Moon landing-are you old enough to remember where you were?

[babylonsister]

I was a mother's helper for 4 kids. :scared: On Long Island, Fire Island. I saw it because it rained for a week or more where I was. I recall lots of rain.

[proud patriot]

1. I was about 2 months old

:shrug:

[SDuderstadt]

33. So, what do you remember about it?

Just kidding...

[HowHasItComeToThis]

71. I WAS 20 AND GLUED TO TV

[KakistocracyHater]

182. You were??? Is it true that the Catholic Church was pissed off & condemned

them for messing in "God's Domain"? I was not yet born & my sister's birthday is July 19th but in the 1970s. Did other pastors(not Catholi) get upset about it? & did they really cut broadcasting suddenly? My Mom was there & she said the tv went black for a bit then it came back on-true?

I find it fascinating that the names Nasa chose were of Greek/Roman Gods, instead of the Christ Capsule, the Yahweh rocket(instead of Saturn), etc. I had thought only older people 'didn't believe' the moon landing, but I noticed how young some are, a tragedy!

[Confusious]

154. 2 1/2 months old n/t

[roguevalley]

164. I watched it in my living room in the early morning. I remember

being tres hungry.

[merh]

2. I remember watching it with my parents and my siblings

and my father and mother toasting it with champagne left over from my sister's wedding. They gave each of us kids a little glass with some and we all toasted the landing.

Giggly fun, even if we didn't have enough champagne to make a difference we thought it was so grown up and fun.

[ginnyinWI]

3. teenager, watching on a b & w TV. n/t

[havocmom]

130. Ditto.

With my older brother. Walter Cronkite and Wally Schirra were on the TV. I think Uncle Walter was a bit teary-eyed. I know my brother was. I was thinking of our Uncle Jim, the geeky, self-educated engineer, and how excited he would have been. He died just two years before. He should have been with us. :cry:

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Yes, among my first memories actually

on dad's shoulders, at a sport center in Mexico City, at my brother's graduation. We were watching the landing, outside, with them smokers, and the rest of men and some women and a few kids amazed at it.

Oh I was what three and a half.

Funny thing we went to the Sports Center this year when we went visiting. Dad and I had a moment of remembrance. The stairs he stood are still there, but the tv is long gone with the many remodels.

[uppityperson]

5. At family vacation cabin. Walked outside, looked at the moon and thought OMG,they are there, right

there. Looked inside to the TV, then back up. Was a teenager and it was a very incredible evening.

[ChickMagic]

151. That's what I did!

I'd watch, glued to the television, walk outside and look up at
the moon thinking, "Wow. People are standing there."

[Duer 157099]

6. I think it would be shocking to find someone who couldn't

well, besides some form of dementia, or having been too young to remember anything.

How could anyone be alive on that date in 1969 and not be acutely aware of the moon landing?

"Eh, yeah, I remember hearing something about it, but it wasn't interesting enough to pay attention to"

Hmmm, now that I think of it, there probably are many who that would apply to!

My friends and I were all playing outside (as usual) and all the adults were inside around the TV, and they called us inside for the important moments, but it was boring so we all went back outside. LOL

But I remember!

Edit to add: that ironically, we were playing on one of those "moon bouncer" balls, you know, it was a big ball with a single loop handle and you sat on it and bounced up the block? Fairly apt activity for the time I'd say.

[Art_from_Ark]

92. I can't imagine a kid being bored with the moon landing

I became really interested in the space program when Lost In Space debuted on TV, and then there were various offers of free solar system maps (I had one pinned up in my room), and free Saturn V plastic rockets inside specially marked boxes of Malt-O-Meal, and the first space walk, and the famous Apollo 10 orbit of the moon on Christmas Eve 1968, and the realization in July 1969 that we were, really, going to "win the space race" and land on the moon. I wouldn't have missed it for anything.

[blondeatlast]

7. My dad was in the hospital in another town (ours too small to have the care he needed.)

We watched for the longest time waiting for it--the entire small hospital in Montana erupted. It was magnificent and I remember as if it were yesterday.

[babylonsister]

20. Very cool! Thanks. nt

[armyowalgreens]

8. I was - 20 years old.

Technically, through the laws of thermodynamics, I was in a bunch of difference places at once.

[mth44sc]

9. Yep I remember

our TV was on the frits so I went to watch it with my HS school guidance counselor who lived down the street.

Kind of him.

[enlightenment]

10. We were in Japan.

My dad got us all out of bed (I think . . .) and we listened to it on the radio, all crowded into his little home office. I remember the bookshelf with the radio sitting on it and dad twiddling the dial because it kept fading in and out.

[Speck Tater]

11. Wife and I were driving to the R.E. office to close the deal on our first house. nt

[MarjorieG]

12. Just married, in our first apt. in Miami, Kendall Dr. in Dade. Unreal.

[RC]

13. Yes I do.

I was on the tv control board of the local tv station. It even had a color tv in the control room.

[babylonsister]

22. Whoa, must have been lots of excitement there. Nice. nt

[madinmaryland]

14. I was eight, and I remember my parents letting us stay up till 11 to see it happen.

Incredible!

[HeresyLives]

15. 7 months married, our first living-room,

and we watched every second, enthralled.

[Subdivisions]

16. I was five years old and

I was glued to the teevee, wanting really badly to be an astronaut when I grew up. I went to college on an astronomy major. That I didn't finish still haunts me to this day.

