Where were you? Apollo 11 1969

[tom'sB2B]

Today is the 50 the anniversary. I've been reading and listening to the amazing stories of the Apollo missions and all the engineering that led up to them. I'm curious to your memories of this signature event.

( I was not born yet ?)

[John Rogers]

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was barely 6 and I was glued to the TV watching it in wide eyed amazement and admiration the whole time.  I knew that this was something very special. It never occured to me that something could go wrong. All I knew that men had landed on and were walking on the very same moon that my Dad and I stared at while laying on our backs in the bed of Dads truck with my head resting on his arm. If it wasn't a school night I would ask Dad  "Can we go lay in the truck and look at the stas". I had not learned to pronounce the R in stars yet.  That following year at school they had a couple of astronauts come to our school to do a NASA presentation for the 6th graders. I remember my teacher came up to me one morning and said she had a surprise for me. She took me by the hand and led me to the auditorium and sat me with a 6th grade teacher. I was in 2nd grade and I was the only non 6th grade student there . At the end of the day before as the bell rang my teacher asked me to stay after for a minute. I thought I was in trouble. After all the kids had left the room she handed me a box. Inside of it was a model of the LEM and command module that the 2 astronauts gave her to give to me. She asked me to to tell the other kids because it was a secret ad I never said a word to any of them. I walked home holding that box tight with both hands. I was so proud ! I went home and told Mom and Dad all about it . It seems that my teacher realized how interested and amazed I was by all things Apollo 11 and NASA so at some point before she got special permission from the principal and my parents for me to join the 6th graders that day. Oh and I drank Tang  for years and years without fail. "Tang, its what the astronauts drink" Wonderful memories !!!  Every time I think back on watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin climb down the ladder and walk on the moon I get chills.  

                              Sorry for babbling,

                                                         John

Edited July 21, 2019 by John Rogers

[Frank Elder]

I was 7 years old and we had stopped for gas at the DX station and wondered why no one was coming out to service the car, so Dad ran over the bell line a couple more times......Karl came to the doorway and motioned us inside.

There was about a dozen people already crowded around his old Zenith as we entered the office, He said no gas until this is over you may stay and watch or pump your own gas.....we all watched except for my Father who was a very impatient man.

He went out and gassed up the Plymouth and missed all the excitement as the module landed.

 

[pflaming]

We lived in Millard, NE, west edge of Omaha and , note this, watched on a neighbors TV, because we didn’t have a color TV. 

[Merle Coggins]

I was 2,  so I don’t remember it. But I certainly learned much about it in the years to follow. 

[Frank Elder]

3 hours ago, pflaming said:

We lived in Millard, NE, west edge of Omaha and , note this, watched on a neighbors TV, because we didn’t have a color TV. 

It looked pretty cool in B&W too Paul..........

[Dan Hiebert]

My brother and I were 7, visiting our grandparents in Jones Ridge, Illinois, as we did every summer.  We were both fascinated with the space program.  All anyone had to tell us was that there was a launch or other NASA activity on the TV and we'd be there to watch it.  So, imagine two 7-year olds with the run of a farm, having run amok all day, staying up to watch that first moon walk, after we'd gone in to watch the touchdown earlier.  It was awesome.  Our grandparents had the only TV (B&W) in "The Ridge" at the time, so the few other folks who lived there were over to watch the event, which was a big to-do, because everyone knew Grandpa was always in bed by 9 (except when there was a Friday fight-night on).  I remember that Grandpa was reminiscing about seeing the headlines for the first powered flight by the Wright brothers, seeing rickety biplanes overhead during WW1 in France, fighter pilots out of St. Louis training over the farms, during WW2, and now this.  I don't think we slept much that night. 

[RobertKB]

I was 20 and remember it well. I had been out on a road trip but made sure I left enough time to get home and watch it on TV. Pretty amazing.

 

However, I don't like looking at the moon now and thinking there is human refuse and litter up there. Kind of takes away from the romance of the moon. If humans ever go there to live in some kind of moon station, it will make me sad. We'd probably screw it up just like our planet. Guess I am an old romantic.

[Plymouthy Adams]

don't look at it as trash, one should be optimistic and regard it as a possible recycle/repurpose opportunity for the next visiting party or perhaps future "Moonie"

[TodFitch]

I was on the beach about 1/2 a mile from where I now type this. In that era you'd hear the Dodger's game all over the beach being played on transistor radios. On that day everyone was tuned to the moon landing and there was a cheer up and down the entire beach when "The Eagle has landed" came over the radio.

