Apollo 11 and a Ten Year Old Boy

Mission Insignia for Apollo 11

Today is the 41st anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's landing on the moon.  I remember watching it on television.  It was after 10:30 p.m. when the astronauts exited the lunar module, the Eagle.  It wasn't a school night, because we were then on summer vacation.  Still, we weren't accustomed to staying up that late.  So, for me, that made the historic event even more special.  I remember Armstrong's words, when his left foot touched the moon's surface, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."  I was ten years old then.  I was in the fifth grade at Nations Ford Elementary School.  We lived in an apartment on Old Pineville Road in Charlotte, NC.

Those were heady days.  Nixon had just replaced Johnson as president.  Seemed like there was an Apollo flight every few days.  At some point during all those flights, but very near to the Apollo 11 flight, I experienced my first solar eclipse.  Space was about the most interesting thing there was.  (That, the North Carolina Tar Heels, the Green Bay Packers, and Arnold Palmer).  I recall telling my fifth grade teacher that I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up.  She replied that I'd have to be very good in math.  Hence, I think that was also the end of my aspirations for space. 

But I was always interested.  In second or third grade, I remember us watching the landing of one of the Mercury mission flights (maybe we watched more than one).  It was just what was done back in those days.  We stopped our work, the teacher wheeled the old Zenith black and white (perched atop a five-foot tall stand with rollers) to the front of the class, and we watched.  Gus Grissom, John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Armstrong, and Aldrin were names as familiar to me as Bart Starr and Johnny Unitas.

I vividly remember when Apollo 8 was orbiting the moon.  It was Christmas Eve, 1968.  I got a telescope for Christmas that year.  We were at Grandma Huffman's and I remember going out in the yard with my Uncle Ernest and trying to spot the spaceship.  I was able to view the moon through the lens, but I think I merely imagined seeing the spacecraft, if memory serves.  Besides, it was cold out.  Telescopes were cool, but watching the spaceflight inside, on TV, seemed to make more sense.

But, you know, I've never watched a Shuttle mission.  And I can't explain what happened to my interest in space.