The first man to set foot on the surface of our moon has died at age 82.
Every American who was slightly aware of current events in the summer of 1969 remembers Neil Armstrong’s name. He and his astronaut colleagues Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin were the first Appollo astronauts to set foot on the moon’s pockmarked gray dusty surface on July 20 1969.Armstrong and Aldrin did the moon walk while Collins flew the Apollo craft above them in a moon orbit.
Like many, I remember exactly what I was doing when the news came on that the Lunar Module had successfully landed on the moon and that Armstrong and Aldrin would soon get out of the LM and walk on the moon….a stunning first in the history of mankind.
I know what I was doing as our black and white TV set blasted the minute by minute acounts of the moon landing.
I was painting a door with white enamel paint on the door that led outside from the dining room of our old pioneer farmhouse we lived in at that time. I stopped painting and stepped inside the living room so I could see the first man’s footprint made on the moon. My husband and 2 older boys were also watching. Our youngest was still a baby and was probably at his Grandparents’ place so I was free to do my painting that Sunday afternoon.
My husband’s grandpa had died a day or so earlier at the age of 95 and we talked about the events in his lifetime after coming to the US as an immigrant aboard an old steamship, his knowing of the first flight at KittyHawk a year after he arrived in the US, of the wars he witnessed our nation fight; and now on the day after he died…a man walks on the moon for the first time.
“That is one small step for man; a giant leap for mankind” were the words that Armstrong spoke (to that effect..maybe not totally accurate but the major theme is there.)
Armstrong was a modest man who never cashed in on his fame but rather finished out his career as an astronaut quietly and then went on to advise students in the fields of science in which he was well – schooled .
He lived out his life with the wife he first married and the children they had as a family. I am sure he was a grandfather and possibly a great grandfather. He was a midwestern boy who kept his modest midwestern values throughout his life.
Rest in Peace, Commander Neil Armstrong.
You are remembered and honored for your life well lived.
