And My Wife Slept Through It

No, not that. You do have a dirty mind don't you.

I'm talking about the first time man set foot on the moon.

I'd been back from Vietnam for about three weeks on July 20, 1969. My wife of two years had already gotten deep into my s..t about my bad language and bad attitude that I had carried home from Southeast Asia. We were in Warrenton Virginia. I had spent the day reporting in to my new duty station out in rural Fauquier County and we had just checked into the cheapest motel we could find. It was not only cheap but it was Very Cheap. The TV was an intermittently functioning fuzzy 13 inch black and white set with a rabbit ears antenna. I knew that Apollo had landed on the moon and that the moon walk was to be tonight, so we drove down to the A&W early got burgers and stuff and went back to watch it on the TV.

It was about five when they began showing (talking heads mostly) the landing on the moon. Excitement ensued when we heard that the select spot to land was to rough and they were going to "fly" LEM to a different place. After Eagle had landed and the historical script was read then there was a shot of not much in B&W fuzz out the window. It took the astronauts six and a half hours to get ready for their excursion (is that what the E means in LEM?). We went back to the A&W for root beer and fries at least once.

There were no chairs in our room only the bed so naturally Wife was lieing down, and so went to sleep. I woke her up several times, kind of. Finally they opened the hatch. They are coming out says I, and woke her up. She watched, and watched as nothing happened. Walter Cronkite talked and talked and she went to sleep on my shoulder.

Sometime long after my bedtime, Armstrong crawled out onto the LEM's platform and down the ladder. I elbowed Wife and said see, she looked and said , Wow! and rolled over on the bed asleep.

I watched the EVA, for a long time. At one point I went outside and looked up at the moon. I thought to myself, we have finally left the Earth.