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Neil Armstrong & Mr. Gorsky

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  • Neil Armstrong & Mr. Gorsky

    Several people have sent me this funny story. It's amusing in and of itself, and I suppose it could be true. Anybody know for sure? (Sorry it's all caps. I just copied and pasted and am too lazy to retype the whole thing.)

    Who's Mr. Gorsky?

    ON JULY 20, 1969, AS COMMANDER OF THE APOLLO 11 LUNAR MODULE, NEIL ARMSTRONG WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO SET FOOT ON THE MOON. HIS FIRST WORDS AFTER STEPPING ON THE MOON, "THAT'S ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN; ONE GIANT STEP FOR MANKIND," WERE TELEVISED TO EARTH AND HEARD BY MILLIONS.

    BUT JUST BEFORE HE RE-ENTERED THE LANDER, HE MADE THE ENIGMATIC REMARK, "GOOD LUCK, MR. GORSKY." MANY PEOPLE AT NASA THOUGHT IT WAS A CASUAL REMARK CONCERNING SOME RIVAL SOVIET COSMONAUT. HOWEVER, UPON CHECKING, THERE WAS NO "GORSKY" IN EITHER THE RUSSIAN OR AMERICAN SPACE PROGRAMS.

    OVER THE YEARS, MANY PEOPLE QUESTIONED ARMSTRONG AS TO WHAT THE, 'GOOD LUCK, MR. GORSKY' STATEMENT MEANT, BUT ARMSTRONG ALWAYS JUST SMILED.

    ON JULY 5, 1995, IN TAMPA BAY, FLORIDA, WHILE ANSWERING QUESTIONS FOLLOWING A SPEECH, A REPORTER BROUGHT UP THE 26-YEAR-OLD QUESTION TO ARMSTRONG. THIS TIME HE FINALLY RESPONDED. MR. GORSKY HAD DIED, SO NEIL ARMSTRONG FELT HE COULD NOW ANSWER THE QUESTION.

    IN 1938, WHEN HE WAS A KID IN A SMALL MID-WESTERN TOWN, HE WAS PLAYING BASEBALL WITH A FRIEND IN THE BACKYARD. HIS FRIEND HIT THE BALL, WHICH LANDED IN HIS NEIGHBOR'S YARD BY THEIR BEDROOM WINDOW. HIS NEIGHBORS WERE MR. AND MRS. GORSKY.

    AS HE LEANED DOWN TO PICK UP THE BALL, YOUNG ARMSTRONG HEARD MRS. GORSKY SHOUTING AT MR. GORSKY "SEX! YOU WANT SEX?! YOU'LL GET SEX WHEN THE KID NEXT DOOR WALKS ON THE MOON!"

    (I know, this sounds like the kind of story that would be more likely credited to Johnny Wiffer.) BP

  • #2
    That's hilarious! I'll be laughing all day.

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    • #3
      It's a joke first told by comic Buddy Hackett years ago and got accepted into the public domain as the truth. As in the movie "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", a journalist said "This is the West...when legend becomes fact, print the legend."
      Poet...Mystic...Soldier of Fortune. As always...self-absorbed, adversarial, cocky and in general a malcontent.

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      • #4
        Thanks, Bruce. It does sound like a stretch. I wonder if it is totally fabricated or has some element of truth.

        It would all begin by knowing if Neil Armsrong really said that in the course of the original mission. Who knows?

        It's funny nonetheless. Thanks again. BP

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        • #5
          Rather like the Arnold Palmer golf ball joke that was supposedly told on Carson or the Groucho Marx cigar joke on You Bet Your Life about the woman with too many kids. .... great stories but alas, untrue.

          When a story is too goo to be true....
          63 Avanti R1 2788
          1914 Stutz Bearcat
          (George Barris replica)

          Washington State

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          • #6
            In History, we used to have a saying. "Nah, it's not true, but it deserves to be."

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            • #7
              Originally posted by comatus View Post
              In History, we used to have a saying. "Nah, it's not true, but it deserves to be."
              Used to have a saying, Mike? When was it discontinued? BP

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              • #8
                Originally posted by BobPalma View Post
                It would all begin by knowing if Neil Armsrong really said that in the course of the original mission. Who knows? BP
                The original tape recordings have been gone over numerous times and no such utterances have been heard. It's a great story but the truth is the truth...it never happened. I'm sure Neil Armstrong got a good laugh from it and was probably asked many times about it. He may even have answered in jest about it.
                Poet...Mystic...Soldier of Fortune. As always...self-absorbed, adversarial, cocky and in general a malcontent.

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                • #9
                  Thanks for that confirmation, too, Bruce.

                  That settles it, since he never said anything about a Mr. Gorsky to begin with. Without the original quotation, the rest of the story is meaningless, albeit funny. BP

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                  • #10
                    When was it discontinued?

                    In 1992, of course, when Francis Fukuyama ended it. True story!

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                    • #11
                      My favorite Neil Armstrong story is from an old magazine article of flying stories from the Korean War. One tactic used was extreme low-level strafing runs. It was not uncommon for a plane to return to base with rocks embedded in a wing, thrown at the planes by the enemy. On one such run, an ENSIGN Neil Armstrong lost part of a wing when he ran into a telephone pole.
                      Restorations by Skip Towne

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                      • #12
                        Hey Bob, Snopes has an answer about his statement. http://www.snopes.com/quotes/mrgorsky.asp

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