I was too young to remember the moon landing in 1969, but I do remember the looks on my grandparents and parents faces when they spoke about it.  There was promise and elation and wonder in their words even decades later.  Sadly, the man who first stepped foot on the moon that special day, has passed away.

A lot of young people know the image of Neil Armstrong putting his foot on the moon for the first time from MTV.  It is their "moon man" image that played forever on MTV, but it was this image that is burned in the memories of so many people who watched it live in 1969:

Now, to put it in perspective, this was an era that had a one car family, there was no such thing as call waiting, caller ID, cell phones, but here we were, watching a man on the moon, talking to the world about what he was seeing and feeling FROM THE MOON!!!!

His steps and words were important because we were in a race to the moon with the Russians.  It was the Cold War, and we were trying to prove that we were first in the world in everything.  The Russians were the first to put a person into space, but President John F. Kennedy made sure we were the first to step foot on the moon.

Neil Armstrong was an amazing pilot, astronaut, and he gave Americans something to be proud of when he first stepped foot on the moon.  May he rest in peace.

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