North Mississippi residents remember Apollo 11 mission

NORTHEAST MISSISSIPPI (WCBI) – Louis Wasson is part of the drone program for agriculture at the MSU Extension Service. Earlier this week, he helped lead a day camp, showing young people the many ways drones are used in agriculture.

Wasson remembered exactly where he was fifty years ago when NASA put a man on the moon.

“I was living in Starkville, Mississippi, we had an old Zenith, black and white television, I remember just looking at it,  and of course I loved the space program growing up in that era. So Apollo 11 was just a huge deal for me,” said Wasson.

Wasson said his interest in the space program as a kid played a major role in his career path as an adult.

“My mother showed this to me not long ago, I had a piece of paper, and it had on it a race car, airplane or a jet, and a spacecraft.  I drew that when I was four years old, she said, you set the course of your life at four years old, so it’s amazing how much the space program really impacted me, cause I grew up with it,” said Wasson.

Anyone fortunate enough to remember the Apollo 11 mission knows what a milestone it was for the United States.

WCBI’s Allie Martin was four years old, and like many boys his age, his imagination was captured by the daring astronauts. In fact, he even had his own astronaut helmet. He remembered being able to stay up late to watch the moon landing.

Fifty years later, the memories are still vivid for him, and others.

“I remember my parents being so , just nervous, that something bad was going to happen, that’s my biggest memory, of it,  my Dad was such a hard man, and for him to be nervous about something for me as a kid was like, wow!” said Larry Brymer, of Tupelo

“Guys like me, back then, I was kind of a nerd, I was interested in current events and things that were going to make history, to be brutally honest, I’m not trying to put you on, I knew we were going to do it when Kennedy said let’s do it in ’63.  I was raised that America could so anything it wanted to do, including putting a man on the moon, of course we knew technology had to catch up with the concept and the idea., but it was a pretty big deal in West Point Mississippi,” said Rev. James Hull, of Tupelo.

That first moon landing is also known for uniting the world, for a brief moment, and having a lasting impact on the technology used by everyone today.

Saturday marks the 50th anniversary of Astronaut Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the lunar surface.