All us little kiddles were herded into the Auditorium, which was a big deal in and of itself, to watch
John Glen trip into space. There was a large, by the standards of the day black and white TV, and there we sat more or less silently for most of the day, For weeks afterward everyone was playing astronaut.
And on a sweltering day, much like yesterday but it was July 20th 1969, Neil Armstrong landed on the moon...his actual first words from the surface of the moon were something like "it's fine dust I can kick it with my toe"
Armstrong
(John Stewart) The Kingston Trio
Black boy in Chicago, playing in the street
Hasn't many clothes to wear, hasn't much to eat
Don't you know he saw it on a July afternoon
He saw a man named Armstrong who walked upon the moon
Young girl in Calcutta, she's barely eight years old
The flies that swarm the market place will see she don't grow old
But don't you know she heard it on a July afternoon
She heard a man named Armstrong had walked upon the moon
Our rivers are getting dirty and the air is getting bad
Sometimes it seems like war and hate are the only things we've had
Yet all the world stopped to watch on a July afternoon
To watch a man named Armstrong who walked upon the moon
And I wonder if somewhere long ago in this universe
Did they watch a man named Adam who walked upon the earth
(as sung by Iain MacKintosh)
My son and I walked up to the General Store and Post office to pick up our mail. Bill who ran the store/postoffice had the TV on, the Space shuttle had exploded on lift off. We watched the scene repeated over and over again, mouths agape and eyes and hearts disbelieving/
With today's space shuttle return, the program quietly becomes history, I wonder if anyone is watching us from a distance.
