EQUALSHOT

The New York Times took a very creative step this week in commemorating the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. It’s a good lesson for all communicators in how to bring events of grand proportions down to a personal, meaningful level.

“Readers’ Moon Memories” is a slide show of 41 NYT readers’ photographs and a quote about what they were doing when astronauts first walked on the moon.

I first learned about it when my friend Deb sent me an e-mail excitedly announcing that her dad’s 1969 photo (pictured right) of her and her mom was front and center on the NYT site:

"This was such a unique happening - the first time someone stepped onto another world - that I wanted to make sure my family was part of it. My wife Harriot, left, and I woke our oldest daughter, Debra, right, then age 3, to watch history unfold." -- Don Baida, Emerson, NJ

Jim Kennedy, of Wallingford, CT wrote in with another personal memory:

"My father had taken me on a church-sponsored trip to Yankee Stadium, and as we watched the Yankees play the Senators, I listened to a portable radio with one ear as the lunar module approached the moon. When they landed, the game was stopped, and "They're On The Moon" flashed on the scoreboard, and everyone got up and sang "America the Beautiful."

When history is reflected through our personal lenses, we can almost feel it all over again.