First Man on the Moon - Where were you?

[bssc]

If you are old enough, do you remember where you were? I was at our house (provided by the Embassy) in Manila. I believe it was early morning and my parents and some of the neighbors were around the TV watching the live broadcast.

 

[LOL!]

North Little Rock, Arkansas. Parents had just bought their 1st color TV. Video from moon was in B&W.

You might enjoy Tom Wolfe's take on this: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/opinion/19wolfe.html titled "One Giant Leap to Nowhere"

 

[Khan]

In my (parents') house in upstate NY; up way too late as I was working in a local factory.

 

[TromboneAl]

We were watching our small TV that was on top of our upright piano, here:

 

[W2R]

I was in Berkeley, California, at my lab partner's house doing a quantitative analysis lab write-up with him. I was so immersed in my studies that year that I had no idea that we even *planned* to put a man on the moon until the moment I saw it live.

We finished the write-up, my lab partner turned on his TV, and I was so completely blown away and in awe.

 

[IndependentlyPoor]

Great thread!

I was camping with my parents on a remote lake in Texas. I listened to the news on the radio in our pickup truck. It was scratchy, bad reception, probably the clear channel out of Chicago. It was night time with no lights around and the moon overhead. I was alone in the pickup cab. It is hard for me to believe now, but my parents just ignored the occasion and went to bed.

 

[mf15]

Actually I was at the launch about 3-4 miles away, have a 16mm movie of it.
My uncle worked at the cape so I was able to witness the event. I made it home for the landing,and saw it on TV, I remember it well I was 21, 5 days later.
I have newspapers wrapped in plastic from the day of the landing, hopefully they will
last another 50 years.

Old Mike

 

[HFWR]

I don't remember...

But I was a follower of the space program from the early days, so I probably watched it.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

I was at my brothers apartment at the University of Cincinnati. He and his wife had their little daughter ready to baptise at the Catholic church and I was going to be her Godfather. I was in awe of the moon landing as I had been a big fan of NASA ever since its beginning. I followed everything and was completely up to date on all the terminology. I guess that's something an engineer would do. I've followed the shuttle program and some day before they scrub the program, I want to get over to the Cape and watch a live shuttle launch. Friend of mine says its awesome. On a cloudless night I can watch the launch from the end of my driveway. It would be about 160 miles away but you can see the flames and smoke clearly. It lights up the sky pretty good.

 

[Moemg]

I was married to my first husband and we were watching it at the restaurant we owned .

 

[unclemick]

I took a day off work -(pssst -titanium), Boeing 2707(everyone knows what that was Right?) to watch tv.

heh heh heh - by 1970 after the last person leaving Seattle turned out the lights I was working on Skylab. .

I did mention the poop sucking number two toilet mockup on another thread. Memory says some other contractor won the contract to build that 'experiment package.'

 

[W2R]

I took a day off work -(pssst -titanium), Boeing 2707(everyone knows what that was Right?) to watch tv.

heh heh heh - by 1970 after the last person leaving Seattle turned out the lights I was working on Skylab. .

What a shame the Boeing 2707 was cancelled! I had forgotten all about it.

 

[IndependentlyPoor]

Navel gazing warning.

The lunar landing was the climax of the space age that began with Sputnik. (I just barely remember seeing Sputnik arc across the sky. We had left home before dawn on a road trip, and my father spotted it.)

I imagine that many of us who post on this forum were influenced by the big national push for science and engineering education. I might have never made it out of my rural Texas hometown had it not been for the National Science Foundation summer science programs for high school students.

On the other hand, every bright student was hustled along the science/engineering path, including those of us who may have been better suited to other careers.

The "space race" was a big deal, and had a profound effect on my generation's education and career choices.

OK. Navel gazing off.

 

[CuppaJoe]

W*rked the 3 to 11 p.m. shift at this resort hotel with a bunch of other college kids off for the summer. Not a bad summer job; Sammy Davis, Jr. played there that year and I saw him from the wings. The food was great, they put leftovers from five French chefs in the employee cafeteria. Don’t recall seeing it live but saw it on the midnight news. It was a very warm day/evening.