[murielm99]

17. I was newly married, just short of my 21st birthday.

I was standing in front of the TV, fascinated. I had a cup of coffee in my hands, and I was so intent on the landing that I stepped backwards over something, tripped, and spilled the coffee on my bare legs. I burned myself and had to spend some time sitting in cool water in the bathtub.

I'm still a klutz. LOL.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

18. I was working swing shift at the post office in North Hollywood, CA.

Heard about it on the radio.

[Touchdown]

19. Matchbox cars and Cap'n Crunch.

I was 3.

[Still Sensible]

21. Yep, I was 14 and laying on the living room

floor in front of the TV in Sierra Vista.

[PSzymeczek]

61. I am in SV now.

Have been for 25 of the past 30 years.

[Still Sensible]

170. How did you end up there? I graduated from

Buena in '73, went to ASU and have worked a lot of places since. I still own some land just past the San Pedro on 92.

[friendly_iconoclast]

23. My family had just moved to Indianapolis

We were in our new house on N. Central Avenue and watched it on our B&W TV. I was eight, about to turn nine.

[Contrary1]

50. I wasn't very far from you!

I was in Indy watching from a house on N. Ewing. :hi:

[abumbyanyothername]

24. I was at boy scout camp and hating it.

and I didn't understand what Bob Perrin was so freaking interested in that he had to have a portable TV of some sort to watch it.

[Kansas Wyatt]

25. Nope.... About 7 months old.

[Iggo]

26. I'm old enough to remember (47)...but I don't.

There were a LOT of spaceshots before and after that, and nowadays they kind of all run together in my mind. I'm guessing, since I was only 7, I was probably at home in the living room with my family.

I wasn't as huge a fan of moon landings as I was of splashdowns. Splashdowns were the shit!

[shanti]

27. we were on a summer vacation

dad, mom, me, sis, bro, and were driving down I-5 thru central oregon when it happened. heard it on the car radio. yup, i do remember.

[TahitiNut]

28. Midway through my tour in Viet Nam. (Where else?)

:shrug:

[jaysunb]

31. I'd been back in the "world" 3 years

and feeling real bad for those still in country.
:hi:

Ironically, I'm visiting Cleveland (family reunion) where on this day I was making my first visit back after moving the Cali that May.
Two of the three I watched the moon landing with are now dead. The other is also here from Cali visiting his dying Mom>

Many ironies....:shrug:

[babylonsister]

74. Wow. Thank you for sharing this. Enjoy your reunion! nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

34. Hugs

[babylonsister]

41. Did you hear about it? nt

[TahitiNut]

84. Oh, sure. We had lots of media access at Long Binh.

Radio, of course ("Good Morning, Viet Nam!") and even TV some places.

[The River]

55. On Leave at the Time

Camping on the beach where the Russian River
enters the ocean. Drove back to S.F. in time
to see the first images on TV.

[ThoughtCriminal]

29. Oh yes!

I was 11 and my Dad worked for NASA (he worked on everything from the Redstone in the Army days to the Saturn V). Some of my earliest memories were going to the Cape to watch rocket launches. Apollo 11 was a huge event for us.

I was at one Saturn V launch - Apollo 14. Seeing (and FEELING) it take off was a unique and amazing experience.

[Vidar]

178. Wow! Kudos to your dad for his part in it.

[devilgrrl]

30. I'm old enough but don't remember where I was at the time.

I was 4 years old... :shrugs:

[stevedeshazer]

32. In a 700 s.f. house on a stump ranch at the end of the road.

Got sprayed by a skunk that morning in the barn.

Watched on my dad's new TV.

Incredible.

[babylonsister]

35. Stinky Stevie! Good times. I bet you remember that entire day! nt

[stevedeshazer]

48. Ironically, to get rid of the smell I had to shower in lemon juice and Tang.

Whoa.

[babylonsister]

51. Ha-TANG! I so remember that!

:rofl:

[Raster]

169. Astronaut orange juice!

[Vidar]

179. How about Space Food Sticks & Major Matt Mason astronaut toys--

also de rigeur for astronaut groupies?

[asdjrocky]

36. Yep.

One of my earliest memories. I was nine years old, my mom and dad woke me to see the landing. I remember sitting there on the flor in front of the TV and thinking how fuzzy and far away they looked. Then I went outside to look for the moon, but I don't remember if I found it or not.

I still think it's one of the best things my country has done in my lifetime.

[BlooInBloo]

37. Not even a glimmer in my daddy's eye,

[doc03]

38. I was in the Army at Camp May

near Regan, W. Germany on that day. The German civilians gave us a party with all the food and beer we wanted. That was the best time I ever had in the Army.

[babylonsister]

43. What fun! That sounds like a great memory. nt

[doc03]

52. I consumed mass quantities of beer and some weed

that day and probably done some things I am better off not remembering.

[Lagomorph]

176. I was working at a fast food place...

...about a half hour before, to 20 minutes after, there was not a soul on the road. It was soooooo quiet.

Then, we were all...."OK, now what?"

[cascadiance]

39. I lived in Turkey at the time...

They were just starting to get TV at that time, and only had non-live television broadcasts for a period of time in the evenings... They had old Star Trek, Daktari, and Mission impossible episodes with subtitles or Turkish language tracks, but aside from that, we were devoid of American TV culture then... My dad might have been tuning into it on short-wave radio though. I think I remember him tuning in for events like that from time to time.

I do remember though the TV coverage of JFK's assassination, them tracking down Oswald, and the funeral after that when we lived in DC then...

[TatonkaJames]

40. Sitting in front of our B&W tv

On the floor with my plastic model from the Science Club I belonged to from a Popular Mechanics magazine advertisement.

