HOUSTON – Film footage of the most famous “space family” in history has never been seen before -- until now.
The footage shows a serious space explorer enjoying himself in Space City -- Neil Armstrong and his family, just being normal Houstonians on a rare "off day" for the busy astronaut.
It was a joyful flashback for Corinne Poel, who had not seen the footage for some 50 years.
Poel couldn't keep her eyes off the screen as KPRC showed her the images from her 8 mm film, which, until just a few days ago, sat inside a canister untouched for half a century. She wasn't exactly sure what was on it, but she knew who was on it.
Poel gave KPRC permission to get the film transfered to a format that would allow us, and her, to view it. KPRC brought it back to her home in El Lago, and she reminisced about her friends, Neil Armstrong and Jan Armstrong, and their boys.
Poel first met the Armstrongs in college at Purdue, then reconnected with them when her family moved to El Lago in 1967.
Soon after that, her friend would make history.
"It's like, 'Oh, wow. My neighbor's on the moon,'" Poel said. "I teased him later. We were at his house for a barbecue, and the moon came out. And it was a watermelon, shaped this way, and I said, 'Neil, you're the moon man. I've never noticed the moon like that. It's usually a crescent to the side,' and he said, 'I don't know.'"
Poel has more stories about her time with the Armstrongs, which can be found on Click2Houston’s Apollo page.