Randy-
We on this list are fortunate to have some great writers who can tell a
relate a good story....
Thanks!!!
Charlie Vlk
In July 1969 I was working a regular job 3rd trick in Burlington yard as a
snake. Apollo 15 was slated to land on the Moon early Sunday evening and
then in the early morning Neil Armstrong was to make his historic "Leap for
mankind." So I grabbed my sister's B&W 19" TV since it had built in rabbit
ears and headed off to work at 11:00.
Unlike most Sunday nights, we were busy. It was hot and humid with no
breeze. Your clothes stuck to you like thin slabs of fresh liver.
When word spread there was a TV in the yard office, everyone including the
operator at BN, seemed to adjust their schedule to coincide with a necessary
trip to the yard office just before their Moon walk. The depot was
completely empty.
Everything stopped at Burlington for about 45 minutes. Even the Dispatcher's
phone was quiet. The lights were shut off so we could see the picture. To
this day I can still see a couple of the old heads that saw steam yield to
diesel and jets drive piston airplanes into retirement just sit there,
absolutely mesmerized (as we all
were) by the grainy picture captured off the rabbit ears. Just when we were
all enjoying our extended break the radio came alive when Jack Myler on the
wayfreight screamed they were by Lone Tree with a red board at Connett, the
screen door slammed and you could hear the operator beating feet up the
cinders to the depot screaming, "Tell him I'm in the can."
And as any railroad story goes, there was always someone with a contrary
opinion. I was working the West End switch engine a couple weeks later with
one of the yard office moon walk historians. During the supper break, Kenny
claimed in a deadly serious, conspiratorial tone, "That moon landing never
happened. The moon is like a soda cracker. If you went there you'd just
punch a hole in the Moon and shoot out the other side." I asked if Kenny had
been watching the same TV I had been a few weeks earlier. He said, "That was
all staged in Hollywood."
Years later I asked Kenny if he changed his mind, he never waivered.
The Moon was like a soda cracker and Neil Armstrong climbed down that ladder
in a Hollywood movie studio.
Randy Danniel
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