my younger brother, Paul, who was only five at the time, I wonder if he remembers. He's free to chime in here, too.

In any event, the fact that everybody got so blasé about future trips to the moon so quickly must have been disheartening to the Apollo astronauts. Not to mention the staff at NASA, many of whom lost their jobs in the ensuing years. After the sixth crewed mission in 1972, lunar landings ceased.

I cannot imagine the rush of having been involved in something so monumental, then being cut loose to find another job. Although as it turns out, a lot of them went into the burgeoning electronics industry and started perfecting computers and such. So I guess they did pretty well for themselves.

What most folks didn't foresee was the lasting impact the space race would have on everyday life. So many things were invented during that time: memory foam, freeze dried food, firefighting equipment, and cochlear implants, to name a few. Just to note, Tang, Velcro and Teflon are not on this list, although everybody knows how much the astronauts loved their Tang.

As for the flag that was planted on the moon, it got knocked over by the blast of the engines when the ship took off. Oh well. The best laid plans...

So, how will you celebrate the 50th anniversary?

I think I'll don my memory foam slippers and have me some moon pies.

With a side of Tang.