OT: Man, The Moon, Vision, Greatness ..

[Neo]

Fifty years ago, tonight, my grandmother put me to bed.  I was eight years old.  She woke me and my sister several hours later.  We went into the living room and sat Indian Style in front of a black and white Zenith with tubes inside and an aerial on top.

 

Seven years earlier, a young President, a member of the greatest generation, gave this speech.   He fought in World War Two.  Among others, he returned, married, went to work and raised kids.  The speech is as remarkable as the daring engineering feat it set in motion.  Imagine the courage necessary to aspire, call, inspire and act.

 

I am one of the kids who watched this at the beginning of my life.  I am one of the kids raised by those people.

Today, I am abandoning my tribalism and deferring the urge to make points.  Today, I’m not letting blemishes confuse my view of murals.  How small that seems.

This is my America, and it is great.  Here’s to the will to keep it that way.

 

Edited July 20, 2019 by Neo

[Eleven]

Umm, you know it was staged, right?

[Zamboni]

14 minutes ago, Eleven said:

Umm, you know it was staged, right?

Yep, and the earth is flat. ?

[Stoner]

I'm sorry I didn't get to experience this. It was a hot and steamy night and, well, Marianne still had a lot of passion in her.

I've learned recently Armstrong meant to say "...one small step for A man." I always thought what he said was perfect. Are "man" and "mankind" parallel, making his utterance ridiculous?

[Claude Balls]

11 minutes ago, Zamboni said:

Yep, and the earth is flat. ?

Nope, it's round. Bigfoot told me so.

[French Collection]

I'm of the generation that watched it live as a kid.

My grandfather went to his grave denying this achievement because he had seen similar things done by Holywood many times over the years

[Zamboni]

8 minutes ago, Claude Balls said:

Nope, it's round. Bigfoot told me so.

 Now you see, I thought, Bigfoot was nonverbal and ate beef jerky as his primary source of food. Wow. Mind blown.

[Taro T]

Watched it live.  Too young to really remember that one.

Recall a few of the later ones.  Recall the link up with the Soviets.  And then watching the 1st shuttle launch.

As usual, excellent post, Neo.

[Zamboni]

I’ve heard and watched many interviews with most of the astronauts. It’s awesome to listen to their experiences of their missions 

[darksabre]

I'm jealous of everyone who got to experience the moon landing. 

[Eleven]

6 minutes ago, darksabre said:

I'm jealous of everyone who got to experience the moon landing. 

You should see the director’s cut.

[Kruppstahl]

3 hours ago, Neo said:

Fifty years ago, tonight, my grandmother put me to bed.  I was eight years old.  She woke me and my sister several hours later.  We went into the living room and sat Indian Style in front of a black and white Zenith with tubes inside and an aerial on top.

 

Seven years earlier, a young President, a member of the greatest generation, gave this speech.   He fought in World War Two.  Among others, he returned, married, went to work and raised kids.  The speech is as remarkable as the daring engineering feat it set in motion.  Imagine the courage necessary to aspire, call, inspire and act.

 

I am one of the kids who watched this at the beginning of my life.  I am one of the kids raised by those people.

Today, I am abandoning my tribalism and deferring the urge to make points.  Today, I’m not letting blemishes confuse my view of murals.  How small that seems.

This is my America, and it is great.  Here’s to the will to keep it that way.

 

Actually this was your America, and it is currently in a rather bad state of decline.

It's not the 1960s anymore. 

78% of American workers live paycheck to paycheck.

40% of Americans say they would struggle to come up with $400 to cover an unexpected emergency expense.

As of 2013, America ranked 23rd in the world on the "American Dream" list.  Meaning if you were looking to find upward socioeconomic mobility, you would have a better shot of finding it in 22 other countries.

America ranks 27th in health and educational performance as of 2018.  In 1990, we ranked 6th.

I can go on but you see my point, I'm sure.

 

 

 

 

[Eleven]

11 minutes ago, Kruppstahl said:

Actually this was your America, and it is currently in a rather bad state of decline.

It's not the 1960s anymore. 

78% of American workers live paycheck to paycheck.

40% of Americans say they would struggle to come up with $400 to cover an unexpected emergency expense.

