F. Scott Fitzgerald captured the mood of an entire nation back in 1927 when he said "people set down their glasses in country clubs and speakeasies and thought of their old best dreams." A brave and unpresupposing young man flew solo across the Atlantic in a tiny monoplane.

In many ways, Lucky Lindy's historic flight from Roosevelt Field, Long Island to Paris foreshadowed another feat associated with Long Island 56 years later. The Apollo XI landing craft - designed and built at the Grumman plant in Bethpage- made landfall on the Moon's dusty, flour-like, surface on July 20, 1969. It was an heroic deed that came at the end of a decade of utter demoralization: Vietnam, J.F.K.'s murder, riots and social upheavals. For Levittown's Baby Boomers, this was the achievement that put us in touch with our Lost Generation grandparents.

The extraordinary progress from box kite-like winged contraption to landing on the Moon all happened here in Nassau County on the old Hempstead Plains. And who better to chronicle this epic than Edward J. Smits, C.E.O. of Nassau Heritage, author of Nassau County: Suburbia U.S.A., and a member of the Levittown Historical Society. On Monday, September 17, 2001, Mr. Smits will give a program on the soon-to-open Cradle of Aviation Museum in the Levittown Public Library at 7:30 p.m. Hosted by the Levittown Historical Society, admittance is free and refreshments will be served.