On July 20, 1969, Neil A. Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the Moon. With him on this expedition were fellow astronauts Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., and Michael Collins, who stayed in orbit. The astronauts landed the Apollo 11 lunar module on the moon and then set out to explore the lunar surface. All this was televised and the world watched in silence. My father, William F. O'Connor was in Montreal at the time. Here is his account of what was happening.
Emily O'Connor
On July 20, 1969, I was in Montreal, Canada, It was a cold and rainy day. I was 29 years old and lived in Staten Island, New York. I was in Montreal for the weekend with friends and we were not going to miss the first man to ever walk on the moon. Ever since the good take-off the three astronauts had, the media had been following their tracks through space. Special programs were added on TV, so that if you missed one broadcast, you could always see another. Everyone was talking about it before they even took off, and in Canada, people were very excited also.
Well, finally after all of the publicity, the big night had arrived. My friends and I were in an old house with no TV, but were were not going to miss this long awaited event. So after dinner, we took a walk through a tunnel with bats in it to get to the caretaker's house. The caretaker had a black and white TV but it was better than nothing. When the picture first came on the screen, it was blurry and it stayed that way. When we saw the spaceship land on the moon it was very exciting. Before we actually saw this amazing sight, people had their doubts and they said so even when they first heard the news of a man going to the moon.
After the ship landed, there appeared to be a problem because Mr. Armstrong did not come out of the ship right away. When this happened, everyone was making comments like, "Where is he," and joking about why he wasn't getting out. Mr. Armstrong did come out and he made a little speech, but a word was left out and it was difficult to hear him. When he was out on the moon, he looked like he was going in slow motion and looked like he was floating. This was just an incredible sight.
Even after it was over, everyone was still excited and still talking about it. Some even started thinking about going to the moon themselves. They began dreaming that they could get away from all the hassles down here on earth. One of the problems with that dream is the great expense.
Once the astronauts returned home, they were treated as celebrities and were interviewed and asked for autographs. They deserved it. In New York City, the citizens organized a ticker-tape parade down Broadway for the astronauts. A ticker-tape parade is when the strips of paper that stocks are read from are thrown out of buildings during the parade in honor of the heroes. There was also a stamp issued for the first landing on the moon.
I think that space exploration has some very good points but it is extremely expensive and a lot of the money could be better spent on the problems we are having here on Earth.
William F. O'Connor
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