By Mark S. Price Contributing columnist

Due to my boyish good looks, I know it may “seem” difficult for some of you to believe; but I was a witness to history fifty years ago this month when Apollo 16, a three-manned space mission, blasted off to the moon.

As a five-year-old kindergartner, I sat in our family room with my big brother and two of my boon companions and watched the historic event unfold on our black and white television console.

It seems like it was only yesterday that John and I were preparing to leave our house to go downstairs for Sunday school class. We both ran back to our bedroom to snatch a piece of chocolate from the Easter baskets.

Although it was dwindling fast, these minister’s sons still had several pieces of confectionery delight tucked amongst the iridescent colored plastic grass two weeks after Resurrection Sunday.

As this duo walked out of the house and into the stairwell to the church, I reminded my mother that Johnny Puskarich was staying for lunch after church to watch the rocket launch to the moon.

After the closing prayer at the end of class, I moseyed into the main room for children’s church with my favorite pal, along with our crony Billy Denny, where spirits were high in anticipation of the once in a lifetime event.

Once the children’s church teacher Linda Basey got herself situated and quieted everyone down, the young mother opened the extension of Sunday school with prayer.

At the close of the invocation, Bonnie Denny and Vanessa Rose burst through the door at the bottom of the basement steps. The teacher’s assistants arrived just in time to start off with a few songs to get the blood pumping.

“Since Apollo 16 is shooting off to the moon today,” commented Sister Linda with great enthusiasm. “I think we should start off by singing the ‘Countdown Song’.”

The school-aged children all jumped for joy and belted out the words to the popular song as the young mother turned the pages on the large songbook.

At the close of the kids church service, the trio of kindergartners approached Billy’s Aunt Bonnie to ask permission for him to join the festivities in the church parsonage.

“Can Billy come to my house to watch the rocket launch,” I asked while grabbing the long blonde-haired teen by the hand. “Since Johnny’s gonna stay and watch it with us, too, we can make it a fun time.”

“Aww…,” asserted the neighbor girl winking at her best friend Vanessa. “Here I thought you were gonna watch it with me and Nessa.”

When the black-haired lad pursed his lips and gave his youngest aunt sad puppy dog eyes, the Bentworth High School graduate stated she was only kidding; but that she would double check with Sister Price.

With that said, these four boys raced up the steps to our apartment and flicked on the television to watch the rocket launch.

After turning to the proper channel, the announcer was talking about the three astronauts making the historic expedition to the moon.

“The commander for the Apollo 16 mission is John Young,” noted the commentator as individual photos of the trio flashed across the screen.

“The lunar module pilot is Charles Duke,” continued the news anchor as he wrapped up the short segment, “and the command module pilot is Ken Mattingly.”

When the station paused for a commercial break, this quartet of boys, who were leisurely standing in front of the boob tube, decided to pull out the sofa bed to get more comfortable.

Once my brother and I moved the coffee table to the side while our visitors removed the couch cushions, all four of us worked together to open up the queen size bed before climbing aboard to make ourselves at home.

As the televised event of the manned space flight continued, the three astronauts came out onto the narrow walkway leading to the spacecraft while waving to the vast crowd of onlookers at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

About that time, Mom came rushing through the door, which led to the church, with Kathleen in her arms to get dinner ready.

“Well looky here,” declared the tall slender woman spotting the four young lads all sprawled out on the couch bed. “Are you young men enjoying the rocket launch to the moon.”

“I bet it’s better than any ride at Kennywood Park,” she added while placing her daughter in the playpen.

“That’s for sure,” stated John looking over at his mother as all three kindergartners quickly agreed. “That would be the best ride ever.”

Dad rushed through the church door and asked these four excited lads laying in a row atop the sofa bed how the spaceship launch was progressing.

“Did they shoot off the rocket yet,” queried the tall young minister as he sat down in his tan recliner and stretched out. “Or did I get here in time for the big show?”

“The astronauts are saying goodbye to everyone,” said Billy glancing over at the pastor sitting in his favorite chair, “before making their way into the rocket.”

“They’re gonna shoot off to the moon very much soon,” Johnny chimed in just before the announcer began to speak again. “We can’t wait to see it.”

The news anchor stated that the three astronauts were now climbing into the lunar module Orion, which was atop the Saturn V launch vehicle, as they made final preparations for the fifth lunar landing of the Apollo space program.

As the final countdown began, the foursome simultaneously joined in to help the news anchor as they sat up on their knees while smoke and fire shot out from the base of the rocket ship when it separated from the launching pad.

“Five, four, three, two, one,” exclaimed the group of boys as they worked themselves into a frenzy when the spacecraft lifted off the ground at precisely 12:54 pm. “Blast off!”

Mark S. Price is a former city government/county education reporter for The Sampson Independent. He currently resides in Clinton.

Call: T: 910-592-8137 F: 910-592-8756 Address: 109 W. Main St. Clinton, NC 28328