July 20, 1969

"I don’t think my dad was ever completely convinced of my mother’s explanation on why she had the middle name she had. What would become the first half of my hyphenated surname. My mother always said it didn’t have anything to do with the planet. What with the different spelling and all that. During the televised broadcast of Neil Armstrong’s first step on the moon, the three of us were glued to the TV set. I was ten when it happened. I remember it well, Neil Armstrong jumping off the ladder of the Lunar Module as my dad kept teasing my mom about her name. Mom didn’t always take the teasing well. She definitely wasn't in the mood during Apollo 11. As they went at it, I ended up leaving to play with a couple of girls I knew. Elaine was eight and Sue was six. We went to our local playground. We swung on swings, the whole while never taking our eyes off the sky, and talking about the moon for what seemed like hours. It was about the only thing any of us talked about for the next couple of years."

GX Jupitter-Larsen