Moon landing.

Good grief, forty years ago today man first stepped foot on the moon. Seconds later he put another foot on the moon and had two feet on the moon.

I was 25 years old!! Good double grief!!

Where was I when Neil Armstrong took that first step for man? I was on the afternoon shift in the General Motors Plant #2 boiler room. I had taken a twelve inch portable TV in to work that night and while waiting for the great event my 2nd class engineer hooked it up and watched a very blurry evening of TV. Probably the first time someone had smuggled a TV into GM. Another 1st I’m very proud of.

The landing was a little later than expected and our relief shift came in without Neil setting foot on the moon. I stayed on, glued to the TV. The TV was on the stoop of a canal-side doorway so the six of us (my shift and the relieving shift) gathered ‘round it waiting for those first pictures to arrive from the moon.

We all thought the lander would crash. More so as the moon dust began to fly and we couldn’t see the surface. Well, we all know that it landed safely. It seemed to take for ages before anybody got around to getting out. Finally with the camera rolling Neil made the step. It was all rather anti climatic because the picture was terrible and the sound equal to the picture.

Doesn’t matter because we all know -- especially over in China and Russia -- that the Americans never made it to the moon. It was all filmed in the back lot of MGM.

And I didn’t get paid over-time!