I just went through the morning papers and found no mention of the fact that we landed on the moon 238 years ago today, July 20, 1969. I remember when it happened, we all thought July 20 would be like December 7 or June 6 or July 4, a date we would never forget. Not so, apparently.

I was living in Landstuhl, Germany (West Germany it was called back then) and was stationed at nearby Ramstein Air Base. I was working the night Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed, and, as a lark, I went out and drew a moonscape with a planted American flag on my Opel Rekord in grease pencils. Driving home that morning I kept getting waves and smiles from people crossing in front of me at stoplights. I had completely forgotten about my artwork.

For about a week an American didn’t need to buy a drink on bar street in Landstuhl, so excited were the local Germans with our feat. It was the greatest outpouring of affection for America that I ever experienced in 12 years of living overseas. I drank a lot of free Jägermeister depth charges that week.

UPDATE: I originally put 28 years above. Either my math is poor or I just didn’t want to admit how long it’s been.