If you’re at least 50 years old, you probably remember quite well where you were the day that men first walked on the moon. It was an exciting and yet surreal moment. I was working that summer in San Diego, but it was a Sunday so like so many Americans I was glued to the television. After Neil Armstrong stepped off the lunar lander, I walked outside, looked up at the moon (clearly visible mid-day) and just shook my head in near disbelief. Truly amazing. I called my then-girlfriend, Cessna (now my wife of 38 years) in Kansas to compare notes. She was awed as well.
Why San Diego? I was hired by Jan Popper as a production stage manager at what was then known as San Diego International University. I spent most of my summer there directing opera workshop productions and teaching acting to foreign opera students. That was almost as surreal as men walking on the moon.