Moon Landing Anniversary

I was seeing news stories as I left the house (greetings from Narita, by the way…) and an e-mail just popped up from my buddy Russ, wishing me a “Happy Landing Day”. 

And so it was, 45 years ago, that we first landed on the Moon.  As I recall, our family was on vacation.  For our family, “vacation” = “driving” as dad tended to throw us in the back seat and take off, touring us all around the Western USA. 

Of course, that was pre-internet, pre-cell phone (“pre-” a lot of things I suppose…).  He was switching channels on the AM Radio (yes, AM) as we drove, keeping up to the minute with news broadcasts (Walter Cronkite) about NASA’s progress, racing to get to a motel in time for us to see the landing live.  (for my international friends, a "Motel", short for "Motor Hotel" is a small, roadside hotel, usually with a small restaurant, designed especially for the American West.  They have a sign beside the highway, and in those days it has a red neon component that said "NO Vacancy".  The "Vacancy" part would be on all the time, but in the late evening, when the motel filled up, the person at the desk would flip a switch to make the "NO" come on, and thus drivers would see the indication and keep on driving, without having to waste time stopping.  You could hit town, without calling ahead, and drive around until you saw a "Vacancy" sign, and drive on in...)

We made it.  I don’t remember where we were exactly, Colorado or New Mexico probably (as soon as he reads this, he will let me know for sure, and I will “update”) (Update:  Dad confirmed it, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and very likely, a Best Western Motel) but we made it to a motel with a black and white (yes, it was pre-color too !) and we saw it. 

There are those times, great events for a country, or in this case, the world, when we all remember where we were and what we were doing when we heard the news.  Well, this was certainly one of those events.

You can think of it as when “the Americans” landed on the Moon, but here in the USA, we just say it’s when Man landed on the moon, as we, all of us, watched breathlessly and all of us, were represented. 

So, Happy Moon Landing Day All !!

-          Mark