Well, today is the 50th anniversary of the lunar landing, and I'm happy to say I still remember the excitement. We were living in a re-modeled cottage at Grandma's Royal Court Motel. Papa had been retired from the USAF less than 2 years, and he and Mama were helping run the motel. Grandma had a color tv, which was a BIG DEAL to us. I don't remember if we did, but it doesn't matter. I just remember that Chet Huntley and David Brinkley were reporting about the big event, and as a photo enthusiast even back then, I was fascinated when they actually told us (in advance) how to take a picture of the event on the tv screen! Papa let me use his camera, I set the shutter speed at 1/30th of a second, as instructed, and I got pictures! They were black and white, but they were LIVE! It was soooo exciting! I also remember that "something" happened in Chappaquiddick the next day, and there was disgust that the miracle of the lunar landing was overshadowed by that news story ...
Back to today, 50 years later, and I'm "over the moon" because I got to video chat with my adorable granddaughter today. I'm still a smart phone rookie, and first I had the camera set wrong, so I could see her, but she could only see my view out the back porch. Mark tried to tell me how to change the camera to "selfie" view (YUCK!) but I pushed the wrong button, and we ended up having to hang up and start over. The 2nd time was better, and I had this little circle pop up that looked like those goofy pix people post on fb -- with goofy bows or glasses ...I pushed that, and Kenzie cracked up. I remember a Minnie Mouse bow, some weird over-sized glasses, and mostly, Kenzie's laugh. Then her Daddy started morphing her image into all kinds of crazy characters and she couldn't stop laughing at my reactions. Mark's been teasing me about my age lately, but today when he was trying to explain to Kenzie that Omi didn't know how to video chat because "she's OLD", Kenzie very forcefully looked at him and said "NO, she's NOT!" So, for the record, if I decide to waste my precious time learning all this silly smart phone technology, I'm only doing it because it makes my Kenzie laugh, and hearing (and seeing) her laugh warms my heart .... and for all the young whippersnappers who roll their eyes at their smart-phone-challenged elders -- I'd love to see YOU take a decent picture of a 1969 tv screen with a manual FILM camera ...
Time to craft...
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