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| Each week our Boomer-in-Charge, Hershel Chicowitz, has something to say about life, society, or what's going on... from the perspective of a baby boomer. This is what's on his mind the week of July 19: |
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Maybe I remember the sixties too well, but I am amazed at how little attention is being paid to the 30th anniversary of the first moon landing. After all, people had been fantasizing about walking on the moon for hundreds... maybe thousands of years. And in a period of less than a decade, we went from nothing to the whole enchilada. We did it; we did it first; and we did it brilliantly.
Last week I wrote about the differences among us. But whether you are a late or an early boomer, 76 million of us remember where we were and what we were doing when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. For those of us who grew up in the sixties, we followed the space program with amazement and excitement in school and on television. And as amazed as we were, our parents were even more so. Most of them remember when driving across the country was an amazing achievement. Now, in their lifetime... we were going to the moon!
I remember when my father took me out into our front yard and we looked up and found Explorer I, the country's first satellite. To me, it was just a moving, dotted light in the sky; but it was man's achievement, a U.S. achievement. My dad was an amateur astronomer (and an expert in just about everything), and he passed on to me the marvel of the space program. A couple years later, he remarked that Alan Shepard flew 115 miles into space in about the time it took him to drive from home to the office.
(I think he would have been proud of me when I stood a few feet away from Walter Cronkite and watched Apollo 9 blast off. Seeing one of those in person... is something else!!)
Shortly after the first U.S. space flight, a young President John Kennedy challenged the U.S. to land a man on the moon. A year later, he explained his rationale at a speech at Rice University:
"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not only because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too." "It is for these reasons that I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear as among the most important decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the office of the Presidency." |
In case your have forgotten (and you can hardly be criticized if you have)... this is what a president does! The president inspires us, tries to bring out the best in us, encourages us to be the best and the most we can be. This is the legacy that John Kennedy left us.
My, how quickly we do forget.
But those of use who were there will never forget the excitement and the thrill of seeing Apollo 11 take off, or seeing Neil Armstrong take those first steps on the moon three days later.
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There was a lot of stuff going on in the late sixties; not all of it was pleasant. But the space program seemed to have a cleansing effect; it filled us with optimism, enthusiasm, and belief that we could do whatever we set our minds on. We sure could use a dose of that today.
It is a sign of the times... a sad sign... that the thought of a president inspiring us to be the best we can be seems so distant and so alien. A whole generation of children... our children... have no idea that a president can, and should, do exactly that. And it is another sad sign that we pay scant attention to the event that clearly is the greatest event of the century, perhaps mankind's greatest single achievement.
But not at BBHQ. This week we are premiering "To the Moon," a brief look at the first moon landing from the viewpoint of a boomer.
How ironic it is that in July, 1969, the first moon landing overshadowed a horrible mistake made by a leading politician; and exactly thirty years later, a horrible tragedy in that same family overshadows our remembrance of this marvelous achievement.
OK, you conspiracy theorists out there... see what you can make of that.
If you want to write more, we're open to offerings from other boomers. If you have something to say of interest to boomers, write it as well as you can in 700-900 words, and send it to us. We can't guarantee we'll publish it, but we'll surely consider it.
For more of Hershel's essays, check the BBHQ Archives or the Boomer Essays.
Hershel will have something else to say on July 26; mark your calendar to come back to BBHQ every Monday.
| The BBHQ Album of the Month is "Old Friends Live on Stage (Deluxe Edition) (2 CD/1 DVD)," by Simon & Garfunkel. If you were fortunate enough to see them in concert last year, I do not have to sell you. The concert was terrific! This album collection includes 55 songs, plus their new recording, "Citizen of the Planet," and one of the songs sung by the Everly Brothers during the concert. The DVD was recorded during their concert in Madison Square Garden in 2003. For any S&G fan, this is a must have! But then, you knew that already, didn't you? |
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The BBHQ Book of the Month is
"Vinyl Highway," by
Dee Dee Phelps. You remember her as Dee Dee, of Dick and Dee Dee.
Together, they took a decade long ride on the rock and roll roller
coaster. It was a heck of a ride! Dick Clark, Quincy Jones, the Beach
Boys, Glenn Campbell, Dionne Warwick, Bobby Vinton... Dick and Dee Dee
rubbed shoulders with all of them. This is her "behind the scenes" story.
It's pretty cool.
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Copyright © 1999 Baby Boomer HeadQuarters (BBHQ) All rights reserved.
