From The Dreams of Boys, For All Mankind

" HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH

FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON

JULY 1969, A.D.

WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND "

The words on a plaque left on the Moon by Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong.

Remember when people were in awe of space and didn't take it for granted and got excited at the prospect of a toy rocket launch, let alone a shuttle launch? (Moment of silence for the shuttle program.) Remember when little boys and girls wanted to be astronauts when they grew up, not just make lots of money? Remember when people had 'crazy' dreams like that that weren't actually crazy at all because they shot for the stars, literally, and actually reached them?

Yeah, me neither. But I've read first-hand accounts and watched documentaries and gone to museums and read books and watched motion pictures on the subject, and I'm jealous. I'm jealous because I wish I'd lived through it. I'm mortified to admit that I learned that 'we went to the moon in 1969' from the Even Stevens musical episode. (Yeah, that was a direct quote.) People love to ask that question of what time period you would time travel to if you could. There are so many I want to visit! But I have to say that when I think about major events I wish I could have lived through, Sputnik and the Space Race and being crowded around the tiny antenna television watching Walter Cronkite's report on Neil Armstrong's and Buzz Aldrin's historic steps always come to mind. But alas, I wasn't born yet. And while I will surely be alive when we go to Mars...

...I wonder if it will be the same because the world doesn't seem to care like they did back then. Back then the latest technology wasn't Apple's newest Operating System ("I just bought the iPhone 5 last week, dang it!"). But in spite of my wishin' and hopin' I could have lived to witness some pretty amazing stuff, I have been extremely fortunate to participate in quite a few space-related odysseys of my own:

1) Astronaut ice cream

Shout out to the mom and pop for this one. They brought this home as a souvenir for us kids all the time. We weirdly LOVED it - I'm not sure even astronauts would describe it as "delicious" - and check out that packaging! That's enough to set the young imagination on fire. 

2) Sixth grade field trip

In sixth grade we took this 'famous' field trip to a rocket launch simulator facility. It was a big deal because everyone had to apply for the roles they wanted (mission control, scientist, etc.). I was a typist.... wut.... but it was amazing and I already knew quite a bit about that kind of stuff on account of the 'rents, yet again. I remember watching Apollo 13 in class to 'prepare' for the trip. Pshhhhhh been there, done that. (Thanks Mom and Dad.) The whole experience was a blast.

3) Huntsville space center

My fabulous cousins live in Huntsville, AL, where there also happens to be a U.S. Space & Rocket Center (which opened four years prior to the lunar landing), and it's sa-weet! If you count my photo-op at the museum there, I've totally been in a rocket ship.

4) Kennedy Space Center and rocket launch

I have watched a space shuttle launch! Live! In person!! And it was one of the last ones ever!!

Shout out goes out to my second family, the Moriarty's, for this one, on account of they took me to Florida with them for fall break!! I remember parking on the side of the highway with loads of other cars and watching the action live. And then we went to the Kennedy Space Center for a tour and learned all about the crew and even met some of their families! The mission that day was supposedly "routine".... 

5) Crying at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum

That time I stood next to the real Gene Kranz's Apollo 13 vest and got emotional. 

I don't think anything else needs to be said...

6) Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery is amazing for so many reasons (obviously), but when I went I had no idea there were memorials for the Challenger and Columbia space shuttles. Those ended up being some of my favorite spots in the cemetery. (I took pics but my "amazing Apple technology" erased them [tears].) 

7) Lunar eclipse

It was finals week of my last semester at BYU, and then, like an angel descending from above, the lunar eclipse appeared. lol. It was perfect in a moment of misery (studying for econometrics), and I couldn't stop staring at it in awe that people have been there.

So there's my homage to the dreams of boys (and girls) everywhere who once believed in the impossible and then made it happen. And here's hopin' the dreams still live. We want our lunar landing!