WARREN — It was 90 years ago this summer that a young Neil Artmstrong missed church one Sunday to take his first fight in a metal airplane off Parkman Road in Warren.

More than 70 people gathered Sunday afternoon at the Neil Armstrong Lunar Module site, where a special tribute took place to acknowledge not only Armstrong’s first flight on July 26, 1936, but also his landing on the moon on July 20, 1969.

Children had the opportunity to make and decorate paper airplanes and color pictures of Armstrong as a boy with his dad.

The public also enjoyed bright orange Tang and a variety of flavors of moon pies that astronauts often enjoyed in space.

James Valesky of the Warren Heritage Center said it was on July 26, 1936, that a 6-year old Armstrong, accompanied by his father, came to the airport in Warren where the lunar module site sits today and flew in a plane over parts of Warren and neighboring communities.

“We celebrate the 90th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s first flight. He took that plane flight on the very spot where we are today. This spot is where many dreams became possible, not only for Armstrong, but also another astronaut, Ron Parise from Warren. There is a lot of history here at this spot,” he said.

Valesky said his wife Jan did research and found that Armstrong’s family not only lived in Champion, but when he was 3, his family lived for a short time at 339 Homewood Ave. in Warren.

Jan Valesky found a birth record of Armstrong’s sister who was born in Warren and where the family lived.

Linda Perich Carpenter, whose father, Pete Perich, spearheaded the effort to get the lunar module replica constructed 25 years ago, said she has heard the story of Armstrong’s first flight.

“His airplane flight here when he was 6 led to the dreams he had as a boy, in high school and as an adult. He was so excited about his first airplane flight in a Tin Goose, which was the nickname for the Ford Trimotor, an early all-metal aircraft;” Carpenter said.

She said the Trimotor was only going to be in Warren for one day before it went to Columbus.

“If that plane was not there that July day, Armstrong’s flight would never have happened,” she said.

His father left church with his son to go see that Trimotor plane, which was made of all aluminum, and received its nickname because it flew like a goose.

“Neil thought he was only going to see the plane, but the pilot asked him and his father if they wanted to go for a ride. They used their church money to go on that flight. By the way, they missed church,” Carpenter said.

She said Armstrong and the others on the plane were given gum to chew because their ears would pop when they went up in the plane. Carpenter said Armstrong was fascinated by the plane propellers and hearing the the engine roaring,

She said they flew over parts of Warren and then farmlands of nearby communities, as well as Mosquito Lake.