The Eagle Has Landed

     Whenever July 20^th rolls around, my brothers and I are reminded of a famly quote, “Did the other guy come down yet?”

     This, of course, as anyone might surmise, refers to the day humans stepped foot on the moon for the very first time, July 20^th, 1969.

     It was a Sunday. My grandfather has passed away less than a month before, and my Uncle John thought it would be a nice gesture to take his mother, my grandmother, to our house to spend the day, have dinner with family, and then we could all share the experience of the moon landing which would be televised.

     If it was a Sunday in July and we had company, then Dad would have been grilling – probably hot dogs or hamburgers, maybe steaks, but not chicken. Mom would have made the side dishes like potato salad and tossed salad and of course Mother Des Soye's Delicious Variation of Grandma Browns Baked Beans. And dinner was with Granny and Uncle John.

     And usually right after dinner and clean-up, Granny would be saying it was time to go. That's what old people do right? Have to go home early – don't stay out late, don't wear out one's welcome. (When I tell this story to an audience these days, I usually stop here and do the math – Granny was 66 years old in 1969 – so old to me at the time, not so ancient now that I have reached the same decade! - and the audience laughs, but I know what they are thinking - I am old too!)

     But that night, Granny did not say she had to go home right away.

     The Eagle had landed.

     Three days earlier, three astronauts from the United States had blasted off in a ship called Apollo 11. Their destination was the moon. Two days later they were in orbit around the moon, and on Sunday, a smaller ship emerged from Apollo 11 with two of the three astronauts aboard. It was the Eagle – the lunar lander! And slowly and surely it made its descent to the surface of the moon.

     When the Eagle landed – and what a great moment for all of us that was – there were cameras. The world was watching, waiting for the first astronaut to come out.

    We gathered around the television, excited, anxious, burning the memory of this occasion forever into our brains. The camera was such that we did not see the door open, but we could hear the astronauts talking, and we knew when Neil Armstrong emerged. Then we saw his foot on the rung of the ladder!

      He put his foot onto the moon! And he said

     “That's one small step for Man, one giant leap for mankind.”

     And Neil Armstrong started making more small steps on the moon as the world rejoiced and celebrated.

     The second astronaut would be following shortly.

     And we waited; and we waited.

     The television people replayed the blastoff of Apollo 11 and showed a simulation of the ship flying to the moon. They interviewed Mike Collins, the third astronaut who was taking care of the spaceship after the other two left in the Eagle. The television people replayed Neil Armstrong coming down the ladder to the moon, and they struggled over his first words – did he say “That's one small step for Man” or did he say “That's one small step for a man”? And does that make a difference in the meaning? And was it worthy enough for the first words of the first man on the moon? And would those words be remembered 40 years later and beyond?

     And still we waited for Buzz Aldrin, the second astronaut, to emerge from the Eagle.

     My Uncle John was a teamster, a truck driver. He drove truck every week night, from Buffalo, New York, to destinations 4 hours away – places like Cleveland, Ohio and Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Or Ashtabula. He drove 4 hours, traded loads, and then drove 4 hours back to Buffalo. And that would make up his 8 hour shift. Because my Uncle John drove at night, he slept during the day. And/or he would sleep whenever or whereever there was opportunity.

     And so while waiting for Buzz Aldrin to come out of the Eagle on that very momentous occasion of man first stepping onto the moon, that night in July 1969 in our living room, Uncle John fell asleep. After a few minutes, he roused himself, saw what was going on, and said, “Did the other guy come down yet?”

     We said, “No, not yet,” and Uncle John fell back to sleep.

     After about the third time that he woke up, we all started saying it with him, “Did the other guy come down yet?”

     And that was how the family saying came about – our own personal story to go with humanity's event of the moon landing.

     Finally, another foot was seen on the rung of the Eagle's ladder. Buzz Aldrin touched the surface of the moon and made his own giant leaps for mankind – in fact he leapt quite well since the gravity of the moon is so much less than that of earth.

     The astronauts talked to the rest of us the whole time about what they were seeing and thinking. They picked up rocks and scooped up moon dust to bring back to earth to study.

     And before they got back into the Eagle to blast off, hook up with Apollo 11 and fly safely back to all of us on earth, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left a plaque upon the moon to commemorate their having been there. The plaque reads in part, “We came in peace for all mankind”. How totally awesome is that?

Apollo 11 Moon Plaque

     Any night I can look in the sky here in Atlanta, Georgia and marvel that the moon that is shining on me is also shining on my brother in Scottsdale, Arizona and my other brother in Getzville, New York, and that makes me feel that we aren't really so far away. How the moon connects us all!

     And it is the same moon that was shining that night in 1969 when humans were bold enough to step foot on it – the night my Uncle was thoughtful enough to take his mother to spend the day with family and to share the moon landing event with all of us and to coin a new phrase that we could repeat for years to come.

     “Did the other guy come down yet?”

     And when we say it, we feel connected – to the past and the present, to each other, and we don't seem so far away.

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