Friday, December 9, 2011

That's One Small Step for Man - 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History

Photo by J. Richard Roos
I always was and still am fascinated by outer space so it's no surprise that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's becoming the first two men to walk on the moon is deeply etched in my mind.

Our family was on Whidbey Island, Washington that hot, sunny day on July 21, 1969. Our black and white TV was showing transmissions from space while us kids played on the beach, anxiously running inside every so often to see if it the Eagle had landed. I don't remember the harrowing search for a landing spot or how close they came to running out of fuel. I just remember a spaceship setting down on the moon! After the Eagle landed, I remember Mom telling us that the astronauts had to take a nap before they could go for their moon walk. That meant we had to wait. Sheez!! I've always wondered if they really slept! Would you have been able to? I don't think I could have!!

It was a long afternoon for this 9 year old girl. Finally, sometime after we had eaten dinner and us kids returned to play on the beach, someone called to us that it was time. It was so incredibly exciting then and now to think of a human being walking on the moon. I still like to sit and look at the moon on a nice evening and think about those days and what it must have been like for those men to see an earthrise. I still love to watch documentaries about the moon program.

True to form, Dad was there with his camera taking pictures of the fuzzy images from space appearing on TV. I am so glad that he did! You have to use your imagination a little to decipher the picture but then if you were watching TV on July 21, 1969, it shouldn't be too diffucult.

Amy Coffin's series, 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History is a series of blogging prompts that "invite genealogists and others to record memories and insights about their own lives for future descendants."

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Scrapbook template is "Colorful Memories" designed by Story Rock and can be found at MyMemories.com.

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