Burnished in my mind forever is a night more than a dozen years before the moon landing. We had just returned home from a visit to Grandaddy's farm in Crozet, Virginia, a journey of 100 miles. We were in the garage, getting stuff out of the car, when it happened... my parents firmly and definitively informed me that people had never actually been to the moon.
It was the worst night of my life. All those cool lunar expeditions existed just in comic books. And Mars? Same thing. Venus? Yep.
Fast forward to July 20, 1969... Somehow, I had survived that traumatic childhood moment, went to college, home for a summer job, and two work crews met up at a tiny split level home with a TV room. I was nervous about it getting caught goofing off on company time. When the department manager showed up with the beer, I could finally relax. I recall the total awe we all felt that day, and the sense of pride for the USA.