I've been reading lately about this being the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. I'd like to share my memories of the time.
In July 1969 I was not quite 20 years old, recently graduated from Pensacola Junior College and working as a summer employee at Monsanto. One of my hobbies that summer was enjoying my first born nephew, who was born in July 1969.
As I heard the words, “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” I was reminded that in 1961 John F. Kennedy had committed us to landing men on the moon and bringing them back safely by the end of the decade. Few of us believed in 1961 that we would accomplish that goal, but here we were in the last half of the last year of that decade watching on television as President Kennedy's dream came true.
I like to give things a local connection. Our local connection to the moon landing was my high school and college schoolmate, Harold Gibson. Harold was attending the University of West Florida on the Co-op program at the time (one term in college and one term working for the company paying his salary as well as his college expenses). He had landed the plum assignment of spending his working terms in Huntsville, Alabama working with the space program.
The summer of 1969 happened to be the term he was on the job in Huntsville. That fall he was one of my car pool mates, commuting from north Escambia County to UWF. We spent several commutes listening to his stories of watching the moon landing with the people who had made it possible. As you can imagine, the excitement of the rest of us was nothing compared to the excitement of those who had dedicated their life to getting Americans to the moon.
On July 22nd representatives from the Florida Public Archeology Network will be visiting the site of the Civil War camp discovered by Judson Carden last fall. They assured us we get to keep the artifacts. They are interested in looking over the area to determine if it is suitable for further research.
You have just missed our July meeting. The next ASHS meeting will be Tuesday, August 20th in the Leach House Museum, 610 4th Street, Century, FL. Our museums are open Saturdays from 10 am until 2 pm and anytime (within reason) by appointment. You can call me (850-417-9803) to arrange for an appointment, or just stop by the Leach House and start calling numbers from our sign until you find someone who is available to come give you a tour. We welcome visitors from individuals to large groups. We would need enough notice of a large group visiting to arrange for enough tour guides.
As an earlier visitor commented on Google Maps, not only do we have antiques on display, many of our buildings are antiques themselves.
