We Came in Peace

Has it been 40 years already?  July 20, 1969.  It was summer vacation...going into the 8th grade at Mission Dolores.  And it was going to be a newsworthy summer.  My father passed away in May, and later two notable entertainment icons passed as well...Judy Garland and Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong.  But it was the mission of Apollo 11 that kept the world on the edge.  I went to my Aunt Amanda & cousin Rick's home for their birthday, but I just had to come home to watch a human walk on another celestial object.  We had an old black and white, 20 inch Emerson TV, the kind that warmed up a bit before you got a picture.  I changed the channel from ABC to CBS to NBC just to get the flavor of the different networks.  Mind you, it was all done manually, not with a remote.  Walter Cronkite, Frank Reynolds, and other notable journalists of the day gave their all and their enthusiasm was only matched by those of my age who were ready to do moon landing reports once school started.  Science fiction was slowly becoming fact.  And the moon was not made of green cheese, as seen in many works of fantasy.

Yes, it was an amazing day for humankind.  Sad, that we're still a world at war and violence, as we were in the late 60s.  Anyway, the day made everyone forget their troubles and the world was at peace, at least for the duration of the mission.  

Here men from the planet earth first set foot upon the moon, July 1969 A.D.  We came in peace for all Mankind.