I remember being young when it happened. To watch the moon landing, in 1969, we had to go to a bar. Grandpa, who was in control of the television at his house (where we lived at the time) was absolutely sure that the grainy images were proof that the whole thing was being acted out in the desert somewhere. Surely, if there were a plot to hide something like that going on in plain sight out beyond the reach of civilization, there were still, in his mind, places you could go to be sure that no one would find you out. It was incomprehensible to him that to "get there" took days and that you had to aim where the planet would be so far,far away. The supposed distance surely, in his mind, could not be nearly as far as they said and the speeds alone that were quoted would surely kill a human being, he could look right up and see the sphere, hovering overhead. That alone was real to him. The whole thing about phases of the moon too seemed to evade his consciousness, or at least he didn't care to pay it any mind. Although he knew that his wife always planted "according to the Moon", he could not have told you when the next full one would happen without a calendar.
Those days were simple. Training, for nearly everyone amounted to: "Sit down, shut up and retain these facts. Always listen to the person in charge. We are the best nation on Earth, and Be willing to sacrifice everything for the good of all." It was considered a huge assault in the game of one-upsman-ship against the Communists to reach the Moon first, yet many thought it was just a propaganda ploy, envisioned and perpetrated by "the Jews" and Hollywood. As out of place as that sounds, just two generations ago it was real in my family. What I remember is that the audience at the local tap were split 50/50. My young mind chalked up an extra weighted vote cast by the owner who seemed better educated than the clientele and even at that barely kept the assessment half and half. I figured that if he had found a way to make his living off these guys' desire to have some time away from whatever life they were making for themselves, then he counted extra. My mom and I were two votes for an actual landing on the Moon, and although I have questioned it myself at times, if it all were not some ruse, I get that stark image of the Earth, on a starless background, floating in space and giving everything from a crescent to that massive waxing gibbous phase as the orbiter looked back from the true edge of space.Earth from the Moon image can be found here.
The most awkward reality that one has to come to grips with is that twenty-six million was a lot of people back then. World population was roughly half what it is now. Since the Moon Landing, two generations have passed. I am the last generation that will have living memory of that event. Perhaps more than two thirds of the people who watched that fateful evening are dead, as painful as it sounds, it took nearly that long to get the photograph of earth from Space into every classroom in Wisconsin. It is terrible how little attention has been given to that one striking photograph. forever after that image was captured, we have been able to see with our own eyes that Earth is a glistening marble isolated amongst billions and billions of objects in space, separated by immense distances. Like a minute fishbowl, we are limited in quantity of air, water and energy that we receive from space. What we do with it will determine quality of life globally for aeons. Beyond the Native American concept of seven generations are many, many more whose choices will be limited or expanded by our choices today.
Those days were simple. Training, for nearly everyone amounted to: "Sit down, shut up and retain these facts. Always listen to the person in charge. We are the best nation on Earth, and Be willing to sacrifice everything for the good of all." It was considered a huge assault in the game of one-upsman-ship against the Communists to reach the Moon first, yet many thought it was just a propaganda ploy, envisioned and perpetrated by "the Jews" and Hollywood. As out of place as that sounds, just two generations ago it was real in my family. What I remember is that the audience at the local tap were split 50/50. My young mind chalked up an extra weighted vote cast by the owner who seemed better educated than the clientele and even at that barely kept the assessment half and half. I figured that if he had found a way to make his living off these guys' desire to have some time away from whatever life they were making for themselves, then he counted extra. My mom and I were two votes for an actual landing on the Moon, and although I have questioned it myself at times, if it all were not some ruse, I get that stark image of the Earth, on a starless background, floating in space and giving everything from a crescent to that massive waxing gibbous phase as the orbiter looked back from the true edge of space.Earth from the Moon image can be found here.
The most awkward reality that one has to come to grips with is that twenty-six million was a lot of people back then. World population was roughly half what it is now. Since the Moon Landing, two generations have passed. I am the last generation that will have living memory of that event. Perhaps more than two thirds of the people who watched that fateful evening are dead, as painful as it sounds, it took nearly that long to get the photograph of earth from Space into every classroom in Wisconsin. It is terrible how little attention has been given to that one striking photograph. forever after that image was captured, we have been able to see with our own eyes that Earth is a glistening marble isolated amongst billions and billions of objects in space, separated by immense distances. Like a minute fishbowl, we are limited in quantity of air, water and energy that we receive from space. What we do with it will determine quality of life globally for aeons. Beyond the Native American concept of seven generations are many, many more whose choices will be limited or expanded by our choices today.
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