July 20th. Where were you on this date in 1969?

Yes ... July 20^th. Where were you on this date in 1969?

Everyone who was alive way back then, and over the age of about three, seems to know exactly were they were “when it happened.”

I was a kid at school: 10 years old, in love with Star Trek, reading any science fiction I could get my hands on … fully expecting to live and work in space by the turn of the millennium (what a fantasy that turned out to be!), and when the Eagle landed the whole family was glued to the “telly” in a tiny town in the UK’s wild north. It was late-ish at night and both kids (Mike was about 5) were allowed to stay up as long as it took that night...

...and the previous week we'd actually stayed home an extra hour after lunch to watch the mission take off. Numerous kids were kept back after lunch to see history happen before their very eyes, especially kids whose parents thought they might "catch the science bug" and go on to great things. (What a future we all imagined, way back when!)

The sense of wonder is still etched into my brain, 47 years later.

Golly that must mean I’m … how old?! Nah. Can’t be.

What was I reading back then? I ate up all the James Blish novelizations of the Star Trek episodes; I adored John Wood Campbell’s The Islands of Space, and George H. Smith’s The Unending Night, and James Blish’s Welcome to Mars. Yes, I was reading years and years ahead of my age … almost five decades later I’m doing the reverse and reading Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart trilogy, and Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials. (More about those in later posts.)

What memories! The future didn't turn out the way we expected ... no one ended up living and working in space by 2000; we didn't colonize Mars, didn't visit the outer planets ... we did muck up our own planet, and land ourselves in a situation where about 0.5% of the population is now in possession of 99% of the wealth ... and the buggers are trying, hard as they can, to get the rest of it too! We did bust the planet's climate machine; but just about everyone has a cell phone. 

Hmm. Gotta ask if that's a fair trade. Cell phones in exchange for a thoroughly busted Planet Earth. Might have to think this one through...

One other Big Thing happens every July, so one thing’s for certain: the Tour de France must have been hurtling around France at the time Apollo 11 was on approach to the Moon, because they do it every year unless there's a major war and France has been invaded. They’re doing it now. Tonight they’re heading for Mont Blanc – the summit of which looks like it’s already halfway to the Moon, so close, you could reach out and touch it. In fact –

Just to be silly, I Googled “Tour de France July 20 1969” and got this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_Tour_de_France#Stages

… turns out, Le Tour got into Paris on the final stage that day; it was an individual time trial over 37k, Créteil – Paris, and Eddie Merckx won it.

Well, I had to ask. So cool. But --

Vive Apollo. And Vive the dreams we dreamed back in those far-off days. We just need to start dreaming again ... and believing we can realize those dreams.