“Kathmandu”, Oil on Masonite; By Dan Curry

Dan Curry, who took us into space as director of special effects for STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION series, wants to help us really get there. As a member of our creative team, The Magic Theatre Project, he will help us tell the space experience in new and exciting ways. Here, Dan relates how he met the most famous space man in America.

Serving with the PeaceCorps in Northeast Thailand, my job with the Community Development Depart­ment was to design and supervise the construction of small dams and bridges.  After six months of being up country I was sent to Bangkok for a medical examination along with several other volunteers from different areas around the country.  We had not seen each other since training and were looking forward to catching up and sharing each other’s adventures.  We had been sharing the diet of the villagers and were eager to eat the more exciting faire available in the city.

Everyone was excited about the recent moon landing by American astronauts.  None of us had seen any of the pictures because we had all been out in remote areas where electricity was unavailable.  We were all delighted when Peace Corps officials invited a few token Peace Corps Volunteers to a reception for one of the astro­nauts…someone named Neil Arm­strong who was on an around-the-world publicity tour.

When we arrived at the venue, we felt a little out of place, as we were all scruffy looking compared to the elegantly dressed Thai and Ameri­can dignitaries. We immediately gravitated to the buffet table where we gratefully stacked sorely missed American foods on our trays.  The small group of volunteers congre­gated around a corner table and proceeded to dive into the food.  A few minutes later a man with short blond hair approached our table that none of us recognized. He asked, “Can I sit with you guys?”

One of my grumpier companions said, “No, that place’s taken”.  He looked in his own way as out of place as we felt, so I grabbed a chair from another table and invited him to join us anyway.  He sat down and started to eat, not saying much while the rest of us chatted about our experiences in the jungle.  We began to notice other guests at the reception constantly glancing at our anonymous tablemate.

Suddenly one of my fellow Peace Corps volunteers figured it out and asked, “How was the moon, any­way?”

This started a most wonderful and humbling conversation with the person we found out was Neil Arm­strong.  His unaffectedness, his interest in what we were doing, and the way he described how pro­found and life changing his experi­ence on the moon was impressed us deeply.  Perhaps one of the most interesting points Neil Arm­strong made, was that he and his companions were so thoroughly trained to deal with the practicali­ties of the mission, that they were not equipped to communicate to the rest of the world how truly incredible and spiritually intense their experience of landing on the moon was.  He suggested that it might have been better if one of the crew was an artist, a poet, or a writer who could share the pro­found intensity of the lunar experi­ence with the people of the world, and create a personal meaning to everyone.

Eventually Neil Armstrong was called away to schmooze with the many glittering dignitaries present.