"July 20th 1969..."

I can remember this day forty years ago quite well... All that week, my father and I, and to a lesser degree my mother, older brothers and my sisters were all following the news of the mankind's greatest exploration -- "The Journey to the Moon."

Some years ago, I wrote about my recollections of July 20, 1969* on the BBC's website. Surprisingly, since then, what I wrote has been widely quoted on other websites and even in an elementary school textbook. Most recently, it was excerpted on the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum blog commemorating the 40th anniversary of the moon landing.

The moon landing is one of a very few significant events that I can remember from the earliest years of my life... That summer of 1969, my mother was getting me ready to start school in the fall. It was just a few months after starting school, in kindergarten that I would begin my own "great exploration" with the significant discovery that I was gay (although at the time I had no idea what it meant or what to call it).

From the BBC website:

Although I had only recently celebrated my fifth birthday, I have a very vivid memory of that day.

We were all glued to the television at our kitchen table.

My brothers and sister and I were gathered around our parents. I was the smallest boy, so I got the privilege of sitting on Dad's lap.

I remember, my father being very quiet and mindful of what was being described on TV.

Then when Neil Armstrong started down the ladder, I felt a tremor run through my Dad. When he made his famous speech, I felt something wet drop onto the top of my head - I turned to see profuse tears streaming from my father's eyes and rolling over his cheeks.

My father would later say, "Even serving in the war (WWII) paled in comparison." He was never more proud of being an American than on the day our flag flew on the moon.

*Although the Lunar Module touched down at 4:17 P.M. EST on 20 July 1969, Neil Armstrong did not depart the spacecraft until about 6 hours later. So in Europe and Africa, the moon walk occurred during the early morning hours of July 21st due to the time difference.