Historic moments...

With the excitement of this special Inauguration Day approaching, my thoughts have turned to other historic moments I've heard about and witnessed.

My maternal grandfather was four years old when Halley's Comet came by in 1910.  One of his earliest and fondest memories was of watching Halley's Comet with his mother from the front room window of their house on Linwood Ave. in Abington, Massachusetts.  You could still sense how much it meant to him, remembering that time with his mother when the comet came by again in 1986.

One of my father's special memories was of sitting on his father's shoulders and watching New York City's first ticker tape parade, in honor of Charles Lindbergh, after his return from his historic transatlantic flight.  Dad was five years old that day, 13 June 1927, and he and his father were among the estimated 3 to 4 million people lined up along Fifth Avenue from Battery Park to Central Park.  The New York Times wrote "Never was America prouder of a son."  What a thrill it was for a little fellow to catch a glimpse of his hero!

On July 20, 1969, when the first men landed on the moon, my maternal grandparents were watching it on television in the loft of their barn, which was fixed up as a place for us to stay while visiting them in the summer, with my parents and my sister and me.  Grandmother, with a twinkle in her eye, clued me in that some day I too would be old and wrinkled and would be telling my own grandchildren about this historic moment.  I was twelve years old.

No doubt many of us will have similar memories of this coming historic moment...