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©NASA1969

The first man to walk down a ladder, before he walked up it.

Keith Thompson and I were in sixth grade, up the back of the hall at Canterbury State to watch the Moon Walk. It was one of those days that Sydney-Siders imagine all Melbourne days are like. Low cloud, drizzle and bloody freezing. Especially since only High School boys were allowed to wear long pants. Our knobbly white knees had a bluish tinge.

The little kids were all down the front, nearest the two tiny black and white tellies and the Teachers, who’d positioned themselves to get a good look. What did they suppose? That the oldest kids had achieved zoom vision?

We were affronted. The little kids didn’t know anything about the Apollo Astronauts. We, on the other hand, had encyclopaedic knowledge about every aspect of the mission and their lives. The Astronauts were the American version of The Beatles. We’d made models of the Command Module and the LEM. The little kids’ best effort was five dunny rolls painted white, supposedly the Saturn V — with no Third Stage.

Keith gave me the nod, and we were off. He lived over the road, and we scarpered. Neil had better wait.

And he did. The front door key was under the mat. His Mum was out and, like all empty houses in the 1960s, the heating was off. If anything, the lounge room was colder than outside. But the Thompsons had a 24 inch AWA Lowboy in a wooden cabinet. They were rich. I had never seen anything like it.

It took about a year to warm up. The little white dot in the centre letting us know that juice had been applied to the valves somewhere deep inside.

Then we saw it. The image was upside down, or was it? We really had no idea of what we were seeing. There was lots of black, and white, but we could hear it perfectly.

Neil made it down the ladder, stepped off Eagle into history, and we made it back into the hall before anyone knew we had gone.

In fact, all of Grade Six could have got up and left, and the Teachers would have been none the wiser.

The first, and only time Neil walked on the Moon was the first and only time I wagged school.”

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You could list them in no particular order, then maybe, if you are inclined, you could rate them in order of how you felt about them, or by date.

It'd be an interesting exercise, and one worth leaving to the following generations.

I plan to do this ... when I get a moment, and before I forget the amazing things I have seen.

Meanwhile, have you seen my Top 150 pics? CLICK HERE




*Concept suggested by J.Newman during 'You Cannot Be Serious' podcast

Tags: Moon, Astronauts, History