Where were you when?

I remember my parents talking about where they were when they found out about Pear Harbor.  So how many times have we defined our lives by the simple statement of “Where were you went …”.  I certainly remember several in my life time. 

• ·        Where was I when John Kennedy was killed?  Looking for my High School Principal.
• ·        Where was I when the planes flew in to the world trade center?  In a sewage treatment plant.
• ·        Where was I when Neal Armstrong walked on the moon?  In a bar.

Maybe the first two will get covered later on in another blog but this is about “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”.  So where were you that night?

That night was framed in a unique way for Carole.  I had just accepted a job with Southern Prestressed Concrete in Pensacola.  I had been working for just a few weeks and the Chief Engineer Lynn Howard invited Carole and meet to join him, his wife, the owner of the company Mr. Noonan (I think his first name was Mister because that is all I ever heard from anyone) and his wife to join them at “The Country Club” for dinner.  We just a couple of punk kids straight out of college.  I don’t think either of us had ever been to a country club for dinner.  We were somewhere between scared and intimidated.  OK, if we blow this my career is over, I can pack it up and go back to washing trucks at Floyd and Beasley. 

Well we were on our best behavior and we succeeded in getting thru the night without getting gravy on the boss’s wife or spilling a drink on the table.  I actually want to be in front of a TV because that was the night the US was supposed to have a man walk on the moon.  I knew this event was going to cost me the opportunity of a life time, seeing the first person to walk on the moon, but screwing it up would cost me my new job. About the time TV coverage picked up we retired to the bar to watch the coverage.  Thank you Jesus!  Carole and I weren’t very sophisticated drinkers.   I could fake it by ordering Scotch on the rock.  (Still my favorite drink)  Carole didn’t have a clue.  This was a long time before the more recent years of “Gin on the Rocks, Dirty”.  She was twenty-one and hadn’t spent much time in bars.  As a matter of fact hardly anyone had.  I think there were only two in Tuscaloosa when were in college.  You didn’t enter them without a gun.  Imagine that only two bars in Tuscaloosa!  She admitted she didn’t have a clue what to order and Mr. Noonan said I will order something for you.  He ordered her a Pina Colada.  Of course being twenty-one she loved it.  From then on every time something would come up about the first man on the moon, Carole would always say that was the night I had my first Pina Colada.  Strange how things define our lives.  Was it the first steps on the moon or Pina Colada?  We will never know. 

Many years later we got to meet Neil Armstrong at an ACEC meeting.  It is a long story but I was on the committee that had him speak, so one of the duties was to meet and welcome him.  I found out that night he had always been one of her heroes.  She had to have her photograph made with him.  No, I couldn’t be in the photo!  ACEC photographer was nice enough to send us a copy of the photo.  She had it framed and put it on the night stand on her side of the bed.  So every night she kissed me good night, rolled over to turn of the light and I am assuming told Neil goodnight.  I said something to her about it one time and she moved it to her closet.  I guess so she could run around naked in front of him.

So Neil you mess with my wife in heaven and I am coming after your ass!