[cgbg]

I remember it clearly as well. I was 16 at the time.

I watched the event on TV.

The next day I was playing golf with my grandmother—a sweet old lady who was former lady club champion. She never spoke to me (or anyone else as far as I knew ) about current events or anything that was not family related.

I was so excited.

I said “grandma—yesterday was the greatest day in the history of the human race. We landed on the moon.”

My grandma stopped me right there in the middle of the fairway. She gave me a very hard stare—something I had never seen from her before. She was angry—never seen that.

Then she said the magic words which shocked me at the time and did not sink in until decades later.

“We did not go to the moon. Never believe anything you see on TV.”

We never discussed that or any other current events again.

RIP Grandma—You nailed it.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

David McCullough in his book, The Great Bridge recalls an interview with an old woman on Long Island on the day of the Apollo 11 landing, asking her to compare it to the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge. She said the Bridge was "bigger". It certainly was in terms of the impact on people living on Long Island, no longer cut off from the mainland. If they knew what was ahead, they might have changed their minds. (Of course the Pennsylvania Railroad would have finished construction of a railroad tunnel by 1910.)

[Jan_Sobieski]

Smart gma!