One Small Step

 The fiftieth anniversary of the moon landing fast approaches. Its hard to believe its been so long since man first walked on the moon, I still recall those heady days of excitement like they were only yesterday. Moon fever was everywhere, tv, film, advertising, books, sweets - you couldn't move without finding something connected with the space race or the moon landing, it was such an exciting time. And then within a few short years, it was over. The last Apollo missions were cancelled due to budgetary constraints and what seemed like a lack of public interest. The Vietnam war had taken its toll on the US and as the flights to the moon had not delivered anything as remotely as exciting as media had portrayed, no aliens, no space cities and nothing but unremarkable dust and rock - the public eye turned away from the moon and space and looked elsewhere for entertainment.

 The recent plan to reach the moon once more by 2020 has generated a little resurgence of interest and the multitude of probes delivering photographs and information from the far reaches of the solar system has been hugely popular, but so far its only been a pale imitation of 1969.

Perhaps as man reaches out once more to step on the surface of our nearest neighbour, it may gather momentum, but for now I content myself with reverie and fond memories of those heady days when newsagents bulged with comics and papers chock full of rockets and sweet counters burst with candy filled spaceships and little toys.

So for now, here is a small gallery of some of my toy LEM's and moon landers, maybe as the decade rolls on modern takes on these little gems will drop out of cereal packets in the morning, or sail gracefully over carpetted moonscapes to settle silently on imagined mares.