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mokenamessenger.com life & arts
the Mokena Messenger | February 21, 2019 | 19
Apollo history comes
alive at Mokena library
T.J. Kremer III, Editor
“Life is no mystery when
you know your history.”
That’s the mantra of Jim
Gibbons, an ameutuer historian
who gave a presentation
of the Apollo 11 moon landing
at Mokena Community
Public Library District Saturday,
Feb. 16.
The Apollo 11 moon landing
happened 50 years ago
this year, but to hear Gibbons
tell it, one could almost
believe it only happened
yesterday.
Gibbons’ fast-paced and
high-energy retelling of the
events leading up to Apollo
11 had the audience fully engaged
and clinging to every
word in the mostly full community
room in the library’s
lower level.
Although Gibbons’ background
is in sales, he credits
his storytelling success
to being an avid reader and
self-proclaimed history buff,
and from having a teacher
at College of DuPage who
sparked Gibbons’ interest in
history, Terry Allen
“Most of my stuff has been
self-reading, self-taught, all
that kind of stuff,” Gibbons
said. “I’ve been speaking —
I have about 80 to 100 topics
I speak on.”
The prolific speaker has
made presentations across
the state, including at libraries,
historical museums and
other venues.
“What I like is to find out
why things happen,” Gibbons
said. “A lot of people
say, ‘Well why in the world
did we go to the moon?
Why do that? What a waste
of time.’ I have that as one
of the key spots in history is
the Apollo moon landing because,
guess what, that’s part
of our defense.”
Jim Gibbons gets excited during his presentation Saturday,
Feb. 15, at Mokena Community Library District. Gibbons gave
an overview of the Apollo 11 moon landing, which happened
50 years ago this year. T.J. Kremer III/22nd Century Media
Indeed, Gibbons’ presentation
did dive deep on
the origins of the lunar program
and NASA, starting all
the way back at WWII and
through the Cold War.
Gibbons explained, in his
unique quick-change, backand-forth
role shifting way,
how the process of getting
humans on the moon started
with the blockade of Berlin
post-WWII, when American
spy planes would fly over
the blockade and, well, spy,
on our Communist foes of
the day.
From there, things escalated
and Russia eventually
launched its first space satellite,
Sputnik. Now the race
to space was on in earnest.
“I think it’s pretty exciting.
Very, very exciting,” Gibbons
said. “It’s one of keys
in history that needs to come
out, particularly nowadays to
where we’re having tug-ofwar
all over, which is you versus
them. We need to have a
unified United States, I think.”
To that end, Gibbons said
he believes it’s important
for the younger generations
to get a full understanding
of the events that happened
way before their own time,
but now directly shape how
their world works.
“I think we try to tie them
up with all kinds of stuff.,”
Gibbons said. “[Children are
inundated with] ‘Here, you
buy my product over here.
You watch the internet, you
watch this thing over here.
After all, when you are using
my product, I make money,
don’t I?! And I keep making
money on this stuff.’”
Gibbons prides himself
on putting together presentations
on any particular
topic, including horrific and
gruesome ones such as WWI
and WWI, and making sure
the content is suitable for all
ages. He calls that “making
sure it’s rated G for Gibbons.”
“I never show things very
graphic in here because you
never know what family
members could be out there,
and if I was a member of
the family I’d be floored to
have something [explicit] up
there,” Gibbons said.
Gibbons is scheduled to
return to Mokena library
Aug. 10 for a presentation
on Woodstock. For more information,
visit jimgibbon
shistorian.com.