WAPAKONETA, OHIO — It’s easy to confuse this place for a highway town. It is easy to think Wapakoneta ends after the stretch of gas stations and fast food restaurants on Bellefontaine Street, off of exit 111 on Interstate 75.
But in truth, that is where Wapakoneta, the hometown of astronaut Neil Armstrong, actually begins.
Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, died Saturday. His life began here, a series of quiet streets holding houses that are neither fancy nor run-down.
There are bakeries and barrooms and mechanic shops, and little seems to have changed since 1944, when Armstrong’s family moved back to town in time for him to go to high school. It was quiet then, and it is quiet now.
Perhaps somebody like Armstrong needed to come from a place like Wapakoneta. A place quiet enough that dreams were necessary, and nurturing enough that they felt possible.
Armstrong’s family home is still there on the corner of Benton and Buchanan streets. On the second floor is the small corner bedroom he shared with his younger brother. The floors are wood, and the two windows are big. There are no trees outside the windows, only sky.
Karen Tullis bought the home 24 years ago. Tullis thinks history is important enough to share, so after she bought the house she put up a sign in front that says: “Eagles Landing, boyhood home of Neil Armstrong.”
On Sunday, the yard decorations included a vase of flowers and a teddy bear holding a sign that read, “RIP Neil.”
“His sister stopped by here a few years ago,” Tullis said. “She told me that he used to always build model airplanes right underneath that window.”
There is an often-repeated story that Armstrong built a wind tunnel in the basement of the home, but no proof of it. “It sounds like something he might have done,” Tullis said. “But there are so many stories now, it is hard to know what is real.”
Doris Weber met Armstrong in high school. She remembers that he worked at Rhine and Brading Drug Store to earn money for his flying lessons. Then he would ride his bike to Port Koneta, the grass airstrip where he learned how to fly.
“We all thought he was a very nice boy,” Weber said Sunday, before going out to dinner with her husband to celebrate their 64th wedding anniversary. “But nobody thought anything like this. I know I didn’t, and I know he didn’t either.”
That airstrip is now called the Neil Armstrong Airport.
Evon Schlenker, 92, has lived in Wapakoneta her whole life. She knew Neil and his parents well, because they all went to St. Paul United Church of Christ in the old Wapakoneta downtown.
Armstrong’s mother, Viola, taught Schlenker’s daughter Peggy in Sunday school. Schlenker remembers coming to the church late at night in July of 1969, to take part in a round-the-clock prayer vigil that began when the Apollo 11 took off. It continued 24 hours a day until Armstrong splashed down.
“We were praying night and day for him to return safely,” Schlenker said. “It felt like all we could do.”
Late Sunday morning, Jim Wierwille, 83, was sitting with an old friend in the Ohio Bar on East Auglaize Street in Wapakoneta. Wierwille’s uncle used to live next door to Armstrong’s grandparents’ farm outside of town. Armstrong had a horse there. “A sorrel pony, I think he called her Maggie.”
Wierwille remembers seeing Armstrong around town when they were younger. They would wave or say hello, but he never really knew him. Still, it doesn’t surprise him that the first man to walk on the moon used to walk these streets.
“Well, he had to be from somewhere,” Wierwille said. “There has never been much to do here but think about the things you could do. Armstrong just did them.”
But in truth, that is where Wapakoneta, the hometown of astronaut Neil Armstrong, actually begins.
Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, died Saturday. His life began here, a series of quiet streets holding houses that are neither fancy nor run-down.
There are bakeries and barrooms and mechanic shops, and little seems to have changed since 1944, when Armstrong’s family moved back to town in time for him to go to high school. It was quiet then, and it is quiet now.
Perhaps somebody like Armstrong needed to come from a place like Wapakoneta. A place quiet enough that dreams were necessary, and nurturing enough that they felt possible.
Armstrong’s family home is still there on the corner of Benton and Buchanan streets. On the second floor is the small corner bedroom he shared with his younger brother. The floors are wood, and the two windows are big. There are no trees outside the windows, only sky.
Karen Tullis bought the home 24 years ago. Tullis thinks history is important enough to share, so after she bought the house she put up a sign in front that says: “Eagles Landing, boyhood home of Neil Armstrong.”
On Sunday, the yard decorations included a vase of flowers and a teddy bear holding a sign that read, “RIP Neil.”
“His sister stopped by here a few years ago,” Tullis said. “She told me that he used to always build model airplanes right underneath that window.”
There is an often-repeated story that Armstrong built a wind tunnel in the basement of the home, but no proof of it. “It sounds like something he might have done,” Tullis said. “But there are so many stories now, it is hard to know what is real.”
Doris Weber met Armstrong in high school. She remembers that he worked at Rhine and Brading Drug Store to earn money for his flying lessons. Then he would ride his bike to Port Koneta, the grass airstrip where he learned how to fly.
“We all thought he was a very nice boy,” Weber said Sunday, before going out to dinner with her husband to celebrate their 64th wedding anniversary. “But nobody thought anything like this. I know I didn’t, and I know he didn’t either.”
That airstrip is now called the Neil Armstrong Airport.
Evon Schlenker, 92, has lived in Wapakoneta her whole life. She knew Neil and his parents well, because they all went to St. Paul United Church of Christ in the old Wapakoneta downtown.
Armstrong’s mother, Viola, taught Schlenker’s daughter Peggy in Sunday school. Schlenker remembers coming to the church late at night in July of 1969, to take part in a round-the-clock prayer vigil that began when the Apollo 11 took off. It continued 24 hours a day until Armstrong splashed down.
“We were praying night and day for him to return safely,” Schlenker said. “It felt like all we could do.”
Late Sunday morning, Jim Wierwille, 83, was sitting with an old friend in the Ohio Bar on East Auglaize Street in Wapakoneta. Wierwille’s uncle used to live next door to Armstrong’s grandparents’ farm outside of town. Armstrong had a horse there. “A sorrel pony, I think he called her Maggie.”
Wierwille remembers seeing Armstrong around town when they were younger. They would wave or say hello, but he never really knew him. Still, it doesn’t surprise him that the first man to walk on the moon used to walk these streets.
“Well, he had to be from somewhere,” Wierwille said. “There has never been much to do here but think about the things you could do. Armstrong just did them.”