Northern Wyoming News - Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years

There are many major events in recent history that I can say I remember where I was — 9/11 of course is the most obvious; the Challenger; President Ronald Reagan’s attempted assassination.

But 50 years ago this Saturday was the historic landing on the moon and I can honestly say I do not know where I was. At the age of 1 and 1 month, I can speculate I was causing my parents and siblings havoc, but that is pure speculation from what I know about 1-year-olds. I may have been trying to take a nap. I say trying because my siblings liked to torment me and fill my bed with toys so there was no room for me.

But I digress.

According to the Associated Press, “Hundreds of millions tuned in to radios or watched the grainy black-and-white images on TV as Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969. Police around the world reported crime came to a near halt that midsummer Sunday night.

“Astronaut Michael Collins, who orbited the moon alone in the mother ship while Armstrong proclaimed for the ages, ‘That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,’ was struck by the banding together of Earth’s inhabitants.

“’How often can you get people around our globe to agree on anything? Hardly ever,” Collins, now 88, told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “And yet briefly at the time of the first landing on the moon, people were united. They felt they were participants.’”

Much like the united feelings after 9/11 the moon landing unification didn’t last long. Nowadays people can’t even agree if the moon landing was real or fabricated by Hollywood and the government.

I believe it was real. I believe we landed on the moon.

You’re thinking if we did why hasn’t the space program evolved more in 50 years. Well, 50 years ago we were treating cancer with chemotherapy and radiation. That hasn’t evolved either but cancer is real.

Growing up in the 1980s we all thought there would be more technological advances than there are. But if you think about we’ve come along way in 50 years. I think about my first bag cell phone that was pretty much tied to my car to now having a cell phone where I can take photos, search the internet (another technological marvel love it or hate it), answer emails and communicate with people with out actually ever talking to them.

We have smart technology that can turn your stove on, answer your doorbell and keep track of your grocery list as you use items in your fridge.

Technology has made advancements and while we may not be living on the moon, the landing was real and was as Armstrong said, a giant leap for mankind.

Fifty years later one wonders what the next giant leap will be?