I recently experienced the whole Customs and Immigration thing for the first time in a year. In the past, I rarely gave it much thought, but now that we’ve had an authoritarian coup, it gives one pause.

On that note, I just read about the strange bureaucratic Customs saga of the Apollo 11 astronauts on their return from the Moon.

From Space.com: “Before the ticker tape parades and the inevitable world tour, the triumphant Apollo 11 astronauts were greeted with a more mundane aspect of life on Earth when they splashed down 50 years ago — going through customs. Just what did Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins have to declare? Moon rocks, moon dust and other lunar samples, according to the customs form filed at the Honolulu Airport in Hawaii on July 24, 1969 — the day the Apollo 11 crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean to end their historic moon landing mission. The customs form is signed by all three Apollo 11 astronauts. They declared their cargo and listed their flight route as starting Cape Kennedy (now Cape Canaveral) in Florida with a stopover on the moon.”

How about you, any weird Customs and Immigration stories ?