July 1969, I was an eleven year old boy and I vividly remember sitting cross-legged on the floor, staring at the TV late into the night. Nothing fascinated me, or all my friends, more than the space program. We all watched, and discussed, and analyzed every move that NASA made back then. Each of us wanted to be John Glenn, Buzz Aldrin, or Chuck Yeager but most of all we wanted to be Neil Armstrong. I remember holding my breath when he stepped off of the module onto the dusty surface of the moon. That dust still holds the pristine footprints of the first human to set foot there and they will be there for all time. Why did we want to be Neil Armstrong? He was a hero to us, a decorated military veteran, and a scientist and engineer, but the reason he was special is that he was a pioneer. I grew up reading about Balboa, Magellan, Ponce de Leon and Daniel Boone. I loved explorers but there was no place left on Earth to explore. That didn't stop Neil Armstrong. He flew higher, faster and farther than anybody else. When Apollo 11 carried him to the ultimate goal of walking on the moon, it carried him to the top of my generation's list of people to emulate. A very good reason to quietly hold our breath on a hot night in July, 1969.
Neil Armstrong left indelible prints on the moon and in the way he lived his life.
Now in the words of John Gillespie Magee, Jr. he has "slipped the surly bonds of Earth and touched the face of God"
Only a handful of humans have ever seen this view of our planet
High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
— John Gillespie Magee, Jr
Tomorrow, back to photography
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