[babylonsister]

42. Aww, that's sweet! nt

[ContinentalOp]

44. I was not born yet but I tend to think we haven't really had an event like that in my lifetime.

Would those who were there agree? Has there been anything like it since?

[Skittles]

53. absolutely I would agree

I sometimes taunt the younger folk with that, when they make fun of my age :D

[Greyhound]

87. Nothing even close. We were still a relatively free nation. The Corporatocracy was still

forming and we could do great things just because we could.

We went to the moon, and followed it up with a compromised space truck.

[Contrary1]

45. Hell, I'm old enough to forget where I was.

Nah, not really. At a friends house watching it in black and white.

[Liberty Belle]

46. With my proud father, an aerospace engineer. He designed the light path for 1st manned space flight

with John Glenn, and the early Apollo missions. Also the Atlas, Gemini and Mercury flights. He so wanted to watch the first moonwalk on TV, but he had a car for sale and the buyer showed up at the worst possible moment, so Dad missed the big moment.

Someone wrote a book about the rocket scientists of General Dynamics Convair; they called Dad "Mr. Atlas."

He died last year in a nursing home, where nobody would believe he was REALLY a rocket scientist. God, I miss him so much watching all this moon flight anniversary stuff.

[satya]

69. What a wonderful man he must have been!

Hats off to the scientists like him who played such a vital role, and hugs to you feeling the loss of your dad.

:hug:

[Skittles]

47. yes; I was 12 years old, an American schoolgirl in England

very proud indeed

[AwakeAtLast]

49. No, but I'm sure I heard it in my mother's tummy ;)

I was five months away from being born. Which means I'm gonna be...you guessed it...40. x(

[PSzymeczek]

54. I was 16

and home on summer vaca before my junior year of HS.
Troy, Ohio, USA.

[XOKCowboy]

56. At my grandparents house watching on a Philco TV

I was staying with Grandma and my Grandpa was off somewhere working. Kind of ironic now that I think of it. She was a full-blood Indian who was born in Indian Territory and never even had a birth certificate. For a 15 yr old it was an amazing moment for me. I wonder what she thought about it.

[WCIL]

57. I was 4 years old

and we were living in military housing in Spring Valley, New York. My parents got me and my 2 year old sister out of bed to watch it, because it was too significant to miss - but I don't remember anything about it.

[lumberjack_jeff]

58. I was 8.

I was at a relative's house. I can remember playing in their yard when my aunt said "Kids! Come inside you need to see this!"

I'm glad she did.

[Patchuli]

59. Busy being a wild teenaged flower child

but I watched a little...! My sis and I drove Dad crazy because he thought we took it for granted that man was landing on the moon. We told him we knew it was going to happen, so? Girls just wanna have fun! ;-) ;-)

[Wakingupnow]

60. Started my dental practice that day.

Fresh out of graduate school and seeing my very first patients in my "mod" office with "2001 Space Odyssey" posters with an outer space theme decor. I thought fascination with space travel would be the rage forever. Sadly, it faded and comes back some but the original excitement was soon over. But it was exciting hearing the broadcast of the blast-off on the radio.:bounce:

[babylonsister]

63. Wow! And nice to see you checking in, Wakingupnow! nt

[ContinentalOp]

68. LOL, I would totally go to your mod 2001 themed dental office! -nt-

[PCIntern]

145. From another DMD...

welcome aboard!

:hi:

[slipslidingaway]

62. Oh yes...

on a sailboat in the Virgin Islands with a wealthy friend from school whose family lived in Venezuela.

[Joe Fields]

64. I'll never forget it.

My mother and father took us kids over to my granny and granddad's house to watch it. I was thirteen, and had seen all, and I mean ALL of the rocket launches that had been televised, up to that point, so I was a huge fan of the space program. Here I was, 13 years old, and I KNEW how historic that event was. It gave me goosebumps and a lump in my throat.

[babylonsister]

73. Very nice for you, Joe Fields. I knew, too, despite the rain. And I was

your age.

[Lilith Velkor]

65. I was not quite a year old

I dimly remember putting my grubby toddler fingers all over the TV screen. I was too young to know why it was important, or even what the word "moon" meant.

Speaking of which, there's a movie out called "Moon." It's quite good. See it if you can.

[Brother Buzz]

66. I have absolutely no memory of the moon shot, none

But I do have reason to believe I had just discovered LSD and was visiting planets in other solar systems at the time. If memory serves me well, I can state that our moon pales in comparison to Tralfamadore, and that Montana Wildcat was the BOMB!

[babylonsister]

67. Then you're well named.

:rofl:

[Gabi Hayes]

70. hahaha....I was sexually intercoursing for the first time

well....trying

[rampart]

81. one small step for man........

me too. under the girls dorm at LSU.

[MADem]

72. We went out and bought one a-them COLOR TEE VEEs in anticipation! nt

[Silent3]

76. Of course, you had to wait until Apollo 14...

...to get color TV from the moon, but at least you'd be ready. :)

[MADem]

78. We got the tee vee anyway. It sure made the newscasts more interesting!

We had no idea if it would be in color or not, but we did want to be ready because we were incredibly overjoyed at the prospect of seeing someone on the moon--it was a very big deal to all of us.

And boy, after the event, did we ever love that color tee vee! After years in Europe with no tee vee at all, it was a fine, fine thing!

[sutz12]

75. IIRC I was pumping gas at a Shell station in Auburn WA.

Missed the whole thing. :shrug:

[MiniMe]

77. I was about 10. I remember sitting on the floor of my parents bedroom and we

watched it together. I got to stay up late for the moon walk. Very vividly remember the one small step for man.