 

[Boxkicker]

I have no idea where I was...but I know I probably wasn't walking since I was only 7 months old.

 

[bbbamI]

At home with mom and dad. They told me I couldn't move out yet as I was only 11 years old. Parents.

 

[clifp]

Like many geeky kids, I was huge fan of the space program. One of my favorite records was recordings of the Mercury program mission. Unfortunately mom decided that that 3rd week in July 69 would be a good time to send me to summer camp. I was sort of ambivalent about summer camp, but screamed in protest that I couldn't go that week because WE WERE LANDING ON THE MOON that week.

She said oh don't worry dear there will be a TV. Well mom was sort of right, but mostly wrong. The TV consisted of a small 13" black and white TV with bad reception and on July 20, 1969 I watch Neil and Buzz with 30 other 8 to 11 year olds. It was pretty pissed that were behaving so badly that I couldn't hear much of what Uncle Walter was saying. I do remember that all but two idiots shut up for the historic first steps. My dear mother has felt guilty all these years and goes out of her way to get me space oriented stuff.


The first thing I did after getting home from my Alaska cruise last night was pet the kitties, the second thing I do was to Tivo all the space shows on History and Discovery.

One of the seldom mentioned spin offs of the space program, was that it inspired a generation of scientist and engineers like myself. I imagine would still be able to use something like the internet to communicate if we didn't go to the moon, but I am not sure we would have done it so soon.

 

[Rustward]

At home in a room that had most of the furniture in the house in it because they were having carpet installed the next day. Fascinating.

 

[mews]

Howe Island, Canada, in the St Lawrence near Kingston, Ontario, for a family reunion.

I remember bouncing down a dirt/gravel road in a car, going to watch the landing on a black & white TV at my uncle's place.

Seriously, seriously cool!

ta,
mew

(Hey, how did people get those map thumbnails in, anyway?)

 

[CuppaJoe]

....

(Hey, how did people get those map thumbnails in, anyway?)

Trombone Al probably knows a techie way, I just photographed the screen. I'm a slow learner.

 

[REWahoo]

A month shy of graduating from college, I was a groomsman at a wedding that evening and all the guys in the wedding party were nervous we would miss the big event. Well, all the guys but the groom - he was nervous too, but for a very different reason.

We gave the groom heck for allowing his bride to schedule their wedding to conflict with the biggest event in modern history. However, just prior to the start of the ceremony we managed to catch Uncle Walter's broadcast of the landing on a TV we found in a small side room at the church. I ducked out of the reception early (along with quite a few others) so I could make it home in time to see Neil Armstrong step off the ladder.

Like others here, I have been a space junkie since childhood. I did a presentation to my 7th grade science class on the then newly-released details of how we planned to carry out the mission to land a man on the moon. I had no idea that 11 years later I would have an encounter with one of the heroes of Apollo 13 and gain one more "did I ever tell you about the time..." story I can use to bore my grandkids.

 

[Sue J]

I was 14 and watched it with my parents, sister and brother in our family room.We were living in the suburbs of Cleveland, OH. I think I was more interested in it than my siblings. I remember being on the floor, closest to the TV, trying to see all the details. I'm sure one of my parents was talking over the whole thing. We did make a point of seeing it together.

 

[growing_older]

Watched it with all my brothers and sisters (and made sure to see the steps together, too) on our oh so marginal Black and White TV. No complaints about the picture quality or reception - it was coming from the MOON! I was old enough to somewhat understand the significance of the achievement, but my parents were completely awestruck. I so remember Walter Cronkite's distinctive voice and forever associate it with space travel.

 

[kumquat]

I was in a bar called the Apollo room (underage). It was a bit of a dive, but if you could reach the door handle, they served you. The owner was a big space fan. Had pictures of previous Apollo missions all over the walls.

 

[DangerMouse]

I was in grade 2 and due to the time difference the landing happened during school hours. We were all herded to the TV room to watch the landing.