One of my fondest memories of my grandmother is the time she ordered a model lunar lander for me. I had watched the moon landing on TV, and wanted to be an astronaut. School was out at the time, but the schools sent the buses to pick up all the kids, and take them to school so they could watch the moon landing on TV. I thought it was great that we made an event out of it. We had a TV, but most of the kids in my class, or my school for that matter, prob’ly did not. So, while at the time I didn’t appreciate how caring the teachers were that arranged the event, I now see it for the true spirit of teaching that it was.

The kids in my class went into Miss Owens room to watch the landing. I’m not sure everyone recognized how amazing it was that we had landed on the moon. I think some kids just saw it like a movie. I on the other hand was totally convinced that one day I would be going to the moon myself.

I found an ad in a magazine for a model lunar lander, just like the real one. I couldn’t read all of the ad, but I could read “Lunar Lander”, “Free!”, “Just 99cents”. My grandmother, who is one of the people who taught me to believe I can be anything in life that I want, was easy to convince that a future astronaut should certainly have a free for 99 cents model lunar lander. So, she sent in the 99 cents, and 2 to 3 weeks later I received my very own lunar lander. It was about 3 inches tall, and made of white plastic. It was the most wonderful toy I had ever owned.

Now, the catch was, in all that small print that I could not read, it said that the model lunar lander was free (99 cents for postage), but that I was now also signed up for a new educational toy every month, for only $1.99 a month (plus postage). At this time, $1.99 could buy 10 gallons of gas or more. My mother now had to pay that each month for the next year. My Mother is another one of the people who taught me to believe I can be anything in life that I want.

I received some other great toys, some were toys like children played with in other countries. It was indeed an educational program, and it was something I enjoyed. But after that first $1.99 toy arrived, with the bill, “free for 99 cents” became one of those family phrases; Anytime something sounded to good to be true, someone would say, “it’s free for 99 cents.”