[flyarm]

79. yep! I was sitting at the end of a runway with my boyfriend who was leaving the next day for Vietnam

we were listening to it on the radio in his convertable..at the end of an airport runway..with tears in our eyes with excitement..and sadness... as my boyfriend was a fighter pilot and was leaving the next morning for Vietnam. (Thank goodness he was one who came back safely)

In later years, one Xmas my family was in Vail, Colorado for Xmas and Jim Irwin was staying in our hotel..he went to dinner with us one evening..it was so exciting for my son ( and me!)..and when we were walking out of the hotel to go to dinner..the moon was full and bright and seemed so close in the mountains that it felt like we could touch it..and Jim put his arm around my son's shoulder and pointed to the moon and said..'BEEN THERE... DONE THAT"

I told my son only 8 men can say that!

I have many pictures of my Son with Jim ..he was a wonderful man..and the one of 8 men to ever walk on the moon..in fact he spent 19 hours physically on the moon, and he piloted the Lunar Module that he landed on the moon.

We enjoyed Jim's company for almost two weeks of our Christmas vacation.

I was very sad when he passed from this earth..but he said he found God on the moon..I believe he did!

As a lifelong crew member for a major airline..it was a complete thrill for me to meet Jim and to have my son meet him and learn so much from him ..on a Christmas vacation!

[babylonsister]

106. Nice story, thanks for sharing, flyarm. nt

[Arctic Dave]

80. I wasn't born yet. I'm always late for the party.

[tuvor]

82. Barely cognizant.

[GiveMeFreedom]

83. I was 12 years old

in my 6th grade class. We were all under our desks practicing the duck and cover maneuver that would save us from nuclear holocaust. we did this just in case the communists decided it really was not a moon landing but an attack on the universe's largest cheese deposit. Not really, but I was 12, in the 6th grade and we all watched the landing on TV.

[Bluenorthwest]

118. Summer school sucks

It was mid summer, the first landing. Oh and I was 9 then, and I'd like to say that never in my entire life was I part of a 'duck and cover' drill, which I guess some places had done in the 50's. I never, ever saw or heard of those drills outside of 'Happy Days' or old news clips.
So you were seeing stuff from the 50's, and attending school in the core of summer. If you say so.

[Greyhound]

85. It is one of my earliest memories.

We watched it on a B&W screen and it was the first time I'd ever seen adults that excited. In fact, I can't think of another time I've seen people that excited and happy.

I thought then that the future was going to be great.

[hfojvt]

86. I am, but I don't

even though I was crazy about the space program. Who knows, in July we might have been on the road visiting grandparents. I was seven.

[snake in the grass]

88. It is one of my earliest memories.

I grew up in Florida, so we were always very interested in what was going on at Cape Canaveral (at the time it was still called Cape Kennedy). We were at my great uncle's, who lived a few houses away and had a big TV. I'll never forget the moment, although, at the time, I didn't comprehend what was happening.

[old mark]

89. I was in the army, in a training company. They let us all stay up and watch it all.

Thank you, drill sergeant.

markO8)

[Oldtimeralso]

90. I Was 20 years old and....

at a party where the only television was a small b&w with rabbit ears! A lot if beer flowed both before and after the landing. The later moonwalk was also toasted highly. At the time I was working as an aircraft mechanic and space flight was the ultimate expression of flying.

[RushIsRot]

91. I was in bed, sick with a summer flu. I didn't miss a thing.

[Jim Lane]

93. My family was traveling on vacation.

We were listening on the car radio, and when the landing was approaching, we stopped and found a bar with a TV set on.

I was only 16 and just being in a bar was something of a thrill, but not as much as the landing. I was a real space junkie. I can still you the names of all seven Mercury astronauts. (It's a tough question because only six of them got into space.)

[Shanti Mama]

94. I was a mother's help on LI the year after!

That summer I was in between what was then known as Jr. High School and High School. Many people at our house in CT. Not a party but intense watching.

[babylonsister]

129. Ah, those were the days. Full time employment as a mom's helper at

I think $20/WEEK vs. 50 cents an hour to babysit. Now kids command what, $10/hour? I missed something along the way!

[Obamanaut]

95. Yes. nt

[eridani]

96. I was in Belleville, IL with a co-worker

We went to her parents' house because they had a nice color TV.

[KharmaTrain]

97. I Was In Israel

I spent the summer there with family friends and was roaming around the country. Their TV was primitive at best...most people didn't have sets and those who did watched Jordanian, Egyptian, Lebanese or Cypriot TV. The night of the landing I was tuned on a transistor radio to the Voice of America radio station from Rhodes, Greece. It was about midnight when the Eagle landed and I stayed up through the night listening until Neil Armstrong's first steps.

The next day, we went to a friend's house who had a TV. Israel TV came on around 5pm with an old 1950's Disneyland program showing them shooting monkeys into space and claiming that "one day a man will fly atop a rocket". Then came their newscast with a grainy picture of Armstrong planting the flag...I felt so damn proud.

I didn't see any real video or film until I returned stateside in late August...stopped in New York just as Woodstock was happening. But that's another story for another anniversary...

Cheeers...

:hi:

[babylonsister]

105. Please tell me you went to Woodstock, too.

My gosh, that's memorable! To be in Israel, to share history.

But Woodstock? Sounds like the best summer EVA! And did I mention rain in NY that year?

:D

[KharmaTrain]

115. Well...

I think we're the same age. Sounds like you were in the Hamptons that summer.

