One Giant Leap

Could it be that I remember watching the first moon landing? It was 40 years ago today, and I'm just 44, but as they talked about it today, I had clear recall of my mother yelling at us to pay attention as the moon landing was shown on television. I even recalled that I was standing next to my sister and that I said something along the lines of: "This is boring."

Yet that must have been an amazing time, huh? A simpler time for sure - the ship they traveled in wasn't much more than a floating bathtub compared to what we have today - and those men must have been a little crazy and more than a bit scared. I'm not enamored flying to New York City let alone leaving the freaking atmosphere.

And think of the American pride as we made it up there before the Russians. A simple goal was set and achieved as a nation. You know what would happen today, don't you? The Republicans would blame the Democrats for stopping progress and the Democrats would explain that we'd need that money to do something senseless, like say, feed the citizens.

And then there'd be on the floor of the senate and an investigation into why the hell it could never happen, and we'd have watched someone named Vladamir hitting a golf ball off the surface of the moon.

Which brings me to the two coolest aspects of being on the moon - hitting a drive over 220 yards and weighing, what, about thirty pounds? Both cool things for sure.

Of course, since that day 40 years ago there are people who claim that the moon landing never truly happened and that it was all set on a Hollywood stage, yeah and Elvis is alive, and UFO's land in the desert.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin get the press - who was the 3rd guy? I just heard it a half an hour ago and I can't recall.

Does anyone remember?

I was too bored 40 years ago to pay much attention, but to my mother's credit, she made me watch it.