A Very Special Beh Christmas Memory

It was about 10 pm on Christmas Eve 1968, and after working in the teller’s box of the Rural Bank, Quirindi I was driving home alone, down the New England Highway towards my home in Singleton.

I was listening to the late-night announcer on 2MO Gunnedah when suddenly he broke into the music and announced that the Apollo 8 Astronauts had entered lunar orbit

Remember Gang, this was some seven months before they actually landed on the moon in July 1969, and there right in front of me was the moon - a huge silver disc in a cloudless sky!

When I heard this announcement, I actually tried to look and see whether I could see the Apollo 8 capsule not knowing that it was 241,000 miles away, such was the excitement back then!

He then played a tape of the astronauts in the capsule announcing that they gone into lunar orbit. As it was Christmas Eve, they read verses from the Book of Genesis.

Apollo 8 Reading from The Book of Genesis.

To me, alone on that empty road, listening to those words, Time stood still!

Then the announcer played Silent Night the German version

Silent Night-The German Version

That memory always returns every Christmas Eve, the purity of the night sky, the moon,and me -I was a witness to history!

As I drove on,I had no idea that the following year 1969 would be a pivotal year in my life—I would travel abroad, meet incredible new friends, enjoy the hedonistic pleasures of that time, attend a music festival now etched into the history of the ’60s, and endure a personal tragedy that still haunts me to this day.

I would have not have swapped anything from those days as they made the person I am today.

My Thought for this Christmas Season.

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas filled with the special peace this season brings. May your days be calm, your heart be light, and may you find moments of quiet joy with those you cherish. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Brian A Beh- A Stroke Survivor.