[Don Coatney]

When Apollo Mission Astronaut Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon, he not only gave his famous “One small step for man; one giant leap for mankind” statement, but followed it by several remarks, including the usual COM traffic between him, the other astronauts, and Mission Control. Before he re-entered the lander, he made the enigmatic remark “Good luck, Mr. Gorsky.”Many people at NASA thought it was a casual remark concerning some rival Soviet Cosmonaut. However, upon checking, [they found] there was no Gorsky in either the Russian or American space programs.

Over the years, many people have questioned him as to what the “Good luck, Mr. Gorsky” statement meant. On July 5, in Tampa Bay, FL, while answering questions following a speech, a reporter brought up the 26- year-old question to Armstrong. He finally responded. It seems that Mr. Gorsky had died and so Armstrong felt he could answer the question. When he was a kid, Neil was playing baseball with his brother in the backyard. His brother hit a fly ball which landed in front of his neighbors’ bedroom window. The neighbors were Mr. and Mrs. Gorsky. As he leaned down to pick up the ball, he heard Mrs. Gorsky shouting at Mr. Gorsky, “ sex?  sex you want? You’ll get sex when the kid next door walks on the moon!”

[TodFitch]

59 minutes ago, Don Coatney said:

When Apollo Mission Astronaut Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon, . . .

 

Fun story, but apparently false: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/good-luck-mr-gorsky/ 

 

Any doubts about the veracity of this legend are laid to rest by the NASA 

transcripts of the Apollo 11 mission, which record no such statement having been made by Armstrong. Armstrong himself said in late 1995 that he first heard the anecdote delivered as a joke by comedian Buddy Hackett in California.

[Don Coatney]

I cleaned up the oral part Tod

 

[pflaming]

Today we need some Buddy Hacketts! 

[MackTheFinger]

Remember it like it was yesterday. I don't recall the moon landing having as much impact on me as "Easy RIder", which came out about the same time. Maybe because I had a motorcycle but couldn't afford a trip to the moon. Plus I was living in Metairie, La. at the time!! ?

 

Gotta add this.. My wife just told me the return from Apollo 11 was on her birthday. I hope I'm right on the date. It was the 29th, right???

Edited July 22, 2019 by MackTheFinger
speling

[MackTheFinger]

12 hours ago, Frank Elder said:

It looked pretty cool in B&W too Paul..........

 

Come on, somebody has to have figured this out by now!! ?

[Frank Elder]

2 hours ago, pflaming said:

Today we need some Buddy Hacketts! 

Nice and wholesome in Herbie the love bug and Its a mad, mad, mad world........but when he visited us on the Kitty Hawk I never heard such filth spew from someones mouth in my life!

And I was cooped up on an aircraft carrier with 3,000 plus horny alcohol deprived sailors....lol....its not like I hadn't heard all those words before but the nasty way he strung them all together was enough to make this Sailor blush.

[Dodgeed]

I was in pilot school, which was designed to bring us under maximum pressure. A few of us gathered at a friend's place to watch the landing, which although historic, and we all knew it, we were also glad for the respite from all the endless pressure of flight school. ?

[Pete]

I was 15 and watched it by myself on a small black & white TV. I still get chocked up when I watch it now. Amazing what they accomplished given the technology at the time.

[DonaldSmith]

B&W TV- all the on-the-moon footage was black and white.  Color cameras too heavy - band width too narrow.

If they shot the landing in a studio, they could have made it in color. 

 

[Plymouthy Adams]

2 hours ago, DonaldSmith said:

B&W TV- all the on-the-moon footage was black and white.  Color cameras too heavy - band width too narrow.

If they shot the landing in a studio, they could have made it in color. 

 

 

yes with warm Earth tones also...…

[Frank Elder]

On 7/21/2019 at 7:10 PM, MackTheFinger said:

 

Come on, somebody has to have figured this out by now!! ?

LOL.

20 hours ago, DonaldSmith said:

B&W TV- all the on-the-moon footage was black and white.  Color cameras too heavy - band width too narrow.

If they shot the landing in a studio, they could have made it in color. 

 

Finally......lol.

[MackTheFinger]

10 hours ago, Frank Elder said:

LOL.

Finally......lol.

 

This crossed my mind, too..

 

http://calvin-and-hobbes-comic-strips.blogspot.com/2011/11/calvin-asks-dad-about-old-black-and.html

[Plymouthy Adams]

Calvin has been one of my favorite comic characters for years.....then we had Larson, and Hart.....

[MackTheFinger]

They're a lot more than just idle entertainment like Alley Oop or Beetle Bailey