On July 20, 1969, my Dad & I watched the landing of the lunar module, on the moon, & the first steps of human beings, other than our own planet, at my Uncle Charlie's apartment, in Kew Gardens, Queens - just down the street from, the Unisphere, the only remnant of the 1964 World's Fair. It was a surreal experience, to say the least! Their were, these little gray men, climbing down a ladder, and hopping around, on the moon. As a baby boomer, i never questioned that it really was the moon. I subscibed to the John Fogerty doctrine: "I know it's true, because i saw it, on T.V." Ever since then, others have disagreed with me.
If you weren't around then, the important thing to know is, a lot was going on, just then. While the astronauts were walking on the moon, other American servicemen were walking through the fields, and rice paddies of South Vietnam. By 1969, it was obvious, we weren't winning the war. A month later, a throng of young people would gather in a pasture, in a town called Woodstock, They chanted, "And it's 1, 2, 3, What are we fighting for? Don't ask me. I don't give a damn. The next stop is VIETNAM!" - The racial divide, in the Country, was still an open wound, after the murders of Martin Luther King, and Bobby Kennedy, the year before.. In fact, the race and class divides, at home, became evident, among our troops in Vietnam. The phenomenon of "Fragging" increased. Several white, privileged West Point ring knockers, who were going to make their reputations, by mounting hopeless atttacks, on the backs of their, mostly black and Hispanic charges, went to bed, at night, and never woke up again, because somebody tossed a grenade, under their hut.
One thing, about a moon landing - It takes your mind off everything else!!!! For that one, crystalline moment, we forgot about our problems, and were united - all watching the same thing!!!!!! - Richard M. Nixon was U.S. President, on that day, but at that moment, the President, EVERYBODY, thought and spoke of, was John F. Kennedy!!!! Eight years before, in a speech at Rice University, he had set before the nation, the (OUTLANDISH) task of landing a man on the moon, and bringing safely back to Earth, before the end of the decade, on July 20, 1969, (unlike, the current malingerer, in the White House) events proved, J.F.K. was not a liar!!!!!! Many of us, whispered, under our breath, "He did it!"
After his death, a myriad of memorials were raised to President Kennedy, In Feb, 1964, the Beatles landed at John F. Kennedy memorial airport - not Idlewild aiirport, as it was called before. They renamed Cape Canaveral, Cape Kennedy. And, in a move, i still don't understand, they changed it Back, a few years later! Hard to believe, when you consider what he did to merit the honor, in the first place - "J.F.K. BLOWN AWAY. WHAT ELSE DO I HAVE TO SAY?" - But the REAL, lasting monument to J.F.K. was the moon landing, on July 20, 1969. NOBODY believed it could be done. A lot of us, thought it was a bad idea. But he poured his immense energy, & personal charisma, into going to the moon. When i remember that day, i think of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Five and a half years, after his own death, HE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!