As of 2013, America ranked 23rd in the world on the "American Dream" list.  Meaning if you were looking to find upward socioeconomic mobility, you would have a better shot of finding it in 22 other countries.

America ranks 27th in health and educational performance as of 2018.  In 1990, we ranked 6th.

I can go on but you see my point, I'm sure.

 

 

 

 

Boomers already gots theirs...

[Tondas]

3 minutes ago, Eleven said:

Boomers already gots theirs...

I'm a boomer and you're right.  But  I'm a boomer that feels an obligation to pay it forward and try to do that every day.

[Eleven]

Anyway.  Back to the moon “landing.”

[Tondas]

3 hours ago, PASabreFan said:

I'm sorry I didn't get to experience this. It was a hot and steamy night and, well, Marianne still had a lot of passion in her.

I've learned recently Armstrong meant to say "...one small step for A man." I always thought what he said was perfect. Are "man" and "mankind" parallel, making his utterance ridiculous?

Not ridiculous but less impactful.  However, It does prove that the landing was not faked.  If it was, they would have done another take with him correctly saying "a man."

[Eleven]

6 minutes ago, Tondas said:

Not ridiculous but less impactful.  However, It does prove that the landing was not faked.  If it was, they would have done another take with him correctly saying "a man."

They did several, and they decided upon that one.

[Tondas]

3 minutes ago, Eleven said:

They did several, and they decided upon that one.

Can't see Alfred Hitchcock agreeing to that.

[Zamboni]

Appreciative and thankful’s  vs. disbelievers, negative Nancy’s and not good enoughs. 

Oh to be alive in the age of message boards ?

[Zamboni]

https://www.foxnews.com/science/apollo-11-original-recordings-sold-at-auction

 

cool story about the original recording of Apollo 11 landing.

[Zamboni]

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-you-didnt-know-about-apollo-11-mission-fifty-years-ago-180972165/

a lengthy article about the moon landings, the astronauts, and some details I’m sure you never knew... 

[Claude Balls]

5 hours ago, Zamboni said:

 Now you see, I thought, Bigfoot was nonverbal and ate beef jerky as his primary source of food. Wow. Mind blown.

See, that's just what "they" want you to think ?

[Broken Ankles]

11 hours ago, Neo said:

Fifty years ago, tonight, my grandmother put me to bed.  I was eight years old.  She woke me and my sister several hours later.  We went into the living room and sat Indian Style in front of a black and white Zenith with tubes inside and an aerial on top.

 

Seven years earlier, a young President, a member of the greatest generation, gave this speech.   He fought in World War Two.  Among others, he returned, married, went to work and raised kids.  The speech is as remarkable as the daring engineering feat it set in motion.  Imagine the courage necessary to aspire, call, inspire and act.

 

I am one of the kids who watched this at the beginning of my life.  I am one of the kids raised by those people.

Today, I am abandoning my tribalism and deferring the urge to make points.  Today, I’m not letting blemishes confuse my view of murals.  How small that seems.

This is my America, and it is great.  Here’s to the will to keep it that way.

 

@Neo Thank you for this post.   I’m in Washington DC with family and we just watched an amazing program put on by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum at the National Mall.  Video and audio of the take off, landing and then parachuting back to earth.   The video was displayed on big screens throughout but the masterpiece was how it was shown on the Washington Monument.   Wish you were you here to share the good feelings with 100k+ who came out to watch.  They will have a second showing of the video that starts at 10:46pm so the moon landing scene is exactly 50 years to the second. 

[ExWNYer]

10 hours ago, Taro T said:

Watched it live.  Too young to really remember that one.

Recall a few of the later ones.  Recall the link up with the Soviets.  And then watching the 1st shuttle launch.

As usual, excellent post, Neo.

I was 5. I just told my kids today that this was the very first thing I ever remember watching on television. It's quite a first memory to have.

[SDS]

8 hours ago, Eleven said:

They did several, and they decided upon that one.

I’m not sure where you are getting this info from. If you buy the special edition DVD, the director said they wanted it all in one cut to preserve the initial reactions to the set. Plus, Neil was hungover that day and they only thought they would only get a solid 25 minutes out of him.