An observance of Moon Day
Tomorrow, July 20, has been designated as Moon Day. It was on this date in 1969 that Apollo 11 brought the first human beings, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, to the moon. Neil Armstrong was the first man to step onto the lunar surface, six hours following the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon’s surface. Armstrong spent two and one-half hours exploring the moon’s terrain. For those of us who remember July 20, 1969, very well, nothing will ever take its place in terms of the awe and excitement it generated. Most can recall exactly where they were when Armstrong first set foot on the surface of the moon. Each of the following items from the news mentions “moon,” but none even imagined that men would one day set foot on its surface.
January 1, 1899—New Year’s Eve could not have been more unhappy, so far as the weather was concerned. It was the dismalest, gloomiest, dirtiest day this town has experienced in many a moon, possibly in years. The rain came in just sufficient quantity to wet the clothes of pedestrians not covered by water. The rude, blustering northeasterly wind made umbrellas useless. As for the romantic moon which couples are looking for, it could not be seen because of the rain clouds that filled the sky.
September 7, 1915—Mrs. E. R. Moon, Hartselle 3, bought a beautiful pair of new shoes to at S. E. Stewart’s store. She only had to pay $3.25 for them.
May 4, 1915—A meeting of the teachers of Morgan County will be held here in Hartselle May 22, at which time a county-white campaign against illiteracy will be inaugurated, according to an announcement here today by J. C. Tidwell, county superintendent of education. It is planned, Professor Tidwell stated, to begin the campaign about July 1, although the date will not definitely be determined until the Hartselle meeting. Moonlight school will be held, at which free instruction will be given all illiterates who care to attend. Prof. Tidwell stated today that 50 teachers in the public schools in the county have already volunteered to teach these moonlight schools, and that he expected that the number would be largely increased.
July 22, 1937 – The Enquirer reports that a blizzard, frost, snow, wind, and the moon all got together in a Hartselle business house recently and nothing unusual happened to the elements. [Messrs. Chin Blizzard, Plumer Frost, A. R. Wynn, Henry Snow, and Frank Moon]
June 19, 2017—Tonight the moon will be in its waning crescent phase. This means that 21 percent of the moon’s surface will be visible on a clear night in Hartselle.
January 2, 2018—Many couples have danced to and been put in a romantic mood by the beautiful song, “Blue Moon,” which was very popular in the 1950s, before the age of rock ‘n’ roll. The next blue moon which Hartselle couples will have the opportunity to fantasize about will occur shortly after New Year’s, January 2, 2018. Actually, the songs “Blue Moon” had originally been written by famed composers Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart in the 1930s. Its award-winning status was not achieved until the 1950s.