The Apollo 11 mission was different from the others. Yet, no matter how excited the public was about Apollo 11 some of them remained indifferent to this great scientific leap in space technology. If you even believed in such as that in the first place. I had a Sony Color TV tuned into the event. Yes, right in the patient waiting area of my drug store. I expected a good sized crowd to gather and watch this great scientifi c advance by the USA. It had been embarrassing for NASA, as well as the US Government which had spent so many billions on the failed projects. But now, the so called exploit was being done. Victory was at hand. Or so the government said.

But wait! Back to my “crowd” in my patient waiting room. The crowd never really appeared. Those there to watch were customers, waiting on their prescriptions to be filled by yours truly. “Do you suppose that they really are putting men on the moon?” asked one independent viewer. I valued his attendance since he was my dad. I asked him, why he would doubt it and he answered that well a lot of his friends thought it was just a way for politicians to fake federal spending and then sneak off with the cash. “I don’t think they could get by with such a far ranging hoax as I have always thought man would never penetrate outer space, much less put a man on the moon,” said my dad.

Another customer sauntered up about the same time the little space ship supposedly whizzed around to the back side of the Moon. “I guess since it’s on TV and all and Walter Cronkite thinks it’s real, it has to be real.” If you can’t believe Walter, who can you believe I stuttered out to the unbelieving man.

This customer was an alleged blind man who could not read or write. And he probably didn’t know Walter Cronkite from shinola. Yet he had proven that he was smart enough to hoodwink the welfare department into believing he was blind. A far more impressive feat than putting a man on the moon, I was thinking. “They paid Cronkite off too,” the blind guy retorted, chuckling at my ignorance.

I think the guy fi gured that if he could trick the Oklahoma welfare people into a handsome monthly check like that, the government was for sure able to hoodwink the American taxpayer. The man went on to point out that he had seen the so called spacemen training on TV out in Arizona and “that’s where all this is being televised from--this is all a fake,” declared the blind eyewitness. My dad’s belief seemed a little swayed by the blind guy. But I hated him poking holes in my little scientific bubble and wondered just how many other Americans shared this belief. And what would Neil Armstrong think if he knew this guy had found him out. But I doubt if Neil ever comes to Allen. And I’m sure not going to tell. A guy named Amon Self volunteered that they were going to need a flashlight on the back side of the moon if they expected to see anything back there. Maybe so.

I still enjoy hearing from my readers about “stuff.” And they always have opinions. Write and let me know how you are doing. And be sure and go to church Sunday. For sure, that’s not fake.

Wayne Bullard, DPh

waynebullard@sbcglobal.net