Where Were You On July 20, 1969?
Peter Robinson ·
August 25, 2012 at 11:04pm
Ricochet member Fred Cole posted such a good suggestion under "Neil Armstrong, RIP," below, that I thought I'd repost it right here.
Fred Cole
I think this would be an appropriate place for everyone (who remembers it) to mention where they were when humans first walked on the Moon.
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Jun '11
Re: Where Were You On July 20, 1969?
I was fourteen, and had followed NASA since Mercury. Gus Grissom grew up not too far. We were all camped out in our living room staring at a black and white set.
When Armstrong first stepped off the LEM, I could hear my Dad repeating over and over to himself (as if he was alone), "I can't believe it... I can't believe it."
He had worked at a hangar as a teenager patching and doping canvas patches on Jennies.
May '10
Re: Where Were You On July 20, 1969?
Watched with my husband who graduated with a BS in aeronautical engineering in 1970. He was one of the few in his class who found a job that year ---- the field being big time over-saturated with recent graduates. We ended up at Redstone Arsenal. He worked NASA contracts for a year. But found he much preferred working Army contracts (40 odd years). I also worked Army contracts on the Arsenal. Funny, but my memory is more vivid of being stopped by a convoy of Space Station components one day at lunch.
Jul '12
Re: Where Were You On July 20, 1969?
I was seventeen. It was 2:00 in the morning on a muggy night and I was all alone in our little house watching the event on a black and white TV. I took some pictures of the screen on an Instamatic camera. To my surprise and delight they actually turned out well! But, alas, I lost them long , long ago. I've taken and lost a lot of photos but I have thought about THOSE pictures often. They were actually of something IMPORTANT.
Aug '11
Re: Where Were You On July 20, 1969?
I was 14. My family was visiting friends at their "camp" on Sebego Lake in Maine. Ten of us gathered around the small portable B&W TV to watch history as it was broadcast. It seemed surreal, Kennedy's program, a man on the moon. It was strange, really, amid all he chaos of that time; the cold war, the civil rights unrest, the war protests and the hippie/drug movement. Just as society seemed to be falling apart, there was this accomplishment! We watched as these engineers, squares, from Houston, with W. Virginia accents, dressed in khakis and button-down, short-sleeved shirts, with pocket protectors and glasses like the ones grandpa wore, directed a virtual dance as men arrived on the moon to plant our flag. For a moment it was OK to be a square, to be an American, to love our country.
Edited on August 26, 2012 at 11:14pmJun '10
Re: Where Were You On July 20, 1969?
I watched the landing at Robins AFB, then rushed outside to stare up at the moon. I began dreaming that one day I'd be able to go, cities on the moon! Well, not yet, maybe, but I did here someone make a toast the other day, "Next year in Luna City."
Sep '11
Re: Where Were You On July 20, 1969?
I was 12, we lived on the "Space Coast" and my parents both believed, as did I... We all watched it together, as we watched the launches from the beach, and held our breath, afraid something would go wrong.
Aug '11
Re: Where Were You On July 20, 1969?
GLDIII
ES girl;
I assume you are part of the Wallops folks? They still get to fling stuff to the heavens. I like the Eastern shore, shame it is part of MD, the governers always treat that region poorly. ยท 19 hours ago
I'm not working at Wallops, but have lots of associations with the folks working there (the best of them wish they were working for SpaceX!) Still, some exciting stuff going on.
Oh--and Wallops Island is in Virginia! Unfortunately, I am in MD. :-(
Apr '12
Re: Where Were You On July 20, 1969?
I was sitting in the NCO club at Camp Humphrey, Pyong Tek, South Korea. The mess hall was serving liver and onions. I still would rather starve first.
As he stepped onto the Moon my jaw and heart fell on the table and I forgot about whatever it was I had been eating (instead of liver and onions).
I wanted to be home.
Apr '11
Re: Where Were You On July 20, 1969?
I remember listening to the AM radio late at night In the ensuing weeks, listening to conspiracy theories and controversy. One comment by what sounded like an older woman stands out. "If the Lord had meant for us to go the the moon, He would have built stairs for us to climb."
Jun '11
Re: Where Were You On July 20, 1969?
I had just turned 16 and was watching with my sister and parents on the B&W Zenith in our living room in Perrysburg, Ohio. It was thrilling, of course, but we also took a little extra pride in the fact that Neil was an Ohioan. John Glenn, the first American in orbit was from Cambridge, Ohio and now Wapakoneta's Armstrong was another space hero from our state.
The next day it was back to my summer job during the day and coaching baseball after dinner. But I believed that the world had changed.
May '10
Re: Where Were You On July 20, 1969?
I was married, I had just graduated college and been commissioned as a US Army 2nd Lt. Infantry. While waiting to go on active duty, I was managing an apartment complex, managing a coin-operated car wash, and was the Assistant to the Plant Superintendant of a Hunt's tomato and peach processing plant doing statistical analysis of production data.
Jun '12
Re: Where Were You On July 20, 1969?
I was 10, lying belly down on the musty shag carpet of a single wide mobile home in a trailer park somewhere in Delaware, Ohio. My five sisters and two brothers were crowded with me around a tiny portable TV set, trying to make sense out of the grainy, fleeting images and confusing sounds, while the homeowners, Brother and Sister Moore, spoke in whispered tones to my folks. Brother Moore was our pastor, and they'd invited us into their home to share the occasion. It was a warm Monday night I will never forget. One giant leap indeed. Lord, how we have stumbled since.
Apr '11
Re: Where Were You On July 20, 1969?
I was 7 and we lived in Hakata Japan on Hakata Annex Air Station on Kyushu Island. The moon landing was at about 0500 our time Monday morning, so I don't think we watched it live. I don't remember having AFRTS there, I think we only had AFRS at the time (Armed Forces Radio and Television Service); so we probably watched it on Japanese television.
Jun '10
Re: Where Were You On July 20, 1969?
That Sunday afternoon my wife with our five year old son and two year old daughter were driving to their grandmother's house listening to the live radio transmission of the landing approach. The tension was real (only later was it fully appreciated - the remaining landing fuel was rapidly burning) and Aldrin dryly described the approach. Then a pause and he announces "Tranquility base, the Eagle has landed". The hair stood up on the back of my neck -we were there! The memory of where we were (exiting I-35 heading east on Highway 30) is frozen in time for me as are the memory of where I was when hearing that Kennedy had just died in '63. That moment - the landing is more firmly etched in my memory that the step on to the moon the next day.
Mar '11
Re: Where Were You On July 20, 1969?
I was 12 and vacationing with my parents and younger brother on a Finger Lake in upstate NY. We had an "old" b&w TV with lousy reception, but as long as we got a grainy picture (and the audio) we were thrilled to watch. I wonder if there'll ever be another event to inspire and excite us like this one.....
May '12
Re: Where Were You On July 20, 1969?
I had been consigned to a 10-week summer camp in the Catskill mountains of upstate New York, and thus missed out on everything (the camp didn't permit television for the kids). My mother saved all the newspaper accounts for me to read when I got home... and once they'd been read, like a good housewife, she threw all the papers away.
I have always regretted not squirrelling them away from her tidying hands.