1969 - A Child's Perspective

Neil Armstrong died this week at the age of 82.  On July 20, 1969, Neil became famous for uttering his famous words, “That’s one small step for man…one giant leap for mankind”.  His fellow astronaut, Buzz Aldrin, followed shortly thereafter and together they became the first two people to walk on the face of any heavenly body outside of the planet earth.  That’s some pretty cool juju! 

I had just turned 10-years old less than 2-weeks before man’s first walk on the moon.  I lived with my family in Marshall, Arkansas and remember how excited I was to get a small reel-to-reel audio tape recorder for my birthday that year. 

And so on the evening of July 20^th, I sat with my family in the living room of our home to watch a grainy black and white picture of shadows coming down the ladder of the lunar lander.  With the awestruck mind of a young boy, I sat on our hardwood floors with my little tape recorder running and recorded the moon landing and those famous words LIVE from the television broadcast. 

It was a time of hope and excitement at the end of a tumultuous decade punctuated by the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy.  The unpopular war in Vietnam was splashed across that same television every night as we would listen to the latest body count of American soldiers by news reporter Walter Cronkite.  Protests across the nation, racial divides and increased rhetoric by the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. in the midst of the Cold War seemed to be the only thing anyone regularly discussed.

As adults, we sometimes think that the little kids don’t really understand nor have an appreciation for what is going on in our world.  “Adult topics”….we call them.  And while the boys played with their trucks and girls played with their dolls, Mom and Dad didn’t give the impact on our young ears much thought. 

In 1969, at the age of 10, I was keenly aware of world events.  Maybe that is unusual for a kid, but for me it was normal.  My brother was 19-years old.  I used to be scared that he would get drafted into the Army and sent to Vietnam and die.  My sister was 17-years old and used to talk about her high school friends who were going into the military and would eventually be sent to Vietnam.  Some of their classmates did indeed go…and some came home in body bags.  I was also scared that someday I would also have to go to Vietnam…and die. 

That’s a pretty heavy thing for a 10-year old boy to be thinking about.  I never told anyone my thoughts.

Dad took me on a visit to California around that time in my life…just the two of us.  It was a magical trip that I never forgot and always cherished.  We visited San Francisco and a very famous area of those days….Haight-Ashbury.  It was the center of the counter-culture world full of hippies, crazy music, colorful clothes and peace signs everywhere.  Again, it made an impression on my young mind.  I asked for, and received, a set of bongos for Christmas that year.

The experiences of our childhood have lasting impressions on the rest of our lives.  Try to make sure your kids are experiencing the best that life has to offer.  And when difficult events happen in our world, take the time to sit down and talk with them about it and their feelings.  Trust me…they are paying attention.

Papa Chief