The New Moon

What were you doing on July 20, 1969?

I was watching TV for the first time in our house. My parents, born in 1919 and 1921, growing up in the country during the depression, saw no need for television. They didn't really talk about it much, but they probably just thought that with silly commercials and generally a lack of intellectual content, and their goals of teaching their children to read, who needed it?

To tell the truth, I grew up knowing there is no better entertainment than a book, and no better toy than a stick or a cardboard box. Add in a tree to climb, and we were rich. Even better: a long rope swing, with a seat of plywood cut in a circle, tied high above to the limb of a tree, so we could swing in great circles.

Anyway, my parents broke down and bought an eleven-inch black and white TV so my father, who had, not only numerous posters of rocket launches, but even a barometer in his room, could watch humans take their first steps on the moon. The reception was terrible, and in grainy black and white it was hard to discern the appearance of moon dust, or even the outline of the lunar module as it sat on the surface, but we were all thrilled.

I remember thinking that looking up at the romantic moon would never be the same, now that we had walked on it.

How strange it was in a college class circa 1990 when a young student piped up with the certain knowledge that the moon landings had all been elaborate fakes. I didn't know which was weirder: her opinion, or the fact that a child born since the moon landing was old enough to be in college.