Did you see the first moon landing live on television as it happened?

[onehandle]

[GoneOffShore]

One a color TV at my girlfriends house

With her parents and her two brothers.

It was amazing.

[Captain Hilts]

1. Yes! It was awesome. Our power in Alex. VA was out so we went to our friends the "Mooneys"

to watch it. No kidding!

[annabanana]

2. I was at a University in Rome (summer semester).. I watched it

broadcsat in Italian and strained my ears to hear Mission Control speaking in English behind it. When I got on the bus to go to the class, people wanted to shake my hand because I was an American.. and we had walked on the Moon!..

Quite a day.

[bdamomma]

3. at age 14 I was glued to watching it, it was really something.

[Canuckistanian]

4. No. I was camping with my parents hundreds of miles away from a TV set

I heard about it on the radio.

[spanone]

5. yep, and watched it with the person sitting next to me tonight.....

with her father who is still around....never forget it....we we're all in tears

[timeforpeace]

47. Hey, that's neat.

[MrSlayer]

6. No, I was in utero at the time.

About a month into my existence.

[AnnieBW]

7. I was about 3 years old, so I don't remember

I'm sure that my parents were watching it on TV. The only one I remember is the last one in 1972. We watched it in my first grade class. I told my teacher that I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up, and she told me that I couldn't because I was a girl. So I got my revenge on her and became a science fiction geek. :D

[fujiyama]

32. Sounds like a stupid teacher!

[obliviously]

8. I was ten years old and watched it from a cabin in the mountains

of colorado on vacation.

[Ikonoklast]

9. I was thirteen years old, and Neil Armstrong was who I wanted to be.

It was teh awesome.

[panader0]

10. Yeah, I was 18 and working for Mayflower Movers out of Alexandria.

Virginia. We were packing dishes when the owner made us stop and watch the TV.

[BlooInBloo]

11. I didn't see anything until the 70s.

[baldguy]

12. I was 4 & wanted to play outside.

[Vidar]

13. Yes, aged 13 with nine relatives. Back then, everything seemed possible.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

14. We were camping in New Mexico -

part of our honeymoon - and we spent the whole day trying to find a motel with - consider forty years ago, and small towns in New Mexico - color TV. So many were black and white.

One had color TV, but the locks were on the outside of the door and the room next door had a motorcycle parked inside, so I vetoed that one.

We finally found a place in Farmington, and settled in, enjoying the luxury of showers and restaurant food - it was fun.

And when the landing came on, we realized it was in black and white.

Ah, well................................

[JohnnyLib2]

34. Hey, hey, we were honeymooning, too.

tv was black and white but the celebration was colorful......:evilgrin: :hi:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

35. Indeed -

lots and lots of showers that night............

:toast:

[Rosa Luxemburg]

15. Yes

[madokie]

16. Vietnam got in my way

ot, also kept me away from woodstock

[NRaleighLiberal]

17. We had two crappy B&W TVs tuned to different stations in case one was better quality!

Just such an exciting event.

[WeDidIt]

18. I'll never forget it.

I adored the Space program as a child.

[HubertHeaver]

19. No, I was 19 and at Phan Rang AFB, RVN.

We didn't have television reception on that base. Did listen to it on the radio, though.

[Art_from_Ark]

20. Yes, I watched it

It was amazing for me, as I had interested in space exploration since the premiere of Lost In Space some four (?) years earlier.

Interestingly enough, I have no recollection whatsoever about the other "big event" of the Summer of '69, Woodstock. I saw Woodstock shoulder patches advertised in Boys' Life, but I had no idea what that was all about.

[Spazito]

21. Yes, I saw it live...

I was working and the boss brought out a little television into the work area for us and we all watched it Whenever the landing comes on television, it takes me right back to that day.

[virgogal]

22. Yes. It was a memorable night and it was completely overshadowed

by the Ted Kennedy news that broke later that day.Both events are connected in my mind,as it is for many MA residents.

[Brigid]

23. Sure did. I was eleven.

All you whippersnappers who weren't born yet missed a way cool television event. :)

[derby378]

24. No, but one of my earliest memories as a child...

...was watching the 1972 moon landing with my mom at home.

I am part of the first generation that grew up never knowing a time when mankind hadn't walked on the moon. Think of all the generations that came before us who couldn't make that statement.

[Wednesdays]

25. 9 years old at the time

I was so awestruck, I spilled my lemonade.

[Poiuyt]

26. Other. I was watching the broadcast, but was out of the room when Armstrong came out

It was taking forever, so I went for a short run (high school cross country). When I got back, he was walking on the moon.

