July 20, 1969

While the Beatles were at Abbey Road Studios recording their Abbey Road LP, Apollo 11 headed towards the moon. On the day of the July 16 liftoff, the Beatles were adding overdubs to “Something” and “Here Comes The Sun.”

On July 20, 1969, while in lunar orbit, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin crawled from their Command Module (CM) (named Columbia) into the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) (named Eagle). The LEM separated from the CM and descended to a landing on the moon that Sunday afternoon. Six and a half hours later, while Michael Collins orbited above moon in the CM, Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon. Shortly thereafter, he was  joined by Aldrin.

As a child of the sixties, I followed the space program with the same enthusiasm I followed the Beatles. I was at Camp Zakelo that summer and made sure I could follow the progress of Apollo 11. The campers were given the option to watch the liftoff, lunar landing and first steps on the moon, but the two-hour moon walk extended way past bedtime for the campers. I begged the Camp Director to let me stay up for the entire event, telling him I only needed five hours of sleep. He finally agreed to let me watch the entire moon walk with the counselors after I informed him that I would write an article for the camp newspaper, the Zakolog. My mother saved the camp newspaper and it is with great nostalgia that I present my first published work from the summer of 1969. And 60 years later, here I am, getting ready to send my book on the Beatles Abbey Road LP to the printer.