The Eagle Has Landed

There is no way to describe the excitement I felt. It was July of 1969, and we were going to land on the moon. It was the biggest thing ever to happen in The Rocket City. The moon rocket that Wernher von Braun designed, that our friends and neighbors built, and whose tests routinely shook our houses, was going to the moon! Even a 6-year-old could understand that it was big.

It was Sunday, and Apollo 11 was going to land on the moon. I had watched it lift off on Wednesday morning, and had waited for what seemed like forever for it to get to the moon. I watched Walter Cronkite explain and update. It was a heady week. Since I was 6, it never even occurred to me that we wouldn't be successful. We were going to win the Space Race!

I'm a little short on the details of the mission. Reading the actual history of it gives me things that I don't remember, like Wednesday morning and Sunday afternoon for the launch and landing. For young children, time is especially fuzzy.

I do remember the feeling, though. I was absolutely space crazy. I wanted to be an astronaut. The feeling that rock stars produce is only a weak comparison to what I felt about the manned exploration of space. 

Neil Armstrong's words were perfectly clear from a quarter-million miles away - “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” I don't need Wikipedia to help me with those. I will remember those words on my deathbed.

I watched every minute of the landing with my aunt Gloria. Mom and Dad had let me go to Gloria's house to watch the moon landing, because she and William had a color TV.

It was broadcast in black and white.

Jack “Neil Armstrong” Parker