My Favorite Number

I was born on July 20, 1958. Being one of seven children and having a mid-summer birthday, even as a young boy, it was not uncommon for my birthdays to come and go without much fanfare. In the winter of my Fifth Grade year at school, we had an assignment to write a short-story. I was already in love with writing way back then. My short story was on a topic that was very much in the news at that time and a very interesting and exciting theme for a young boy. I wrote a short story about me being the youngest astronaut in the space program and being selected to be the first astronaut to walk on the moon. I was aware at the time, that the US and USSR were in a Cold War race to be the first country to achieve that lofty goal and I knew it was bound to happen soon. To make my story even more special, I wrote that this wonderful event would take place over the coming summer, on my birthday! Well, lo and behold, as the winter turned to spring and spring turned into summer the Apollo 11 space mission launched from Cape Canaveral carrying three astronauts, two of whom were targeted to walk on the moon. As my 11th birthday approached, without any notice from anyone else, I watched in awe as the Apollo 11 made its way to the moon. On July 20th, 1969, the lunar landing module, Eagle, set down on the moon! I remember expectantly waiting for the astronauts to be given permission to exit the Eagle and step foot on the moon’s surface as the hours of my birthday ticked down. It was about 10:00 pm eastern time when my parents finally sent us all to bed on the news that Mission Control made the decision to wait until the next day to send Neil Armstrong out of the lunar module. With tears in my eyes, I went to bed thinking that I missed my chance to share my birthday with history and to have had my short story prognostication come true. At a few minutes before 11:00 my parents woke all of us up to come watch as Neil Armstrong could wait no longer and talked Mission Control into letting him walk on the moon without further delay. So, at about 11:00 pm, on my 11th birthday, the men from Apollo 11 walked on the moon for the first time in history. One small step for man and one giant link to history for one small boy in Charleston, West Virginia. And, that is when 11 became my favorite number.