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  Helping to put a man on the Moon

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Author Topic:   Helping to put a man on the Moon
KenDavis
Member

Posts: 187
From: W.Sussex United Kingdom
Registered: May 2003

posted 07-13-2008 04:05 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for KenDavis   Click Here to Email KenDavis     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I read somewhere of President Kennedy touring a NASA centre and asking one of the workers sweeping the floor what he did.

The reply was 'I'm helping to put a man on the moon'.

Has anyone heard this story? Is it just apocryphal or does it have any factual basis? Can anyone shed any more details concerning this?

kr4mula
Member

Posts: 642
From: Cinci, OH
Registered: Mar 2006

posted 07-14-2008 11:07 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for kr4mula   Click Here to Email kr4mula     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I'm not familiar with it, but it seems apocryphal on the surface. After all, would the president of the U.S. - current one aside - really have to ask a man sweeping the floor what he was doing?

Cheers,

Kevin

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 07-14-2008 11:33 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The full story apparently goes something like this:
The story is told of an unannounced visit by John F. Kennedy to the space center at Cape Canaveral in the mid 1960’s. Kennedy toured the complex and met a man in overalls. "What do you do here?" he asked. The man replied, "I’m earning a living." Kennedy nodded and moved on. He met another man in overalls and asked him the same question. "I clean away all the rubbish," the man said. Kennedy smiled and strode on until he met another man in overalls and put the same question again. This time a big smile came across the face of the man who replied, "Mr President, I’m helping to put a man on the moon."
Snopes.com, which documents and debunks urban legends, doesn't have a clear source but their members' offer evidence that the Kennedy story is a modern update of an older tale, such as this version about British architect Christopher Wren:
Perhaps you have heard the story of Christopher Wren, one of the greatest of English architects, who walked one day unrecognized among the men who were at work upon the building of St. Paul’s cathedral in London which he had designed. "What are you doing?" he inquired of one of the workmen, and the man replied, "I am cutting a piece of stone." As he went on he put the same question to another man, and the man replied, "I am earning five shillings twopence a day." And to a third man he addressed the same inquiry and the man answered, "I am helping Sir Christopher Wren build a beautiful cathedral." That man had vision. He could see beyond the cutting of the stone, beyond the earning of his daily wage, to the creation of a work of art—the building of a great cathedral. And in your life it is important for you to strive to attain a vision of the larger whole.

KenDavis
Member

Posts: 187
From: W.Sussex United Kingdom
Registered: May 2003

posted 07-14-2008 01:57 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for KenDavis   Click Here to Email KenDavis     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thank you Robert for an excellent response - this is most helpful.

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