[liberalmuse]

27. I had just turned six.

And my brother was 9 days old. I'll never forget it. We watched it at my cousins' house. My sister and I had glossies of the astronauts and pictures of the earth and moon hanging on our bedroom wall.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

28. Yes, it was too cool.

I was 14 and had finished the ninth grade.

We were so thrilled with our country!!

[Iris]

29. I was not even 2 but I have described the event to my mom in such detail

that it appears I actually remember it. Not the actual moon landing, but where we watched (my grandparents' living room), who was there (me, mom, dad, grandparents, and a couple of aunts and uncles) and even where they were sitting. I distinctly remember understanding that this was a big deal.

[Liberal In Texas]

30. Yep, I'm an old guy. I was in college at the time.

Watched it at a buddy's house.

[scarletwoman]

31. Yes, we had a family party at my uncle's house to watch it.

It was absolutely AWESOME!

I was 19, and living away from home, but I dragged my boyfriend along to be with my family for this huge event. :D

sw

[sandnsea]

33. Yes my mom filmed it

so we had to sit around the camera and make sure and not bump it or anything. It was so exciting, real excitement over a real achievement. I can't think of anything to compare it to since.

[Hokie]

36. Acutally, yes and no

I watched CBS on Sunday afternoon, July 20. I was 18. My Aunt and Uncle who had a habit of dropping in unannounced showed up about 10 minutes before the landing. They liked to talk over the television so I was not happy to see them. They were a childless couple and now I know they were lonely and just wanted company. The neat thing is that 40 years later they are both still around.

Of course, there was no live coverage of the landing, just audio and Walter Cronkite's great commentary. I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to watch the EVA.

Who would have thought that 40 years later we couldn't get back to the moon if we wanted to and morons still believe President Obama was born in Kenya? Republicans are just as dumb now as they were then.

[Maru Kitteh]

37. I was 10 months old. I'm sure the TV was on and I probably watched some of it

But I'm not rememberin'

[devilgrrl]

38. I was 4 years old and was probably doing other things like playing outside.

So, I don't really remember :shrugs:

[cliffordu]

39. I was in jump school...they didn't show it.

The bastids.

[tblue37]

40. Oh, yeah--and what a trip it was! It was a month before I turned 19.

I have transferred my own love of the space program to my daughter, who did two stints in future astronaut camps while a child, and who now, as a second-year intern in an Orlando, FLA, emergency medicine program, is doing a rotation out at NASA. She calls me many afternoons when she gets off work there, still all wired for sound because she is loving it so much. I laughed at her the other day and told her, "You know what you are, don't you? You're a freaking fangirl!"

She responded, "Busted! I am such a NASA groupie!"

At one point, they needed a live "dummy" to put on a complete space suit so they could practice safely removing an injured astronaut from it--and she got to be the dummy. She got to put on a real spacesuit, and it absolutely made her day.

[sakabatou]

41. No, that was almost 20 years before I was born.

[RC]

42. Yes. I was manning a broadcast TV control board.

Got paid to watch it.

[TheCowsCameHome]

43. Yes, I greeted them when they landed.

Actually, I did see it live on TV.

Very exciting.

[tnlefty]

44. Sorta.

I was at Girl Scout camp, and we were in sleeping bags in the area where we usually ate. The counselors tried to keep us awake and did wake us up when the landing happened. I saw it, but it didn't really sink in until the next day.

I hope that you understand from the info. above, I didn't vote in your poll. I was an exhausted young girl.

[Bluenorthwest]

45. Best TV ever!

And the last wiff of the once great United States spirit. Gone for good now it seems, mediocrity rules the day, and imagination and vision have been replaced with cynical phrases like 'the art of the possible' which mean the easiest path possible. Once we had some eyes for the future. It was nice.

[Crabby Appleton]

46. No - I was in Vietnam

no TV

[timeforpeace]

48. I remember being disappointed that Armstrong wasn't more dramatic. But he was picked for being low

key, I guess. "Oh my god! I'm the first person to set foot on the moon! I'm gonna be the most famous person in history! I'm gonna be bigger than Jesus AND The Beatles!"

[SeattleVet]

49. I was glued to the TV, watching every minute of it.

I flipped through the channels until I found the one that had the best audio - without all of the 'analysis' chatter. I wanted to hear the communications, not the commentators. Cronkite had the best coverage - he was in as much awe as we were.

