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Showing results for tags 'Apollo 11'.
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With the death of Neil Armstrong, my memories and emotions surged today. On July 20, 1969, I was a lifeguard---in the lifeguard's chair--- at the Rockville Municipal Swim Center in a suburb of Washington DC, and, on a sultry hot and crowded day -- the pool teeming with the masses of what was then, still very much a blue collar city, the PA system came up over the din and childish screams of working class families packed into a public pool on a hot summer day... But soon, the significance became clear, and the crowd came to a near hush, as the PA played the real time audio from CBS news, and when Neil Armstrong said his historic words... A cheer erupted that could have challenged a home run in Yankee Stadium during a late summer pennant race! Ah.. what a moment in American history! It was clear to me, as t must have been to every adult in the pool --- WE WON! We beat the Soviets to the moon! --- and for all of us Kennedy Democrats, it was sweet vindication, he had tasked America to do just that --- before the decade was over, and beat the deadline by nearly half a year! But America had already become a mixed bag, and the triumph of Apollo 11 in space, was, on July 20, very much tempered by the experience of American troops on the ground in Viet Nam... (and no doubt some here had that, first and foremost on their minds) So------ time for Candle members to weigh in! ------Do you remember where you were? ---Or if you were too young ---what are your impressions of this event?
