I remember sitting next to the radio, listening to the Jose Jiminez skits, waiting for the countdown...and holding my breath when it started.
Plus watching the TV coverage (it had less of an agenda in those days). Jules Bergman and the Gemini/Agena missions ... Watching the Apollos drift down under their parachutes and splash into the ocean ... Nixon greeting Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins in their isolation chamber once they were back from the moon mission ...
That was an America to be proud of. And men who carried that pride with them everywhere they went.