To the Moon and beyond

One of my family’s favorite activities was camping.  We went very frequently and most often with our friends (adopted relatives) the Grimes family.  This trip was no exception.  Our family loaded up the “chuck wagon” and headed out to the Shenandoah Valley as was common for us.  The Shenandoah Valley is certainly one of the most beautiful places I have ever experienced.  We rented two campsites side by side as was our usual custom and set up our two huge tents with all the necessary items for sleeping and living while on our mini vacation.  We set up our “chuck wagon” that my father and I made and set up the two gazebos side by side.  We always set up a game of horse shoes somewhere on the site as well.

While camping this weekend we brought along a small television; a very small black and white television.  This was not a common practice at the time, televisions were a luxury and most people only had one in their homes and no one traveled with theirs.  We brought ours along this one time because we knew there was to be the first lunar landing.  We wanted to be able to see this miraculous event, it had never occurred in the history of man up to that point.  We had to run several long extension cords from the electricity source and tune in early so we could adjust the antenna to pick up the television station that would air the lunar landing.  Once we had the station turned in our two families all sat around in the gazebo on the picnic tables eating, played games and waited for the program to begin.

When the other campers around us noticed we had a television and realized what we were doing they made their way over to our campsite.  It was not long before our campsite was swamped with nearly every camper in the park.  It was so quiet though even with as many people as there were.  Everyone wanted to hear and see, people were so polite at that time.

I remember watching the program unfold, gazing at the amazing scenes.  It was so magical I remember having tears in my eyes, sitting at the outside picnic table looking up occasionally at the moon amazed that men were there actually walking on that deadly orb.  The moon was huge and beautiful that night.  The camp was silent with many people thinking about the huge accomplishment man had made in landing there.  It was truly an awesome and historical moment and my parents made sure we were able to participate in it via the television.  I will never forget the feeling I had sitting there.  I knew we had crossed a line in science that would bring only more and more amazing accomplishments.  That was the first of the most awe inspiring events in my life span.