My dad was in charge of production for the Atlas rocket at General Dynamics in San Diego. I remember him getting all of us up very early on Mercury/Gemini/Apollo launch days to watch the launch. It was like a family religious ritual. Almost as important as Mass on Sundays.

You young whippersnappers! I remember getting up early and watching Project Mercury, Gemini and Apollo launches...and the first Apollo lunar landing. Got the same thrills and awe yesterday....

Very cool. It was amazing what engineers and fabricators were able to do in the 1960s with the technology and time available.

One of the engineers that my dad knew at General Dynamics had worked on the Sprit of St. Louis at Ryan Aeronautical as a young man. He'd become good friends with Lindberg, who stayed with the Pearl's whenever he visited the San Diego area. Bud's last assignment was working on the General Dynamics bid for the space shuttle. His stories tended to put things in perspective.

Related, my grandmother would tell the story that when news of the Wright brothers flight at Kitty Hawk reached Boston, her teacher - probably junior high or high school - stated that man had reached the zenith of technical development. Little did he know...more perspective.

it’s a funny thing. The final spike in the transcontinental railroad and the moon landing were a mere 100 years apart. We probably aren’t that far off from the computers figuring out how to go to the moon without us. And yet, on other things technology has practically stood still because my bathroom surely doesn’t clean itself.