Man has done marvelous, incredible things on earth, but from the beginning of australopithecine and homo erectus consciousness, they saw that bright round object in the night sky and wondered what it was all about. There were times when the moon seemed so large and close on the horizon you could almost touch it, and yet with the night it seemed to flee further away up into the sky, towards the stars and impossibility.

Throughout evolution and civilization, the lure and myths of the moon never waned. The desire to go there has always been part of the spiritus mundi — and then one day we did. Man walked on the moon and accomplished what his species had dreamed of for *millions* for years. Human science and ageless legend had finally met.

During crippled Apollo 13 mission, in our morning prayers at (Catholic) school we prayed to God for the safe return of the astronauts. It was an impressionable example of “the power of prayer” for young children.

I remember watching the blast-offs and all the coverage I possibly could as well. Heck, even at school, the teachers would turn the TV on for a little bit to watch the coverage. It was a huge deal in those days.

I remember the whole Apolo mission – we used to get up at 4am in California to watch the blast-offs and would race home from school for any updates. When a mission was on, everyone would watch the news or any “special reports” that might come on.

Most of the kids I grew up with wanted to be an astronaut at one time or another…

Well I was only 2 in 1969 so I don’t remember that first walk. :-) I do remember subsequent ones though. Astronauts were the bomb back in those days!

reCaptcha: doing therapy (do I need to?)