40 years ago, on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon.

An elderly lady who lived on an island just in front of our place, went out and bought a colour television just for the event. Colour tvs were not common back then and rare in Muskoka, we only received one station - the venerable CBC.

She invited us to her home to watch the landing.  I still remember that evening.  It was a mix of the future and the past.  Her island home was an old one, filled with carved masks from Africa and Canada she and her husband had collected as missionary doctor and nurse.  Dark wood walls, hand picked stone fire place and books, so many beautiful books.  I spent more time with those books that night than I did with the exotic colour TV.

But when the momentous point came, I was called to the small screen and watched the grainy black and white images - no real need for that colour tv - of a man in a strange white suit placing his foot on the moon's surface.  His distorted voice travelling through space saying

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

On that July day 40 years ago, there was a feeling of optimism.  A belief in great changes to come that would reshape the human experience.  A new day was dawning and a frontier opened.

Perhaps tomorrow, that feeling can return if we remember the past hopes and dreams of the men who stepped on surface of the moon.

"Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind."