It's July 20, 1969. I'm sitting in my grandfather's living room. The time is approaching 11:00 p.m. This is a very special occasion; dairy farmers are usually up at the crack of dawn and in bed shortly after sunset.
Grandpa, my cousin Kevin, and myself are intent on his small television screen. It's in black and white.
We are watching Neil Armstrong step off the Lunar Excursion Module and take mankind's first steps on the moon. Today is the 40th anniversary of that event.
As a bonus, here are ten things you probably didn't know about the first moon landing.
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THINGS NASA WON'T ADMIT TO FINDING ON THE MOON
A Russian flag.
1,000 mile long sign pointing to Earth saying, "I'm with Stupid."
A Starbucks.
Blueprints for Earth.
Weapons of Mass Destruction.
A towel.
Several boxes of uncounted Florida ballots.
Every Missing Sock.
A football from Smallville High School.
Crop Circles.
America's Common Sense.
[Keeper of Lists; selections, edits, and some rewrites by Mark Raymond]
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WORD for YOUR WEEK: One of the rocket series that NASA has used was the "Vanguard" model. That word is a shortening of the French "avant-garde," which literally means "before-guard." The vanguard of an army was the part that went before the rest of the troops. In today's language it also means anyone or anything that is on the leading edge of a movement or trend.
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