Hey Neil, you've got a collect call...

In the summer of 1969, I had just successfully completed a rigorous sophomore year at Shakamak High. My Dad had just sentenced me to another summer of hard labor with the extra gang for the good old Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad. This elite gang of highly skilled workers lived in small trailers parked conveniently along side the track, somewhere near where we were working at the time. As our work of repairing the track proceeded north, our boss, the infamous hard hat throwing Bob Sanquenetti, would occasionally pack up the trailers and move them north with us. The cast of characters that made up this extra gang was like something out of Steinbeck's Cannery Row. It was a wonderful place for a 16 year old to spend his summer vacation and I loved it and hated it simultaneously.

Our camp had several sleeper cars plus a cook's trailer which faced a dining trailer. The two were connected by wooden planks from door to door for the company's chef to deliver his delectable edibles. Our chef at the time, Buddy, was famous for his biscuits and something that resembled gravy, plus his Buddy Burgers, but not much else. On some occasions he could deliver toast which had not been burnt to a crisp. He did do a decent job with a couple of pheasants we happened across (but that's an entirely different story for a different time and a more exclusive audience). However, Buddy had a small black and white television and that is a key element to this story.

It was the summer of Woodstock and we were listening to the Stones, Creedence, Janis, Jefferson Airplane and Joe Cocker. In January, Joe Namath and the Jets had defeated the Colts in Super Bowl III and Richard Nixon became President. In March, Sirhan Sirhan admitted in court that he killed Robert Kennedy, James Earl Ray pled guilty to the assassination of Martin Luther King, and former President Dwight Eisenhower died at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

In the summer of 1969, President Nixon began the "Vietnamization" of the war, as he explained in the Nixon Doctrine that the US now expected our Asian allies to handle their own military defense. Later in the year, Vice President Spiro Agnew called the President's critics "an effete corps of impudent snobs" and "nattering nabobs of negativism". Four years later Agnew would resign amidst charges of taking bribes and a year later Nixon would also resign as a result of Watergate. Also, 1969 was the summer Charles Manson and his 'family' initiated Helter Skelter with the Tate and LaBianca murders.

In the fall of 1969, the 'Amazin' Mets would beat the Orioles to bring New York City its' second World Championship of the year and Lieutenant William Calley would be charged with the murder of 109 Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai Massacre.

It was quite a year for the media, but the most significant media event of the year came on July 20th as Walter Cronkite, "the most trusted man in America", provided us with live coverage of the first man on the moon. As Neil Armstrong took one small step, I stood a couple of small steps outside of Buddy's trailer looking in at Buddy's little black and white TV. Most of the notorious extra gang who were still awake or not yet passed out had gathered around Buddy's trailer to witness history in the making. I don't remember what Walter Cronkite said that night and even now, I don't recall if I actually heard what Neil Armstrong said as he stepped on the moon or if someone relayed it to me. I just remember seeing it happen on that little TV and then looking up at that same old moon way up in the sky and realizing that there was someone up there.

Over the years a lot of people have told me that they remember people cheering and people honking their car horns when this first lunar landing occurred, but I don't remember that at all. Maybe it was because I was with such a sedate group of intellectuals who were worn out from an extremely taxing day or maybe we didn't appreciate the true significance of the event at the time, but I sure don't remember any cheering. Our trailers were parked just off of the railroad tracks near Hulman Street in Terre Haute on this historic night, so maybe there just weren't anyone out there in this remote locale to be honking their horns.

The Apollo Program which took us to this historic evening had a very ambitious schedule. It was just the previous December when Apollo 8, with Frank Borman, James Lovell and Bill Anders aboard, became the first manned space mission to orbit the moon. The Apollo 9 Mission occurred in March of 1969 and Apollo 10 followed in May. So we went from Frank Borman's message from lunar orbit in December of 1968, "And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you--all of you on the good Earth" to Neil Armstrong's infamous line "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" in seven months, now that was incredible.

Six years earlier I was sitting attentively in class at Riley Elementary when they rolled a TV stand into the room and the same trusted Walter Cronkite told us that President Kennedy had been killed. It was Kennedy who told us all back in 1961 that we should set as a goal "landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth" by the end of that decade. I always thought it was a shame that he never got to witness what we saw that night at Hulman Street on Buddy's little TV.

"Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace." This statement came from a memo dated 18 July 1969 and was to be read by President Nixon, if the Apollo 11 astronauts, Armstrong and Aldrin, couldn't get off of the moon. Like they say "Proper prior planning prevents a pitiful poor performance" and no one hated a pitiful poor performance more than Richard Nixon.

The following is a transcript of the phone call from the President to the Moon:

President Nixon. "Hello Neil and Buzz, I am talking to you by telephone from the Oval Room at the White House, and this certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made from the White House.

I just can't tell you how proud we all are of what you have done. For every American this has to be the proudest day of our lives, and for people all over the world I am sure that they, too, join with Americans in recognizing what an immense feat this is.

Because of what you have done the heavens have become a part of man's world, and as you talk to us from the Sea of Tranquility, it inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquility to earth.

For one priceless moment in the whole history of man all the people on this earth are truly one--one in their pride in what you have done and one in our prayers that you will return safely to earth."

Neil Armstrong. "Thank you, Mr. President. It is a great honor and privilege for us to be here representing not only the United States, but men of peaceable nations, men with a vision for the future. It is an honor for us to be able to participate here today."

President Nixon. "Thank you very much and I look forward, all of us look forward, to seeing you on the Hornet on Thursday."

Neil Armstrong. "Thank you. We look forward to that very much, sir."

Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins lifted off on this journey just 40 years ago today, July 16th 1969. I seriously doubt that we or anyone else will ever go back to the moon. I just don't see the benefits outweighing the costs for another trip. But for one evening back in 1969, regardless of the cost, it was pretty cool to look up at the moon and know that someone was up there.