It was an interesting trip at a very interesting time...before Likud and PLO/Al Fattah/Hezbollah. I toured all over the country (mostly by myself)...even into the West bank. You could take a public bus from Tel Aviv to Gaza City. Israelis and Palestinians were feeling each others out in those days...alas things are far different today.

I got back to the states on Aug. 22 and stayed with my cousins in Flushing Meadows...and we were all ready to hop in the car and drive up to Woodstock. The next morning, my cousin turned on the radio and heard that traffic on the turnpike was backed up 25 miles and slowing down not far outside of Westchester. We watched the TV coverage instead...but that doesn't mean I don't say I wasn't there... :rofl:

I don't remember any rain when I was in NYC. But I sure do remember the number the Mets did to the Cubs that year.

:toast:

[RebelOne]

98. Yes, I certainly do remember.

And, as it was happening, I called my mother and told her, "See, I told you so. I knew man would finally reach the moon." She used to say that I read too much science fiction when I was a kid and none of that stuff would ever happen.

[Princess Turandot]

99. Watching it on TV and making a pretty hopeless attempt to take a photo (included) of it ..

probably with a Kodak Instamatic Camera!

[Bluenorthwest]

111. Wow and good for you!

Primitive screen capture! I made audio tapes on a wee Craig recorder from Blue Chip Stamps. The audio tapes are long lost.
I do still have an Apollo 11 Mission patch, and also a perfectly preserved Apollo 11 Tee-Shirt, in a child's size, never ever worn, that is displayed like art in my house.

[WeDidIt]

100. Six years old

and glued to the television for the entire thing at a baysitter's house.

[Atman]

101. Standing on the beach watching it take off.

I had the very fortunate experience of growing up in Cocoa Beach, Florida. I was ten at the time.

.

[KatyaR]

102. I was 12, and my mom was in the hospital after having

emergency surgery. My dad took me into town to see her, and then we stopped at my cousins' house for dinner. I remember sitting in their living room, eating dinner on a metal TV tray, and watching them step on the moon. It was amazing. I'm so glad my dad was able to see it. He died 5 years later.

[RagAss]

103. I was 10 and I got to stay up late !

[HamdenRice]

104. I was in sleepaway bible camp in rural Pennsylvania. They woke us up to see it.

They woke us up and brought us into the dining hall to watch a black and white tv. I remember it, but I also remember being too sleepy for it to sink in.

[ThomWV]

107. I was in a bar in Colorado Springs drinking a beer with a fellow Army buddy

I was stationed at Fort Carson for a couple of months inbetween tours in RVN and we were out having a beer when it happened, they had the TV on in the bar of course.

[YewNork]

108. I remember being allowed to stay up late to watch it on TV because it was past my bedtime.

[IDemo]

109. I had just turned 12 one month prior

I was at the UCLA summer camp for diabetic kids in southern California (Redlands? been too long to remember..).

We had just returned from a horseback ride in a drizzling rain and were walking into the mess hall when one of the camp counselors (all of whom were UCLA students) burst out of the door exclaiming "They landed! They landed!"

That evening, walking back to the camp area, the clouds had lifted somewhat and the moon appeared in full view. I held my hand over it as if to somehow contain the moment.

My father had died in the terrible crash of a B25 near Los Angeles only two months previously. As I lay in my sleeping bag, I was torn between feeling excitement over the events of the day and wishing that Dad, who had instilled in me his love of all things space related, could have survived to witness this historic moment.

[Bluenorthwest]

110. I was 9, and following every moment

The actual landing, when Buzz Aldrin piloted the LEM to the surface, I saw at Aunt Tiny's, Armstrong's big step I saw at some cousin's house. I was not happy that the adults wanted to do anything but sit in front of the TV and watch and listen to Mission Control.
The Space program was very important to me as a kid. Then they decided it was a waste of time and went on about the war business, I stopped giving a shit about science, went into the arts and that is that.
But back then we were doing some things of importance, and it felt great.

[WolverineDG]

112. 6 years old, in my jammies, sitting on the couch

watching it on *color* tv (those of you alive then know just how big a deal that was ;) ; I actually had a friend who was so rich, she had TWO color tvs!! )

Dad woke us up so we could see the first man on the moon. I was excited because my dad was excited. It took a few years for the impact of that event to take effect.

dg

[Bluenorthwest]

126. Course the images from the moon were not in color

until Apollo 14, I think it was...Neil and Buzz were in glorious black and white.

[WolverineDG]

128. Yeah, that was the irony of the situation

:rofl:

but dammit, my family had a color TEE VEE!!!! Not even the doctor's kids down the street could say that!!!! (well, they would soon, as their dad finally sprung for one a few months later).

dg

[Bluenorthwest]

131. We had nothing but color by then

I guess the folks were cutting edge! I remember a few years earlier, being at an Aunt's house and hearing my Mom and Aunt say that 'next year, even all the commercials will be in color.' Who knows when that was!

[WolverineDG]

152. Yeah, I wouldn't have pegged my dad for being on the "cutting edge" of technology

but I still remember how kids' jaws at school would drop when they found out we had 2 TVs, one in color, AND "cable tv" (which meant we got the ABC & PBS stations out of Corpus & a "weather channel" which was nothing more than a fixed camera panning back & forth in front of the various indicators at the Brownsville National Weather Station; if you missed the one showing the temperature, you had to wait a minute for the camera to pan back to it. :rofl: )

dg

[lefthandedlefty]

113. I was in the sixth grade and we watched it in class

[NorthCarolina]

133. Same here

they wheeled a B&W TV into our classroom and we watched it there.

