Moon Landing - Where were you?

lionking

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lionking
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Okay, I know this is only relevant to baby boomers like me, but where were you and what were you doing 40 years ago as Neil Armstrong made that great leap?

Me? I was a keen university student waiting for my lecturer to turn up for a Physics lecture. He eventually did about 90 minutes later and told us all, without apology, that he was watching the landing. "What did you expect?" was his response when asked where he was.

So I was wasting my time. What about you?
 
I was a keen first year teacher listening to it with my keen first ever class: but now I am not sure if it was live or whether it was a delayed broadcast.
What time did they land again?
 
The EVA would've been early afternoon in OZ (0300 GMT), but the landing would've been in your early a.m., like 7 hours earlier, I think.

In NYC, it was mid-afternoon for the landing, and early evening for the EVA (moonwalk). The city erected giant TV screens in Central Park, and thousands of people showed up to watch it. I'm normally not a joiner, but that was something I wanted to be around other people to experience so I went up and hung out, just feeling sort of "historic".
 
Asleep, sadly.

I was 15, and completely blown away by the whole thing. However, we were on holiday, in a holiday flat without at TV (didn't have a TV at home either come to that). The landing happened in the middle of the night, and I couldn't impose on anyone else to be able to watch it live.

I'm not known as an early riser, but that morning I showed up on my cousin's doorstep at the crack of dawn. Even though I'd asked her in advance if I could come round, I think I was earlier than she anticipated. She was still in her dressing gown, with her 2-year-old in her arms. She dutifully turned on her TV (black and white, and snowy reception on that island in those days before they built the new relay station), and I watched the repeated footage in awe.

I turned to the baby and said, I wonder if he'll remember any of this? His mother said she rather doubted it. Recently, I asked him (all grown up with teenagers of his own now), and he said, not a thing. We then worked out that he'd been barely two at the time, so it's hardly surprising. I said, well Neil, you did see it, you were sitting on the floor looking at the TV. He just shrugged.

Rolfe.
 
I was a sparkle in my momma's eye. She was a student at Colombia, a war protester, member of the SDS.

I wish I were old enough to have seen it live.
 
I had debated with my parents whether or not to go to a Van Cliburn concert that day. They suggested I go, but come straight home and maybe I'd get to do both, but the moon landing would be repeated.

I lucked out and got to do both! I remember it so clearly including Walter Cronkite's laugh of amazement.
 
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I have vague memories of watching an astronaut bounce around on the moon. I was only 6 though so can't really remember.
 
I was 4. I have vague memories of watching men walk on the moon when I was very young, but I am not certain which mission that was.

I have clear memories of watching the lunar rover, however.
 
Not alive. The first 'where were you' moment I remember experiencing was when Blair got elected.
 
Getting ready to go to work drilling more holes in the Permian Basin. Worked Midnight till 8 AM, so I did not get any sleep that day, and was one tired lad...
It was worth it!
 
Undesired Walrus said:
Not alive. The first 'where were you' moment I remember experiencing was when Blair got elected.
Click to expand...
For me it was Elvis' death. I remember asking my parents (I was about 7 at the time) "Who's Elvis?"

But the one that sticks most in my mind was Challenger. I was at school in a particular corridor - one that had the photos of all the previous years on the wall, near the front office. That was a shock.
 
I was playing with my toys on the living room carpet, being bugged by my parents to watch this wonderful thing that was happening on tv. But it looked too much like 'news' to me.
 
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