I was just six at the time of the Moon landing. I remember watching it on the TV. I'm not sure I quite understood the significance of it all, but I knew that it was important.
A piece created by the Belgian artist Georges Remi, whose character Tintin had made a fictional Moon Landing some years before, as a tribute when the actual Moon landing occurred:
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As I saidon Facebook, he boldly went where no one had gone before!
His one small step made a major impact upon everything from that day forward.
But we need more people to make those giant leaps.
Rest in peace Mister Armstrong, and may your exploring spirit never end!
He was a hero of my childhood. My father had us get up in the night when the landing took place. He said we needed to get up and see them walk on the moon. Daddy said we will tell our grandchildren about that night.
Truly, Neil Armstrong was an American hero. Sadly, that kind of hero dies and stays dead. But he will live in the minds of those of us who saw and remember.
Love this quote from the Indianapolis Star:
For a school that has produced more astronauts than anywhere else, Armstrong is still Purdue's favorite son. As a Boilermaker, he feels like the hometown guy who made good--doing something incredibly meaningful for the whole world. Of course, for me, it was in retrospect, but it still feels good.
Rest in peace, big guy!
Like everyone born after Armstrong's finest hour, his name was like a legend during my childhood. It took a while to realise he was just a human being.
There's a great book called Moondust by someone masquerading under the name of Andrew Smith, which documents the moon landings from the point of view of what happened to the men afterwards. Armstrong was the most reclusive and singular of them in how he tried to just be a normal guy after the landings. It's highly recommended. It's as much about the wider meanings of the Moon landings as the technicalities of those trips. Considering that the only humans ever to have set foot on another 'planet' have started to die off, Smith did a worthwhile thing tracking them down and talking to them about the experience.
And here's a song called Armstrong, about the first moon landing. Like many Nanci Griffith songs, it always makes me cry!