[Strong Atheist]

159. Welcome to DU!

:toast:

[ColbertWatcher]

114. I'm old enough to FORGET where I was.

Just kidding.

It was an amazing thing. Listened to it on a radio with a bunch of friends. Tried real hard to understand the gravity of it all, while enjoying lots and lots of beer.

[Silent3]

125. I think I remember...

...but I was only six years old at the time. Multiple moon landing memories may have gotten all jumbled up in my memory. I know that I did watch, my whole family did, but when I try to remember the experience what I dig up has the feel of a reconstructed memory.

[johnfunk]

116. Glued to the tube with my parents, having trouble making out the hazy images

... and thrilled by the adventure.

[lunatica]

117. I'm old enough to remember Yuri Gagarin

The first Soviet Cosmonaut and the first man to be shot into space and returned. Hell I'm old enough to remember when they shot the first dog into space too, and that was before Yuri.

[Bluenorthwest]

123. If you remember the dog, here is a movie to rent!

"My Life As A Dog" is a 1985 film by Lasse Hallstrom who directed 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape' and 'Chocolate'. Good film!

[NoPasaran]

119. Thirteen years old, watching on our old Magnovox B&W as Uncle Walter talked us through it

Fort Lee, Virginia

[Liberal_in_LA]

120. I was a kid, too young to realize the importance, but I recall my older brother being glued to TV

[H2O Man]

121. I sure do.

I was on earth at the time.

[DearAbby]

122. I was 14, I remember staying up all night

to see it. I was the only one who did. I was so excited. I saved the newspaper the next morning. I just had to be a witness to one of our greatest achievments.

[MgtPA]

124. I was 15 and moderately interested. Hubby was 17 and took photos of the TV screen...

...with his Kodak Brownie camera

[sweetpotato]

127. We were on our summer road trip visiting relatives in Chadron, NE

We're from South Carolina - so that was some trip to make with 3 kids in a VW bug.

[Bluenorthwest]

132. Michael Collins- he was the pilot of the Columbia

the capsule that orbited the Moon while Aldrin and Armstrong went to the surface. A forgotten role in many retellings, I often think of the utter loneliness being solo in that craft must have been. All three of these Astronauts had difficult roles to fill, perhaps especially Collins, who was alone for all that time, around the backside of the Moon. Imagine that.
I really enjoyed this thread and all of the comments. What a time it was!

[comrade snarky]

158. Collins' was the hardest job

Not only was he alone in the capsule but if any of the myriad landing problems had occurred he would have been alone on the return trip, his comrades left behind with no hope of rescue. They knew this was a possibility.

Thinking about it gives me chills.

[Bucky]

134. I was living in a neighborhood right next to the studio where they filmed the "landing"

Buzz Aldrin would come out from the studio after work each afternoon for his smoke breaks and let all the neighborhood kids try on his helmet. At the end of the hoax filming he even let me hold the flag they planted on the "moon" set, but like an idiot I broke the wire and the durn thing just drooped like a normal flag. That was about when Aldrin started drinking, so I've always felt a little guilty about that.

[babylonsister]

143. Hahaha! You need to write a book.

I'd read it! :D

[Mad_Dem_X]

135. I was not yet 3 years old

I remember standing in the living room, watching it on TV, with my mother behind me, either sitting in a chair or ironing (can't remember). she was 8 months pregnant with my sister at the time.

I couldn't fully comprehend the magnitude of it all, of course, but I did know it was something important.

[slackmaster]

136. In a 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass station wagon, westbound on I-8 in Imperial County, CA

We were driving through a heavy rainstorm that was the remnants of a tropical cyclone. The family was moving back to San Diego after spending several months living in Alamogordo, NM where my stepfather had been working on a defense project.

Radio reception was spotty. During a break in the weather, we all heard Neil Armstrong's voice announcing "Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed!" We all cheered.

I'll never forget it.

[cureautismnow]

137. I was 4 1/2 years old living in base housing at the old McCoy AFB, Orlando.

I vaguely remember watching it on the B&W tv with family. It was nearly 11 P.M. before Neil hopped down onto the surface, so I was a pretty tired and groggy kid by then. I remember talking about it with my little buddies in the neighborhood the next day.

My big Apollo thrill came in Dec. 1972 when I witnessed Apollo 17 blast off from KSC. It was after midnight before it ever launched and a pitch-black night became day in a matter of seconds. Just awesome.

"As I take man's last step from the surface, back home for some time to come — but we believe not too long into the future — I'd like to just what I believe history will record — that America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17."

– Eugene A. Cernan, Apollo 17 Commander. Last man to walk on the moon, December 14, 1972.

[LWolf]

138. I was 9.

In front of the tv in our apartment, and then out in the street in front, with the rest of the neighborhood, staring up at the moon in awe.

[DavidDvorkin]

139. At NASA in Houston, in the control center

But not the control center for the mission. There were two of them, and they alternated. They let a bunch of us employees into the alternate one, so that we could listen to the live feed from the Lunar Module as it descended.

[flyarm]

146. WOW!! How wonderful for you!!!!!!! and exciting !!! thanks for the story!! eom

[babylonsister]

157. Wow, how cool was that?! That must be a cherished memory. nt

[Blue_In_AK]

184. DavidDvorkin, my dad worked for NASA, also.

He was a contract negotiator on the Apollo project from 1962 to 1969.

[DavidDvorkin]

191. That overlaps my time there

I was there from 1967-1961.

But our paths probably didn't cross, since we worked in very different areas. Can you post his name, or send it to me privately? It's possible that we met, although unlikely.

