This Day in History

40 years ago, my family was traveling from Wichita, KS, back to our apartment in Chicago, after going to find a place to rent for the fall. We stopped in Galesburg, IL to visit our friends, Nancy and Bob. After going to sleep, my parents woke my sister and me up to see something amazing on tv - the first time that a man walked on the moon. It was nearly 10 p.m., apparently after my bedtime.

While I remember being told that this was important, I don't remember much about the coverage of the event, just that it was pretty special to be up so late.

Years later, in 1988, when the space shuttle, Discovery, was launched as the first mission since the Challenger disaster, Liesl watched it in nursery school, and she was immediately drawn to space flight, and anything related to outer space. This was an early indication of her love for science.