This is a repost of one I did on July 20, 2009. Hard to believe this was so very long ago.
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This is for Robert at Live from the Surface of the Moon. I generally don't share personal family photos or anything that I've shot, but this is different. This is part of the human experience 40 years ago. This was a global experience and I haven't seen anything since then that has stopped the rotation of the earth in the same way.
I was one of those people sitting glued to my tv for days awaiting the arrival of the astronauts on the moon and none of it was a hyped let down. It was all magnificent. I snapped pictures with my 35 mm Mamiya Sekor. I had my little reel to reel tape recorder going. All I have left are vague memories buried deep inside that can really only be conjured by closing my eyes or going outside on an especially beautiful full moon night. The reel to reel recording? In a box. I long ago lost the ability to play it. I'm sure there are thousands of photos like this all over the world in long forgotten boxes.
For those who weren't alive to experience this, I'm sorry. You missed a humdinger!
Years later friends dragged me nearly kicking and screaming to the MGM Grand for a show. First off I don't like casinos, secondly I hate casino shows. This was billed as an extravaganza with the high point...a real plane on the stage with half naked woman standing on the wings waving and truly lousy dancers cavorting across the stage as the curtain was pulled back. I gritted my teeth while the people in the audience sat mesmerized and applauding. It was all nonsense and I wondered how they could be excited by this when less than 10 years before we'd seen two men walk on the moon. People forget and they move onto the next shiny object. Not me.
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It was a long time ago - I remember staying up late to watch the once in a lifetime event like it was yesterday.
ReplyDeleteFor some of us it remains the brightest shiniest object ever. But for me those first steps on the moon were heard not seen as instead I listened to it on the radio at some Midwest camground. My mom and I were on a grand roadtrip to Minnesota, she driving and me navigating, in a VW camper bus. This week I bought a sheet of the 50th anniv. Moon Landing commemorative stamps to use on our holiday cards. Maybe get folks to remember that time when the whole world stopped to go outside and stare at the shiny orb in the night sky.
ReplyDeleteAnd nice to see that Richard Nixon did something to deserve a category label.
Well, goodness gracious, old friend. How amazing to see this now. With every good wish, Robert
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