★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
July 20, 2012

★~ Today’s Quote: “The moon is friend for the lonesome to talk to.”  Carl Sandburg

★~ Moon Day:

The Eagle has landed. On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 left Kennedy Space Center, and on  July 20, 1969, the Eagle, a lunar module, landed on the moon at 4:17 p.m. EDT. Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon, spent the next 2 1/4 hours “walking” on the moon’s surface with Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr. They left behind an American flag and a plaque, which reads, “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon. July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.”

It was 43 years ago today that the mission lifted off from Kennedy Space Center. Let’s look back at what was happening in the nation in the late sixties . . .

♥~ The Vietnam War:  The Unites States was deeply mired in another land war in Asia and had been for about a decade. By 1969, returning veterans were speaking out about how the war was mismanaged and how much worse conditions were than news outlets were telling us. More and more young men refused to serve when drafted, and thousands turned out for protests because, although they could be drafted, they were too young to vote.

♥~ Martin Luther King Jr.:  The civil rights movement had breakthroughs and setbacks at a pretty steady pace for 15 years since the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling in 1954. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the unelected leader of the movement due to his oratorical skills and his inexhaustible devotion to the cause. He was not the first civil rights leader to be murdered, but he was the most prominent. When King was shot on April 4, 1968, the event cast a cloud over all the gains the movement had made.

♥~ Bobby Kennedy: Former US attorney general Bobby Kennedy ran for president in 1968 but only got as far as winning the California primary when he was assassinated on June 5.

♥~ 1968 Presidential Election: Chaos reigned at the 1968 democratic convention as police fought against hippies, hippies, anti-war protesters, civil rights activists, and others that took to the streets of Chicago.

♥~ Feminism: The women’s liberation movement was making progress in some areas and suffering a backlash in others. Organizations were pressing for abortion rights. The first Women’s Studies class for credit was held at Cornell University in 1969. Women went to office jobs wearing pantsuits instead of skirts. Attitudes lagged behind activism, as the movement was condescendingly called “women’s lib” and feminists were called “bra burners,” even though no bras were ever burned.

♥~ The Cold War: The space race was only one side of America’s competition with Soviet Russia. The darker side was the nuclear arms race and the threat of global nuclear war.

♥~ Apollo: We went to the moon! The Mercury and Apollo missions fed our pioneering spirit and our thirst for modern technology at the same time. When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped onto the moon, they took us all with them. If humankind could take this giant step, there could surely be nothing to stop us from taking care of all those other problems. American’s were bursting with pride.

★~ Born Today:

♥~ 1919 – Sir Edmund Hillary explorer: first to climb Mt. Everest; died Jan 11, 2008

♥~ 1938 – Natalie Wood (Natasha Nikolaevna Gurdin) actress: From Here to Eternity, West Side Story, Splendor in the Grass, Rebel Without a Cause, Marjorie Morningstar, Gypsy, Love with the Proper Stranger; died Nov 29, 1981. .

♥~ 1958 – Billy Mays ‘King of Infomercials’: TV pitchman: OxiClean, Orange Glo, Mighty Putty; died Jun 28, 2009

♥~ 1967 – Reed Diamond actor: Spider-Man 2, Scared Silent, The Breed, Madison, Her Hidden Truth, Memphis Belle, The Summer of the Swans

♥~ 1971 – Sandra Oh actress: Grey’s Anatomy, Ramona and Beezus, Falling, 3 Needles, Big Fat Liar, Bean, The Journey Home

★~ Did You Know? Here are a few other holidays being celebrated today . . .

♥~ Fortune Cookies Day! Three billion fortune cookies are manufactured annually, with the majority being created for Chinese-restaurant diners in the United States. Once popularly thought to have been invented by a bevy of Chinese restaurants in California in the early 1900s, recent research has linked the cookies to Japanese tradition instead, after literature indicated the presence of fortune-wrapped cookies (sujiura senbei) in late 1800s Japan. Did you know that fortune cookies are relatively easy to make? Just think, you can make your fortune and eat it too. Now that piece of wisdom belongs in a fortune cookie! Watch out Confucius — I’m on a roll!

♥~Ugly Truck Day:  An old, ugly truck has character; it’s been on adventures. When you talk to ugly truck owners, they all have a story to tell about hauling Christmas trees, driving the fields, and working the farm. These trucks suffer kids learning to drive a stick and handle a clutch, and they are useful long after most cars have been buried in a landfill. Instead of writing “Wash Me” on the side of the next dusty, dirty, old truck you see, write “Good Job!”

♥~Lollypop Day: The folks at the Racine Confectioners Machinery Co. were no dum dums when they developed a way to automate the lollipop making process. With their new machines, they made 40 lollipops a minute according to the National Confectioners Association . Samuel Born also claims to have been the first to automate the process with his “Born Sucker” machine in 1916. Today, 5,900 lollipops per minute can be made with machines. The most popular Dum Dum lollipop flavors are Blu Raspberry, Cotton Candy, and Cream Soda. The most requested flavor is bacon! Click for more fascinating facts about lollypops .

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I remember my parents insisting that I watch the moon walk. The picture wasn’t clear on our television and the voices were full of static. I remember my dad saying that I was watching history in the making and that someday I would look back and remember that I watched the first man walk on the moon. He was right. I do remember. I also remember how proud my parents, grandparents, and teachers were of the space program and America. My parents heard Buzz speak at an IBM event not to long after he made history, and he certainly held celebrity status in our house.  Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the first men on the moon. Now, that’s an OH MY GOD moment, don’t you agree?

Do you remember watching Neil and Buzz walk on the moon?