[DavidDvorkin]

190. I just posted a more detailed version on my blog

Here: http://eyeblister.blogspot.com/2009/07/where-were-you-when-we-landed-on-moon.html

It's funny how memories bubble up in response to a simple question.

[gblady]

140. I am old enough, but....

for the life of me, I cannot remember seeing it.
I know I did...but where, when and with whom....
gone from the memory bank.

[Stinky The Clown]

141. I was in the Navy, on a ship, in port at Charleston, SC.

I watched as much of it as I could. Our skipper required only watch standers to be on duty for the whole time the moon shot was on teevee.

I recall feeling REALLY patriotic.

[sybylla]

142. I remember sitting on the couch and watching it on tv.

It was probably the first television program I actually sat still long enough to watch. I was five and old enough to know what was happening. That someone was actually walking on the moon made the world seem so awesome and wonderfilled. I still remember that day as if I were sitting there now.

[doni_georgia]

144. I was five years old

I remember watching it at my grandma's house and lots of family members being there - think all my relatives must have been in town - because I remember my aunt and uncle being there from Miami and my other aunt and uncle and cousins being there from California. My grandfather was an inventor and an airplane designer - space travel was his biggest fascination, but he died in 1957. I remember grandma making a toast to my grandfather.

[amb123]

147. First time in my life I was allowed to stay up late to watch TV.

I was two months short of my 7th birthday. The first step occurred at 10:56 PM and I watched all two and a half hours of the moonwalk. I've been a big fan of spaceflight ever since.

[Winterblues]

148. I was in Vietnam

It took two full days before the Vietnamese I knew understood what had actually happened. I did not know enough Vietnamese to be able to explain it to them and they did not have TVs or even radios in most of their homes.

[Milspec]

149. I was 17 and also glued to the TV

Funny though, I always knew I would see the first human on the moon, but I never dreamed I would see the last.

[undeterred]

150. We had just come home from a family vacation

and my dad set up his camera on a tripod to photograph the moon while there were Americans walking on it.

[Kaleva]

153. At an Aunt's and Uncle's home in Ann Arbor

We were down in the basement watching it on tv but I missed it as I fell asleep. I had missed the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show a few years earlier for the same reason.

[Dulcinea]

155. Almost 4 years old.

My mom was pregnant with my sister, and everyone thought it was a big deal, so I figured it must be a big deal!

[Surya Gayatri]

156. Indelible memory--hot & humid summer Sunday in Nebraska,

hobbling around on crutches with a broken knee in an insufferably HOT cast, trying to co-host a reception for my parents' 25th wedding anniversary.

Watched the approach to the LEM landing on a wall-mounted B&W with all of the guests in the reception hall and Armstrong's unforgettable first step in my parent's living room on a primitive color (IIRC) set.

You can Google the date and verify that July 20th, 1969, was indeed a SUNDAY. I suspect that those of you who have memories of watching it at school must be confusing this landing with a later one???

:shrug:

Thanks to all of you for sharing your moments in time--wow 40 years ago already! SG

[livetohike]

160. I was 16 and watching our b&w tv with two girlfriends

We were glued to the tv (along with my parents and siblings). It was such an awesome event. My birthday is on July 21 and I was hoping Neil Armstrong would walk on the moon on my birthday :-).

[unc70]

161. Just married, watched it all on the B&W TV. Was employed doing rocket science

While most of us remember watching that first landing on B&W TVs, I seem to remember that television cameras on the first couple of landings were rather primitive monochrome systems. The color images were recorded on film (stills and movie) and were not seen until long after they had returned to earth.

We mostly watched the CBS coverage with Cronkite, et al. I remember that it seemed to take a long time after landing before they stepped on the surface. I remember lying on the floor by the TV and taking cat naps.

At that time, I was employed through a contract from Army Research Office as the programmer assigned to a top rocket scientist and his research at White Sands. My boss had been one of the top German scientists during WWII and one of group brought secretly to the US immediately after the war and who were the foundation for most of the US rocket and space programs. Most of hs work here and in Germany was not declassified until recently.

I learned a lot from Herr Dr. while amazing him with what we could accomplish with relative easy using the latest (1969) high-performance computers and a Calcomp plotter. Looking back, I am still amazed at just how limited and few were the computers that got man to the moon, and more amazed by the clever ways they compensated.

Since my boss had been in the middle of developments since the 1930's, I asked a lot of questions, and he seemed to enjoy telling me about his experiences. The moon landing prompted many of these conversations. I reqret I did not take more and better notes back then, and I need to organize and perserve what I have and to write down anything I can still remember.

I am sure there are others at DU who were more involved than I. I still have a small connection to things; my software is used at Johnson operations supporting the shuttle and station. (Those are the computers you see when they show mission control.)

The moon landing was the first event that was seen on TV by many around the world as it happened, heard on radio by almost everyone else, and united nearly all of humanity to share this event. We held our collective breaths during the landing and we knew that first step onto the moon really was a leap for mankind.

Few of us could see that the TV, satelites, and computers that let us watch were themselves the first step in something equally profound -- how we acquired and shared information could be live and worldwide, leading to today's net/web/tv world of technology and more dramatic changes over the next few years. The earth was not smaller, it really was closer.

BTW Writing this post made me realize that I should do a journal post with more details from what boss told me and about the early technologies.

[TrogL]

162. Watching the next door neighbour's TV 'cause it was colour

Yes, that's right. We went next door to the neighbour's to watch a black and white broadcast on a colour TV.

