On the day of the landing, instead of being with the "team" anxious about the success of the mission I was with my son in the hospital after he had contracted salmonella infection purportedly at a local swimming pool. So my day was not watching television and moon landings but watching a three year old getting pumped with antibiotics and stabilized with fluids.
The moral of the story is that despite all our headway in science and technology, infections of this type still take their toll every day across the globe. Yes we can send a man to the moon but there are many things our hubris cannot solve.
However, one must remember that in 1969 the moon landing was a high. But as a country we were spending like drunken sailors between Moon landings, Vietnam, Poverty Programs, so that by the summer of 1971 we were on the verge of financial collapse. The high of 1969 led to the low of 1971. In 1971 there was not a single interview for jobs on the MIT campus and there was not a single job ad in the NY Times, yes there were paper ads then. A warning for those who think too short term. History has a way of repeating itself.
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