I was on my daily walk around the neighborhood at 1318 and had arrived at the Pennington’s home. The date was July 20, 1969, which made me 10 years old.
I did this daily walk around the neighborhood visiting with all my neighbor friends and apparently ate at every place I stopped because they always offered me something. I probably was bored, too, as we didn’t own a tv!
Mr Pennington was watching their tv when I arrived, and as I walked in, Mrs Pennington told me that a man was walking on the moon! Mr Pennington promptly stood up and said, “That is HOGWASH! They set this up in a film studio and NO ONE is actually walking on the moon!” He pointed at me and sails, “And don’t you believe for a minute that a man is walking on the moon! Do you understand?!?”
I am not sure what I said, but I do remember leaving quickly and going next door to the next neighbor’s on my daily list, old Mrs. McGowan’s, and sitting with her and watching the man walking on the moon - or in the tv studio - I wasn’t sure which. Thankfully, my grandfather, told me that it truly did happen, that a spaceship had been preparing for years to go to the moon and they finally did it!
Did any other historical events affect you?
I only vaguely remember my mom and her friend’s talking about President Kennedy’s assassination. I had no idea what it was, but I knew it was huge. I would have been almost 5.
When Ronald Reagan was shot, it affected me deeply. I think that was when I realized our world was truly not safe. I was astounded that someone could get close enough to the leader of our nation to shoot him.
Princess Diana’s death. It hurt deeply. A lady that was truly a princess helping others, raising her boys and the fact that she was so full of grace. The world lost a treasure that day; a caring soul. I can’t imagine what she could have done in her lifetime.
9-11-2001. What a horrific day in so many ways. Terrorists flew planes into the twin towers, into the Pentagon and one into the ground. So many deaths, and my brother was in the Pentagon and was a first responder to those injured and killed. He survived, but many did not.
Hurricane Andrew. We were in our home for Andrew’s fury. We were on the edge of his eye. Our roof lifted, split rafters and made horrific noises, but we made it through. Wind meters broke off at 217mph right by us. He left us with no electricity for 6.5 weeks, no potable water for a month. We could open the doors for the stench, we couldn’t close them for the heat. Everyone was in the same boat, we had to clean up entirely by ourselves. It took months. We still have sweats when we see the lines of national guard trucks, the miles of electric trucks and hear of tropical storms entering the gulf.
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