The only highlight in late July came on the twentieth when we hosted a party at the club and invited everybody to watch the moon landing of Apollo Eleven. We had decorated the club with Christmas lights, moved out all the gaming tables and brought in more chairs. I went out and bought three of the largest televisions I could find and Gordon wired them all up for us so everyone would have an unobstructed view. Gordon wired the sound through a new stereo I picked up to make it sound like we were all at mission control.
Even Carrie rediscovered her enthusiasm as she worked happily with Chelsea and Shelly to make moon-themed snacks and their legendary ‘Moon Punch’ in two large punch bowls labelled; ‘Astronaut Juice’ (non alcoholic) and ‘Jet Fuel’ (spiked with rum). Carrie made a joke that the ‘Astronaut Juice’ was made from freshly squeezed Astronauts and cracked us all up.
I kicked myself for growing apprehensive as the date loomed; what if instead of landing, the lunar excursion module crashed into a fiery ball on the moon’s surface? What if it sunk into the sandy surface of the moon like quicksand that some commentators were predicting? What if my planned celebration turned to a mournful wake that traumatized everyone instead of uplifting them?
It turned out that all my fears were unfounded, but they were typical of the shadow that hung over me that July.
The room was packed on the day and the air was electric as we watched the televisions along with millions of people all over the world. Every eye in the room was on one of the television screens, watching the distorted live feed from the moon. Mothers hugged their kids, men had their arms around their girls, Shelly was sitting on Frankie’s lap, and I had Carrie in my arms as I stood behind her, even Gordon was standing in the doorway watching intently with wide eyes.
Then, at eighteen minutes after one PM Vancouver time on July twentieth, 1969, we all held our breath as we watched a fuzzy black-and-white Neil Armstrong climb down the ladder of the lunar excursion module, Eagle and become the first person to set foot onto the surface of another heavenly body.
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” his voice crackled from the speakers. We all went nuts. People were cheering, kids were jumping up and down, couples were kissing and hugging. Carrie turned and jumped into my arms and wrapped her legs around me and kissed me hard on the lips.
“We did it, Denny!” she cried, as though we were part of the NASA team that fulfilled John F. Kennedy’s challenge in 1961; ‘before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth’. And that was the feeling; we were all part of it - in that moment, all the people of Earth were united in making our first step into the galaxy and beyond. This was it - this was the moment that all those science fiction stories were coming true. By 1980 we would have flying cars and there would be colonies on the moon and Mars.
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