Giant Leap and Loose Change

Giant Leap and Loose Change

Noel Laflin

7-20-17

On the morning of July 20, 1969, someone had the presence of mind to set up a small television set at Camp Ahwahnee so that we could witness the first moon landing.

Soon after, a makeshift antenna was fashioned, wires fed through an open window, snaked up an old pine tree, and eventually attached to the roof of the Scoutmaster’s lounge - lounge being a rather generous description of the drafty, dusty enclosure, whose only furniture comprised of a few dilapidated sofas and moth-eaten chairs, all of which I frequently scrounged for lost change, sometimes hitting the mother lode when quarters, dimes, and nickels were found beneath the squishy cushions, wedged within cracks of the ancient furniture …  but I digress.

As word spread through camp that the landing was fast approaching, most everything came to an abrupt, screeching halt. The pool, archery, and rifle ranges shut down. Leather working tools and basket weaving reeds were laid aside. Cooks and kitchen crew took a break from the mess hall and strolled across the parade ground. Within no time, some two hundred kids, adults, and staff surrounded the packed lounge, trying to sneak a peek at the only TV on our beloved mountaintop.

Cheers and wonderment ensued when Eagle touched down and Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the lunar surface. Some were actually able to see the event live that day on the tiny black and white tube that sat astride the old stone fireplace. Others – mostly others - whose view was blocked by all the others, had only the sound of Mission Control personnel and Walter Cronkite’s voice to guide their thoughts.

Folks – mostly adults – hung around for hours afterward discussing the impressive, momentous occasion.

And the amount of lost, loose change that was collected beneath dusty cushions later that night, after all had finally left the lounge and gone to bed, was pretty impressive too.