Lunar landing: Don Shields

Don Shields, 53, of Huntington Station, is an attorney. In 1969 he was a 13-year-old eighth-grader at St. Brigid's School in Westbury. His father, Gerry Shields, now deceased, was a methods engineer at Grumman.

I followed the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. I knew every astronaut's name. It was a great hobby of mine. So the fact that my father was working on that lunar module - yeah, I was very proud of that . . .

[On the night of the moon landing] we were in the living room. We had an old black and white TV. I was with my mother and my father and my brother, Joe, and my sister, Anne Marie. We watched when Neil Armstrong descended the ladder. . . . I remember my mother started crying. It was that historical and significant to her. . . . She was just so happy that our country had achieved this landmark, getting a man to the moon. She knew the interest I myself had in it. . . . It was a real event. It's something I'll always remember. . . .

I just remember following it very closely, from the day the rocket went up. . . . I pretty much parked myself in front of the TV for the duration because I just thought it was the greatest thing, to be growing up and have this happen. . . .

I think it was a matter of national pride because of the significance of President Kennedy saying that [ the United States would put a man on the moon], then living through the assassination, then Martin Luther King's assassination and Bobby Kennedy's assassination. We had the '68 riots in several of our cities. I think it [the moon landing] was very much a healing thing for the country. . . . Finally, there was something positive, something good to root for.