Saturday, July 20, 2019

50 years ago today (The Man ON the Moon)

"For thousands of years, man had looked to the heavens and dreamed of walking on the moonOn July 20, 1969, as part of the Apollo 11 mission, Neil Armstrong became the very first to accomplish that dream, followed only minutes later by Buzz Aldrin."





I remember. That night. When 'man in the moon' became so much more than just a saying, because there were men on the moon.

I remember my Dad's excitement. He was positively giddy! He tried to tell me that he could actually see Neil Armstrong --the man ON the moon. 9 year-old me pooh-poohed that, because my daddy was not a silly person.



I didn't understand his giddy excitement then.  I do now.  What a amazing thing!  What a wonder! 

You see my dad was born before the Wright brothers flew.  He saw Halley's Comet in 1910.  He drove a Model T Ford when he was 15 years old, he watched the barnstormers fly by.  He listened to programs on the radio, and when those programs moved to television he was one of the first people in that area to own a television set, so he wouldn't miss his programs.

He watched the birth of the modern world as we know it, as he grew up and lived his life. 

The wonder of it all.  He was a simple man.  The wonder overwhelmed him.



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Saturday, July 6, 2019

she was only a summer friend


generic photo from google images

A summer best friend.
only in the summers of my youth.
Running laughing playing swinging.
Barbie and company took over the house one summer.

After that I have no memories of it.
A beautiful memory of childhood.
the idyll of summer days
long past.

Inseparable partners in crime.
Stealing sips of beer in the boathouse.
Running on the hills in the summer sun.
A friendship that adulthood could not sustain.

Sometimes I think of her still.
That wonderful best friend of my childhood.
I shall miss her always.
In the summer.






Golden Slumbers... once there was a way to get back homeward