Every so often I'll be out, looking up at the moon, and think about how we had it all, then did nothing with it. It breaks my heart that we let it become a dead-end for 40 years. Think where we could have been had we continued as a spacefaring society, with all of the advances that would have been needed to make it all possible,

[alfredo]

50. I heard it over Arm Forces Radio. I was sitting in a darkened mess hall

late that night. They played it over the intercom.

I was a short timer, burned out, drunk and stoned, waiting out those 30 odd days until I can walk out the gate a civilian.

[mvd]

51. No, not born yet

:hi:

[GReedDiamond]

52. Coincidentally, I was on a vacation trip to Florida...

...with my family, just a few days before the launch of Apollo 11. We visited the Kennedy Space Center and saw the Saturn V launch vehicle with Apollo 11 on top sitting on the launch pad. That was pretty cool, especially when just days later we saw the moon landing live on teevee, with Uncle Walter narrating. Everyone gathered at Grandma's house to watch the events unfold on her big screen Zenith console.

Despite "Tricky Dick" being the Prez at the time, the Apollo 11 moon landing was a truly great moment to be an "American."

[elocs]

53. I have seen it, of course, but I cannot remember if I saw it live.

My guess is that the number who will claim to have seen it live just might be greater than the viewing audience at the time.

[mmonk]

54. Yep. Sure did.

It was exciting. I was a science buff back then.

[Boomerang Diddle]

55. I may have but I was only 6 so I don't remember. :(

[Ex Lurker]

68. I was 8, and I remeber, but not a lot of detail. n/t

[janet118]

56. It was a surreal week . . . in a surreal era

I was spending some time at my roommate's home in Hartford CT. We were making fun of the Miss Universe pageant with her younger sister one night and watching the moon landing the next night and out of nowhere Ted Kennedy appeared, breaking into the coverage to apologize for an accident on Chappaquiddick. Those were strange days indeed. It was a year after the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the same summer as the Manson murders and Woodstock, and a year before the Kent State shootings. Crazy times.

[Kablooie]

57. My dad went out and specially rented a COLOR TV to see the BW broadcast.

[Hawkowl]

58. Three years old

I remember as if it was yesterday. It was my third birthday!

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

59. I was in Paris at the time and saw it on French TV

I was attending the American College in Paris for a year. The coverage of the voyage on television was round-the-clock. It was amazing. I remember that one of the high points in the coverage was on the trip to the moon. The announcers went berserk when an image was shown of the astronauts inside their space vehicle pointing at a window port and showing the earth from outer space, which was just a small ball of light. That memory will always stay with me.

[Matariki]

60. Yep. Photoshopped.

:evilgrin:

[Liberal_in_LA]

61. kinda...was too young to realize historic importance, was in the room though

[Joe the Liberal]

62. Hadn't even been born yet......

and wouldn't be for another 20 or so years.

[Quantess]

63. No. I was -1.5 years away

Born in 1970. But I got to see reruns, so it's all good. ;)

[Warren DeMontague]

64. Yes, but I was too young to remember it now. nt

[Oeditpus Rex]

65. Around 7:30 p.m. (PDT) I went outside

I looked up at the moon — it was to the east — and was awed by the thought that guys are walking around on it right now, and it's on teevee here!



I wonder if humans will experience the likes of that again. It seems we've become jaded to the truly amazing and replaced it with scripted awe.

[bobmorr1]

66. Apollo 11

I recorded it from tv on cassette tape. I saved and preserved the newspaper from it. They told how to preserve it in the paper. It was a Chicago Tribune. Never opened yet.

[cascadiance]

67. No, I was in Turkey. Listened to it on Short wave radio though...

... along with my dad. My "space moment" in those days about the same time was watching 2001: A Space Odyssey in a big theater when it first opened up. Might not seem like much today, but it had similar magic in those times when we were kids then...

[Shrek]

69. I don't remember

At the time I was about 3 weeks shy of my 6th birthday.

Probably I watched it with my parents but I have no memory of it.

[HamdenRice]

70. I was at sleepaway camp. They woke us up to see it. nt

[WolverineDG]

71. age 6, in my jammies, on the sofa watching it in color

excited because my dad was excited about it. the real impact didn't hit me until later. i've lived my entire life in the "Space Age." Never known what it was like to never have seen the "Earthrise" photo.

dg

[Jennicut]

72. Too young as I was born in '75 but darn it I wish I had

My Dad told me in detail what it was like. I love space/exploration.

[LWolf]

73. Yes. nt

[AngryAmish]

74. I fell asleep before it happened.

[onehandle]

75. DUers are massively middle-aged or more.

I knew the margin would be big, but not that big.

I saw it live, so that would be me too.