On 7/20/06, Tom C <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/19jul_seaoftranquillity.htm > > > Tom C.
Tom, Thanks for that link. It was spooky reading it, "hearing" phrases that (I didn't realize) were etched in my memory. "Houston, Tranquility Base Here; the Eagle has Landed." We broke into cheers when we heard that one. "That was one small step step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." I told my father that was pretty good thinking, then he told me he was pretty sure that Neil had made it up ahead of time. <g> I was 12 years old, and it seemed that we'd spent the whole summer in front of our TV, a little black and white "portable" job. We didn't have cable yet, the picture was fuzzy (which was okay, because the broadcasts from the moon were pretty fuzzy anyway, and even then, I liked fuzzy <g>), but the whole family sat in front of that little TV in our playroom, watching intently. What now amazes me about that whole mission is the fact that it actually got there and back. Some four or five years ago, I read that all those banks of computers with the flashing lights and winding spools of magnetic tape had less power than the average desktop - and that was 5 years ago! After spending the summer of 68 watching American cities burn, it was uplifting and inspiring to see mankind striving successfully for peace. These guys were my childhood heroes, the Mercury and Gemini astronauts, and landing on the moon was the culmination of that. Of course we didn't realize at the time it was all an elaborate hoax, filmed on a Hollywood backlot. <LOL> For our generation, where you were when we landed on the moon was one of those things "we never forgot" (just like where we were when we heard about JFK's assassination ). Thanks for that link, Tom! cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
