Readers remember July 20, 1969

During the summer of 1969 I was in the U.S. Army assigned to the Aviation Maintenance Officers Course and Test Pilot School at Fort Eustis, Va.

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Associated Press

In the shadow of the lunar module, Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon, sparking the imaginations of millions around the world with a single step.

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On the evening of July 20, my wife and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. We shared the top from our wedding cake, had a bottle of champagne and watched a man walk on the moon.

We think it was great of NASA to honor our anniversary by taking that "first step" for man. Forty more have gone by, but we will never forget that first.

-- Dave and Ruby Bolyard

In 1969, at the time of the moon landing, I was a second lieutenant in the Army Nurse Corps at Fort Benning working the night shift -- so I was asleep during the day. Thank goodness on that day, a friend came to my room, woke me up and told me I needed to see it on TV. We watched the actual landing together, but I eventually had to get more sleep.

-- Gwen Tushbant, Grovetown

On Sunday, July 20, 1969, I worked an eight-hour day at Seminole Mill in Clearwater then returned home to North Augusta. A little later that evening as I was relaxing on the patio, my dad, Lew Parker, informed me that we had landed on the moon.

-- Tom Parker, Garland, Texas

In July of 1969 I was growing up on a farm in rural northwestern Pennsylvania. Despite being only 7, I was already very interested in the Space Age and had watched all the prior Apollo liftoffs, many of them at school. My parents, especially my father, were not interested and thought the whole thing was a huge waste of money.

Sunday supper came and went, and evening came, with still no action on the moon. We sat around watching the coverage anyway, with my dad complaining about missing Gunsmoke or Bonanza or whatever show was supposed to be on that night.

My mom gave it up and went to bed before the big moment, but Dad hung in there and finally ... as I recall, Armstrong came down the ladder, none too visible in the grainy black-and-white picture.

It did seem utterly amazing, and like most people, I think at the time I imagined we'd be flying back and forth to Mars on a regular basis long before now.

As I've gotten older, reality set in, and I've sometimes questioned the wisdom of the moon program. But instead of the big picture view, for me, the most amazing thing about the moon landing was my dad, the country's biggest complainer about government waste, staying up all evening to watch arguably the most historic event in his lifetime despite his vehement opposition to the whole thing.

He's been gone now for almost three years, but that is one of the many memories of him I will always cherish.

-- Tim Zello, Washington, Ga.