And people wonder why I'm batshit crazy. :crazy:

[GeorgeGist]

163. In Kalamazoo, at my fiance's apartment.

It was the sixties. I was too high to remember much detail.

[aikoaiko]

165. Nope, only old folks remember it.

;)

[WI_DEM]

166. I was 5 years old and at home--it was summer so no school (started first grade that fall)

and watched moon landing with mom, and siblings.

[backscatter712]

167. Not born yet.

I do remember watching the very first Space Shuttle launch at school when I was in the 1st grade, and I was in the 6th grade at that same school when Challenger exploded.

[Raster]

168. Let's see, I was 12., and I remember my Mormon Sunday School teacher taking

us all to the Dairy Queen for either a Flip or a Flop. A Flip if you thought God would "let" them land and a Flop if you thought not. I recall I had a Flip.

[Hardrada]

171. I was in the hot lobby of this chintzy apartment building in Dinkytown

(U of MN campus town) with a bunch of potheads and I was sharing a bottle or two of Mateus. I was fairly stoned and world-weary but I still was totally fascinated.

[Solly Mack]

172. Atlanta, Georgia. At home.

[juno jones]

173. I was around seven.

I frankly remember my mom telling us to "watch this because this is history" more than I remember the actual event. Years of seeing the pics in books and webpages has made me even fuzzier on the actual details of that day in my own experience.

I do remember the NASA astronaut fad of those days very well tho, Tang and and those funky foodsticks.

[Individualist]

174. I was 26 years old

Like most people, I watched the coverage on TV. When coverage concluded, I went outside and looked up at the moon, filled with awe at the fact that two people were standing there.

[Hekate]

175. Somehow the Moon seems a lot further away than in 1969...

Amidst all the reminiscing and remembering where you were, I just feel kind of sad and jaded.

At the time, my sister and I (both of whom had cut our teeth on sci-fi) said to each other that instead of feeling utterly blown away by the event we felt as if this was the logical progression of the history of exploration, the first step in a series of steps that would take humans to the Solar system and beyond. Of *course* we watched the broadcast, and were thrilled, but even so...

My sister, who became a computer engineer, even dreamed of joining the space team as an astronaut herself.

Instead -- well, instead, near space is full of commercial satellites beaming mindless entertainment at us, and military satellites that threaten us, and satellites that spy on us.

Yes, the Moon does seem farther and farther away. :-(

Hekate

[AngryOldDem]

177. Watching it with my folks.

Typical warm July night as I recall.

[Vidar]

180. Watching it with my extended family at my grandparents. I was thirteen & trying to explain it to my

grandfather who drove a caisson in WWI. My grandmother was trying to remember when they first heard about airplanes.

[texanwitch]

181. Watching it at the farm.

My Grandparents were sleeping, seems like it was late at night.

My Aunt was very ill at the time, she died a few days later.

I felt really alone watching it.

That was the summer my childhood ended.

[Blue_In_AK]

183. I was in Colorado

one year out of college.

The whole Apollo thing was kind of a big deal to my family because my dad was employed by NASA as a contract negotiator on the Apollo project from 1962 until his retirement from government work in 1969. My parents moved to Alaska from Houston in 1969, but I believe they were still living down in the states at the time of the moon landing because we watched it together in Colorado. I think they were taking one last vacation down there before heading north. My dad was so proud, as if he were walking on the moon himself. :)

[fujiyama]

185. I was not alive at the time

and was not born for another 12 years, but for those of us that came of age when the moon landing is simply another part of history, it's still unlike any other. I can still recall giving a little presentation in second grade, where I had obviously not done my full research and I mentioned Kennedy being president during the landing. I was obviously mistaken and the teacher corrected me. When I realized he wasn't around to see the event it really saddened me as I had remembered also watching the moon mission speech (obviously I had misinterpreted the speech's significance and hadn't realized he had been assassinated by then).

Nevertheless, I have maintained a level of interest in the space program - fascinated by the rovers on mars, devastated by the disasters of Challenger and Columbia - and still a disappointed our generation hasn't seen quite as exhilarating a mission as that to the moon. I hope AT LEAST in my lifetime I will see a human make it to Mars for example.

[madrchsod]

186. at work...they brought in a tv so we could watch

[ProfessorGAC]

187. I Was 13.

And a young science geek! I was glued to the TV for a few days.
GAC

[FormerOstrich]

188. I was 8...

we went to our neighbors house. Their son was the same age as I and we were very best friends.

Our parents made a big production out of it and served us (I feel pretty certain now but not then non-alcoholic) daiquiris served in plastic cups/glasses molded as a cowboy boot (the neighbors boots not my folks...lol).

I remember more that I thought was got to have a cocktail than most of the moon landing. Funny because my mom is/was a teetotaler and it never occurred to me there might not have been liquor involved.

you're pretty dumb at 8.

[Danmel]

189. In South Fallsburg NY- I was nine

We lived in Brooklyn, and during the summer, we went to a bungalow colony in the Catskills. Well, of course, it was 1969, there was no cable and we were in the mountains and didn't have TVs. The owners of the bungalow colony lived in a real house on the grounds ( which made sense since the bungalows weren't heated and they lived in upstate NY)and they had a TV. Well, there was a curfew of 9 pm for the kids and the owners insisted that we all had to go to our bungalows that night.

My mother, who was decidedly NOT an assertive person, was outraged. She went to the house and pulled herself up to her full 4'9" and said "My children and the other children as NOT missing this. We will all come here and watch!"

Gussie had to relent and we all sat in her living room and watched Neil Armstrong's shadowy form step onto the surface of the Moon. We were just blown away.