Like everyone else in the country who was old enough to be conscious of events 40 years ago this evening, I vividly remember watching the grainy black-and-white boot of Neil Armstrong on the ladder of Eagle, the lunar module, as he prepared to step onto the surface of the moon. No one wanted to blink, lest you miss the singularly historic moment, and few did.

Here’s NASA’s official Apollo 11 page. Here’s a terrific Apollo 11 photo essay over on Boston.com. And here’s an article from the New York Times about people who believe that photo up there is a fake.

Fake or not, the incredible sense of can-do optimism that gripped the nation and closed out the ’60s was very real. The country could use a good shot of that collective attitude right about now.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 20th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under This 'n' That.