50

Fifty is a number with significance, often prompting celebrations. I have long since passed that number for my birthdays, gulp. My husband and I are careening closer to that number for years married, another gulp. This blog post just passed the two hundred and fiftieth number, good gracious. I just retired from fifty years of teaching. Okay, that's not true, but it felt like it some days.

Today does mark the real deal for a 50th anniversary worth noting. On July 20, 1969, the Apollo 11 landed on the moon, a feat only dreamed about up until that point. At 9:30 p.m. (CST), Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the lunar surface, joined by Buzz Aldrin shortly thereafter. Such an astounding event was cause for celebration on so many levels. Amazing amounts of technological challenges were conquered in an era when computers and space travel were rudimentary at best. Adjectives such as courageous, brave and heroic were aptly used for not only the astronauts, but also for the support teams involved in the mission.

A recent feature on a news show highlighted some of the behind-the-scenes players in the Apollo 11 mission. My favorite was an interview with four women who were on the sewing team for the astronaut's spacesuits. They were trained to sew a different garment in high demand back then and that was the girdle. If you are under the age of fifty-five, you may have to Google this bondage wardrobe piece (warning: images may be disturbing to some). Apparently the girdle plant snagged the contract for designing the first spacesuits for a lunar walk due to their ability to design flexible garments with heavy duty material. The women in the interview shared how profound the task was to them. They knew that every stitch they made had the potential to be a life or death moment for the astronauts. One stray pin or puncture in the suit could have serious, if not fatal, consequences. Each woman was extremely proud of her accomplishments and each one shared how special it was to support the mission to the moon.

The theme that is quite evident with all the players in the Apollo 11 mission is teamwork. Through the Apollo events our nation was given moments of thinking outside our little plot of land on the earth and we were invited to look upward toward the great frontier called space. Mind you, our country at that time was in the throes of much discord with the Vietnam war, civil rights riots, an assassination of a president and the Cold War. If ever there was a time to pull together as a country, it was then.

Fast forward fifty years and we are reminded that some things haven't changed. Where two or three are gathered, there will be squabbling. And that is why a fiftieth anniversary of a monumental event in our history is worth noting. Let's strike up the band, start the parades and share the great stories of problem solving and teamwork. Happy Birthday, Apollo 11.

And look out Mars, here we come.