Happy memories of Moon landing
A plastic good luck tiki led to a treasured moon landing memento and lifelong love of the Moon for one Timaru girl.
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing, by the United States’ Apollo 11, and the moment has brought back happy memories for Elizabeth Sexton, who received a personal reply to a letter she wrote to Neil Armstrong ahead of the mission.
In 1969, before the Apollo 11 set off for the moon, eight-year-old Sexton wrote a letter to Armstrong telling him about New Zealand and asking him to bring her back some Moon rocks.
Along with the letter, she sent a plastic tiki, telling him it was for good luck.
In June that year, she received a personal reply from the astronaut.
‘‘I think it arrived on a Saturday and I’d been to theory classes at the convent and it was sitting there waiting for me when I got home, and Mum and Dad were there just sort of waiting,’’ Sexton said.
‘‘We opened it up very carefully together so that we kept the envelope as well.
‘‘It looks like a pen signature and it’s a type-written letter . . . it’s all very old-fashioned looking and it was stamped with the Nasa [logo].’’
She remembers listening to the July 20 Moon landing over the intercom at Timaru Main School.
‘‘The whole school just shut down while we listened to it . . . it was pretty special.’’
Sexton, now a flight attendant living in Christchurch, said she didn’t frame the letter because she was worried about it being damaged by light but she keeps it safe and shows it to people who show interest in the lunar missions.
The letter also sparked a lifelong fascination with the Moon.
‘‘I love all the movies and I look up at the Moon and think ‘wow’, it’s such a beautiful thing.
‘‘I am a flight attendant and I drive to work at weird and wonderful hours and the Moon is up there and sometimes it’s so huge and massive, and I just think that’s so special.’’