50 Years Later

TigerBlog used to attend a summer camp called "Camp Toledo," which was located in High Falls, N.Y.

So did BrotherBlog.

Years and years later, TigerBlog was driving past the area on the New York State Thruway and got off to try to find where his camp had been. He thinks he found it, though he's not 100 percent sure he was in the right place, since it had closed in the 1970s.

Camp Toledo was located in the Catskill region of New York.

It was a typical summer sleepaway camp, and TigerBlog and his brother attended it for five straight summers, eight weeks each summer. Then, after one year of not going, they spent eight more weeks at a different camp in the same basic area, that one called Camp Echo.

TigerBlog has a lot of fond, idyllic, Wonder Years-type memories of his summer camp days.

What he has no memory of is what went on at Camp Toledo on July 20, 1969. He just knows that he is sure he was there on that day.

As you probably know, that day was the day that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first two humans to walk on the moon. The 50th anniversary of what has to be up there with any human achievement ever is tomorrow.

Back as it unfolded, TB was a kid at summer camp. He doesn't remember anything about how the news was shared with the campers, if there was a TV hookup, anything.

He asked his brother yesterday if he remembers, and he doesn't either. Oh well.

TigerBlog has read a lot about the first lunar mission. Most recently, he saw a documentary early this week called "For All Mankind," which was a series of essentially home movies from the trips to the moon, with narration by various astronauts.

What was really striking to TigerBlog was the way that Armstrong and Aldrin ran, tumbled and strolled around the surface but were able to find their way back to the lunar module. Were they worried at any point that they wouldn't remember where it was parked?

Speaking of parking, there was Mike Collins in the command module, flying above the moon's surface all by himself while the other two landed, walked and then came back to meet him. In all he was by himself in a space capsule for nearly 24 hours, during which time he orbited the moon 30 times.

It's like he dropped them off and couldn't find a parking space. In all seriousness, that had to be an incredibly unique emotional experience, being all alone, often on the far side of the moon, out of radio contact with any humans.

Collins never walked on the moon, but he has been quoted as saying he felt as much a part of it as Armstrong and Aldrin.

In all, 12 people have walked on the moon. Of that group, four are still alive.

How many can you name? Well, there is the third person who walked on the moon, Pete Conrad, who was a 1953 Princeton graduate.

Of the 12 people, there are two colleges who produced two alums in the group - Purdue and the Naval Academy.

The anniversary of the moon walk is tomorrow.

The first Princeton Athletic event of the year is six weeks from today, a women's soccer game at St. Joe's. The first football game of the year is two months away, as the Tigers will host Butler Sept. 21 to start the 150th anniversary season.

It's essentially the middle of the summer, and yet the Princeton Athletics news continues. There were five new stories on the webpage yesterday, including the news that Chris Sailer had been named the women's lacrosse Mid-Atlantic Region Coach of the Year.

There was also a story about rising sophomore men's basketball player Jaelin Llewellyn, who was invited to the Chris Paul Elite Guard Academy. Llewellyn, who became the first freshman to lead Princeton in assists in 12 years and who added 10.1 points per game to that, is one of 20 players who are currently competing there.

Of the group that was there last year, six were chosen in the most recent NBA draft.

Anyway, that's about it for this week.

Have a great summer weekend. Fall, and the new athletic year, will be here soon enough.