July 21, 1969, Oshkosh Daily Northwestern
Despite my excitement in watching those first telecasts from the moon, it seems not everyone was so inclined to concede that the moon shot was a good thing, though I think every kid in America would have felt like I did. Growing up in the '60s, it seemed every space launch was required viewing, even in school. We'd all get so excited when the teacher would roll in the television so we could watch the latest Gemini or Apollo flights take off. This one happened to be in the middle of the 1969 summer, so my normally shared viewing experience was limited to members of my own family.
We kids had all bought into the space race by drinking Tang, eating Space Food Sticks (remember those?!), building plastic rocket models, and having our Moms buy the cereals that contained crew patches from all the manned flights. We celebrated each successful flight and we mourned when the Apollo 1 astronauts lost their lives in that terrible pre-launch accident. Life magazine was the bible of the day, containing exciting color photos of the flights and riveting interviews with astronauts families. I made more than one scrapbook out of the materials in those magazines, recognizing how important space flight was. Yes, 1969 was, indeed, a heady time.
We kids had all bought into the space race by drinking Tang, eating Space Food Sticks (remember those?!), building plastic rocket models, and having our Moms buy the cereals that contained crew patches from all the manned flights. We celebrated each successful flight and we mourned when the Apollo 1 astronauts lost their lives in that terrible pre-launch accident. Life magazine was the bible of the day, containing exciting color photos of the flights and riveting interviews with astronauts families. I made more than one scrapbook out of the materials in those magazines, recognizing how important space flight was. Yes, 1969 was, indeed, a heady time.
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