LETTER: Remembering the moon landing

By Valerie Sawders, Las Vegas

5 years ago

This July 21, 1969 photo made available by NASA shows Tranquility Base and the U.S. flag from a ... — This July 21, 1969 photo made available by NASA shows Tranquility Base and the U.S. flag from a window on the Lunar Module as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin prepare for liftoff from the surface of the moon. (NASA via AP)

All the talk of the moon landing reminds me of something that happened that I still get a chuckle out of. My family arrived in Las Vegas from England in 1968. On July 20, 1969, I needed to make a call to England. I had to go through the operators, both here and in England.

I got through to the operator in America but had a lot of difficulty getting any satisfaction on the English side of the conversation. At last I connected with her and asked what the difficulty was. She was laughing so much it was hard to understand her, but finally she said, “It’s those Americans. Every time they land a man on the moon, the whole world watches and everything goes to blazes. Aren’t you watching it?”

It was then it dawned on me what an achievement this was and how the rest of the world viewed it. Hurrah for those three brave men.