One Small Step for Man

Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, was eulogized yesterday. Armstrong passed away last weekend at age 82. Yesterday’s service featured a Who’s Who of the 1960s space program.

For the children who came of age during the Space Age, astronauts were our heroes – as much as sports figures, political leaders or celebrities. If you asked a young man, or woman, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” many of my contemporaries would answer “An Astronaut!”

Astronauts were featured in such movies as “The Right Stuff.” The main character on the 1960s sitcom, “I Dream of Jeannie” was an astronaut. Many of our toys were space-related.

I can remember eating space-inspired snacks (like the chocolate chew-bars that were staples in my lunch box) and playing with a moon rover toy that was a premium inside a cereal box.

Astronauts were cool. One of my favorite childhood keepsakes was an Apollo 13 astronaut (roughly the size and shape of a GI Joe) inspired by that dramatic space mission. I still have this toy, along with my Hot Wheel Cars, Big Jim & Big Jack and my childhood baseball mitt.

So, you can imagine why July 20, 1969 was such a key day for those of us my age and older. I can still remember watching the first moonwalk on the color Heathkit television set my dad assembled; a big console model (not totally unlike the one depicted in the opening scenes of “Apollo 13”).

And you can also imagine why it is bittersweet when our childhood heroes age and then pass away. My friend Ed and I talk about this a lot. The recent death of Andy Griffith, over the summer, was the latest example, but there are many others.

Anytime our childhood heroes pass away, it reminds us of our own aging. Put another way, we’re not kids any more.

Truth be told, I don’t think there many of us kids who found employment in the space program. My classmates went on to become civil engineers, accountants, teachers and, in Ed’s case, a highly-specialized computer programmer. But, none of us set foot on the moon.

In fact, to date, there have only been 12 men to walk on the moon.

Governor Romney mentioned this the other night when he spoke at the GOP convention, accepting his party’s nomination for President. He had met Armstrong a few weeks before the heroes death and clearly, like so many other Americans, he was inspired this hero.

Back in July, 1969, I would go outside my house and look up to the skies and convince myself that I could see them – see something – up there. Maybe I was really just admiring the man in the moon.

But all of us admired the man ON the moon – the first man – and today, we honor his accomplishments and celebrate his legacy.

JG

(Source: USA Today)

Originally posted 9/1/2012