When astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin Jr. late Sunday night took a page out of a Jules Verne book and triumphantly thrust it into the realm of current events, when they took those first steps on the moon, the human imagination was inadequate to meet the challenge.

            Maybe it was due to the sore backsides and red eyes from being glued in front of the TV set since noon Sunday awaiting the landing of the lunar module.

            Then when that was pulled off successfully, the viewers were stuck with the long hours leading up to the moon walk when news commentators appeared ready to do a song and dance routine for want of something to keep their interest.

            It might also have been just the sheer draining of emotions that had gradually diminished during the four days leading up to the moon landing, and at an accelerated rate during the hours leading up to the moonwalk.

            But whatever the reason, to actually see men on the moon was a sight it would have taken a super-human to grasp.

            The day’s events including the moon landing had all been shown in simulated fashion, and then all of a sudden, persons were rammed from the world of drawings into the world of actuality.

            When Neil Armstrong carried out the first few tasks laid out for him by mission headquarters, you almost wanted to jump around and yell or some other zany act just to relieve your pent-up anxiety and tell yourself that this was really, really happening.

            To think that during the 2 ½ hours the two pranced around on the satellite would be time enough to calm viewers so they could watch the activities with a believing eye would be just another figment of the imagination.

            During the period of the walk, things got only worse.

            The filming was improved soon after the first astronaut descended, and from then on everything done by the two pioneers could hardly have been more clear.

            If someone keeps a record of the largest-opened eyes or mouths, he surely found some new marks when Armstrong panned the moon’s surface and gave the earth remarkably sharp pictures of his immediate surroundings.

            Although those pictures contained little more than a lots of rocks and holes, they will probably receive some of the most lucid descriptions man has ever come up with.

            And from now on when telephone companies brag that a long-distance call is the next best thing to being there, they might check first with President Nixon, who congratulated the astronauts via telephone.

            The astronauts’ initial steps, pictures of the moon, the “planting” of the American flag, call from the President, and all the other actions that seem commonplace on earth but when done on the moon attract headlines made July 20, 1969, an unforgettable day in Sheboygan and on the rest of Planet Earth.

            And you can bet that the instant replays will be watched just as attentively, but maybe this time in a relaxed fashion instead of at the end of a chair.