There was one thing going on in 1965,and the years after,that was kind of typical of the age,and it seemed like it was on our television all the time,every other week or so.Of course it wasn't quite that often,but it sure seemed it.And it was something that everyone was watching and talking about,like they talk about the latest celebrity scandals today.
America was trying to get to the moon,and every step along the way was televised.Every time a rocket was launched,it was shown on television,and there were pictures in the newspaper,usually on the front page.Of course,it began with tiny,incremental steps,at first,just firing a rocket,then allowing it to orbit outside the atmosphere for longer and longer periods of time,getting closer and closer to that ultimate goal,while the whole world watched.The moon program was not always successful.I recall there was a blastoff scheduled once,and it was too late in the evening for us to be allowed to stay up to watch.So,the next morning at breakfast,the first words out of my mouth were "How did the rocket make out/" My father explained that this particular rocket didn't blast off.It just blew up on the launchpad and the men inside were burned to death.
America was not the only nation launching rockets.Russia was firing off just as many,but,beyond a vague awareness of that fact,we heard next to nothing about that.But every time the Americans fired a rocket,it was big news for days and days.You could say that there was an ongoing fascination with the whole idea of going to the moon.
I couldn't really conceive of the moon as being an actual place,where men might want to go to and walk around on.To me,when you said"go to the moon",it was like talking about going any other place.Like downtown,or to my grandparents house.I loved to watch the moon when we were in our car,because it seemed to move all around.It would be to our right,then our left,then later behind us,and it could even hide behind hills or trees,and I'd even seen it fall into the ocean.I didn't understand that all of that was because we were moving.I had no real concept of the earth as being a planet,nor of the moon as being a similar sort of a thing.I looked at such things in a very concrete way.The earth was what I was standing on,and the moon was a big round thing that rose in the sky.To me,then,if I wanted to get to the moon,I would simply walk toward it.Except,it kept moving away.And as far as the rockets went,I recall being interested in them because,After all,watching a rocket,with all that smoke and fire was a very sensational event.But I clearly remember my reaction to what I was seeing the first time I saw it.I wondered what happened to all of the birds around the rocket,and,I though,it couldn't have been good.When I asked about the birds,my mother and father got a big laugh,though I'd asked the question seriously.So I wasn't really up on the whole significance of the space program in 1965.But space travel was not much older that I was,we sort of grew up together.When a man finally walked out onto the moon a few years later,I was understanding things a lot better.
America was trying to get to the moon,and every step along the way was televised.Every time a rocket was launched,it was shown on television,and there were pictures in the newspaper,usually on the front page.Of course,it began with tiny,incremental steps,at first,just firing a rocket,then allowing it to orbit outside the atmosphere for longer and longer periods of time,getting closer and closer to that ultimate goal,while the whole world watched.The moon program was not always successful.I recall there was a blastoff scheduled once,and it was too late in the evening for us to be allowed to stay up to watch.So,the next morning at breakfast,the first words out of my mouth were "How did the rocket make out/" My father explained that this particular rocket didn't blast off.It just blew up on the launchpad and the men inside were burned to death.
America was not the only nation launching rockets.Russia was firing off just as many,but,beyond a vague awareness of that fact,we heard next to nothing about that.But every time the Americans fired a rocket,it was big news for days and days.You could say that there was an ongoing fascination with the whole idea of going to the moon.
I couldn't really conceive of the moon as being an actual place,where men might want to go to and walk around on.To me,when you said"go to the moon",it was like talking about going any other place.Like downtown,or to my grandparents house.I loved to watch the moon when we were in our car,because it seemed to move all around.It would be to our right,then our left,then later behind us,and it could even hide behind hills or trees,and I'd even seen it fall into the ocean.I didn't understand that all of that was because we were moving.I had no real concept of the earth as being a planet,nor of the moon as being a similar sort of a thing.I looked at such things in a very concrete way.The earth was what I was standing on,and the moon was a big round thing that rose in the sky.To me,then,if I wanted to get to the moon,I would simply walk toward it.Except,it kept moving away.And as far as the rockets went,I recall being interested in them because,After all,watching a rocket,with all that smoke and fire was a very sensational event.But I clearly remember my reaction to what I was seeing the first time I saw it.I wondered what happened to all of the birds around the rocket,and,I though,it couldn't have been good.When I asked about the birds,my mother and father got a big laugh,though I'd asked the question seriously.So I wasn't really up on the whole significance of the space program in 1965.But space travel was not much older that I was,we sort of grew up together.When a man finally walked out onto the moon a few years later,I was understanding things a lot better.
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