Tonight I had an interesting conversation while at a friend’s dinner party. At the end of a wonderful meal, and after several bottles of nice red wine were consumed, one person at the table mentioned that she didn’t believe astronauts had ever landed on the moon.
I’d heard about those who believed in conspiracy theories surrounding the moon landing and moon walks, but I’d actually never met someone who said this out loud in a conversation. I was intrigued, as were our other dinner companions. She firmly believes that it was all a hoax and that it all took place in a TV or movie studio somewhere, perhaps in California.
It certainly gave me something to ponder as we drove home. And, ironically, when I did sit down to write this post I realized that today (thanks to my random facts calendar) was the anniversary of the Apollo 14 moonwalk back in 1971! How crazy is that?
I had just met this lovely person at the party, and we had a fun conversation throughout the night. I enjoyed her company immensely, so this revelation was a bit of a surprise. Not that a few hours is enough time to get to know someone well, but maybe in the back of my mind I expected conspiracy theorists to be ignorant, dumb rednecks. And she was far from that—a well educated, traveled and accomplished professional.
I barely remember the moon landings or walks since I was in pre-school at the time, but I do recall how my parents were glued to our black-and-white TV and so excited to watch the breaking news specials with Walter Cronkite. In a hazy memory, I also remember sitting in a big classroom full of children while we watched the live broadcast on a TV that was wheeled in just for the day. That may have been the 1971 mission.
Even though there are doubters out there, and obviously some that will surprise me, I’m going to keep believing. And when I Googled it, there are even videos online to rewatch. This was the moon landing where Alan Shepard hit two golf balls he’d brought with him with a makeshift club. How would anyone have thought to make that up?