Men Were Up There Walking

On July 20, 1969, at 10:56 pm EDT, Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the Moon. Fifteen minutes later Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr, joined him.

What were you doing that day, eleven years after we graduated from high school? Send me your memories for posting.

I was in Oxford, MS, looking for a place to live for me and my two children. Three days before, July 17th, I had become a single mom and felt that I had made my own giant step, walking on my own moon and no longer earth bound. I was only vaguely aware that men were walking on the moon that day. The country was celebrating and hopeful. So was I but quietly and for different reasons.

Marriage had taught me that the loneliest loneliness is to be married and to be lonely, but on July 20th, I was no longer lonely - only alone - putting my me back together again. I remember that joy felt strange and painful, and I reeled along through those summer days, staggering like a baby learning to walk. 't was so new!

I had been hungry all the years-
My noon had come, to dine-
I, trembling, drew the table near
And touched the curious wine.

'T was this on tables I had seen
When turning, hungry, lone,
I looked in windows, for the wealth
I could not hope to own.

I did not know the ample bread,
'T was so unlike the crumb
The birds and I had often shared
In Nature's dining-room.

The plenty hurt me, 't was so new,--
Myself felt ill and odd,
As berry of a mountain bush
Transplanted to the road.

Nor was I hungry; so I found
That hunger was a way
Of persons outside windows,
The entering takes away.

(Emily Dickinson)