Baby Boomers
Related: About this forumWhere were you when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon?
and what are your memories of it?
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Sanity Claws
(22,056 posts)I remember it even though I was just a kid.
eastwestdem
(1,220 posts)
bluedigger
(17,157 posts)We were visiting at a family friend's summer camp on the coast. I was 9, and they let me stay up past my bedtime to watch it. 
MuseRider
(34,391 posts)We were all gathered around the TV in McCollum Hall, our dorm.
EDIT to add: It was actually called Midwest Music and Arts Camp, just felt the need to correct this 
sinkingfeeling
(53,174 posts)
OKNancy
(41,832 posts)My soon to be husband was away at Ft. Benning Ga.
I didn't have a lot of money for a fancy dress, but my younger sister was a high school queen of some sort and had a pretty white Grecian-style dress. It was sleeveless so I wore long gloves with it. It was perfect for 1969.. lol
But I needed a veil, so I bought yards and yards of tulle and made a long cathedral veil.
I was sitting on the floor of the living room where our tv was and was sewing by hand daisies along the whole length of it plus appliqued daisies here and there down the veil. I watched the landing while I did the sewing.
I'll never forget it!
llmart
(16,331 posts)but that's because I got married that weekend, so I can relate. We certainly didn't have the big, fancy weddings that take place nowadays, did we? I was as poor as a church mouse and the wedding was very low key. We didn't even own a TV yet, but a friend gave us a little portable black and white TV to borrow and we watched it on that.
Joinfortmill
(16,593 posts)
Arkansas Granny
(31,861 posts)so I could hear what was going on. The reception was lousy, but I thought it was thrilling.
DavidDvorkin
(19,933 posts)llmart
(16,331 posts)now you have to tell us more. What part did you play?
DavidDvorkin
(19,933 posts)Both the Command Module (CSM) and the Lunar Module (LM) had radar that they used to lock onto each other during the LM's ascent from the moon and rendezvous with the CSM. My job was to run simulations to see if the LM radar was sufficiently accurate to do the job. An associate in the same group at NASA did the same thing for the CSM rendezvous radar.
We did our work before the mission lifted off. The error in both radar systems had to be within specs for the mission to proceed. So if everything went according to plan, our participation wouldn't be needed during the actual mission. However, we were available 24/7 while the LM was on the moon in case some problem necessitated a liftoff, and therefore liftoff trajectory, different from the one in the mission plan. In that case, we would have had to perform the simulations to ensure that the emergency liftoff would also result in a successful rendezvous. If not ... I honestly don't know. The emergency plan would have been tweaked, I suppose, and we would have run the simulations again.
So I guess I exaggerated when I said that I was working on the mission. I worked on it before it lifted off, and then I was available during the actual mission.
This was all at NASA/Houston, which was still called the Manned Spacecraft Center at the time.
You might also find this interesting: http://eyeblister.blogspot.com/2009/07/where-were-you-when-we-landed-on-moon.html
llmart
(16,331 posts)Of course you worked on the mission. The behind the scenes work is just as important as the more obvious work.
My uncle was an engineer for NASA (in San Diego? - don't really know what was there at the time since I didn't know my uncle) and he too worked on the LM.
DavidDvorkin
(19,933 posts)name and acronym: Lunar Excursion Module. The early plan was for the Lunar Module to be mobile and able to hop around on the surface. That was dropped, and later the lunar rover made that unnecessary. Still, it was a cool idea.
llmart
(16,331 posts)because my uncle's initials were LEM and my cousin, his daughter, told me he used to kid about how they named it after him!
DavidDvorkin
(19,933 posts)
PosterChild
(1,307 posts)
whathehell
(29,854 posts)llmart
(16,331 posts)LOL
It's funny, I do remember a lot of things -- When I saw "The Graduate" and who I was with
and, of course, the same for the day the Robert Kennedy was killed.
As to the moon landing, I do remember my hippie friends and I laughing about
planting of the American Flag on the moon...I believe some smartass followed with "What's next,
a McDonald's"? 
1monster
(11,026 posts)televisions, and no newspapers. I didn't know about it until I got home from camp a week or so later... It didn't leave a big impression, because I don't remember it at all. I do remember the second landing mission on the Moon at Christmas and Nixon talking to the astronauts.
SheilaT
(23,156 posts)on my small black and white TV.
They were originally set to walk a few hours later, in which case I would have been asleep, as I had to be at work at 6:30 the next morning. As it was, I was dozing off in front of the TV and went to bed before the walk was over.
Lydia Leftcoast
(48,219 posts)that functioned as a kind of summer cottage.
That's where we were for the moon walk. There was no TV in the trailer, but my grandmother had an old AM-FM shortwave radio, and we listened to the radio coverage. I didn't see the TV footage till months later.
shanti
(21,719 posts)We were somewhere around Redding at the time, in the car, listening to the event on the radio. Don't remember much else, it was something one needed to SEE not HEAR.
left-of-center2012
(34,195 posts)I was living in Hartford, CT, working in a psych hospital.
I saw it later on the news (not live)
FreeWheatForever
(53 posts)I was 16, and after following every step of our space program, from Alan Sheppard right up until that July day, the anticipation and excitement gave the day a surreal vibe. It felt like something magical was about to happen. Hours before "the Eagle" landed my mother made sure I understood what an astonishing event we were watching in that small three bedroom bungalow in the northern suburbs of Detroit. She is the one who also made sure I never lost sight of the fact that every NASA flight we watched over the years was practice and preparation to go to the moon. As daylight faded that day, no one moved from the family room for fear of missing when Neil Armstrong would walk down that ladder and take that first step. I remember that the glow of the black and white TV was the only light that filled the room when Neil finally descended. My mother cried and my father played Frank Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon" on the Hi-Fi. It had been a long exhausting day, a long exhausting decade, and I fell off to sleep sometime after Buzz joined Neil, satisfied I too had gone the distance. Those who lived trough it all will understand.
llmart
(16,331 posts)Thank you for sharing that. I could just envision it. I'm about 4 years older than you so I could picture it all in my mind - those old black and white televisions, etc.
In school, whenever there was a mission to space, the teachers would roll in the cart with the t.v. on it and we'd get to have a break in our routine to watch history unfolding.
llmart
(16,331 posts)I'm not from here, but I now live in a northern suburb of Detroit! What a coincidence.
FreeWheatForever
(53 posts)Welcome to the warmth of the Mitten.
llmart
(16,331 posts)I moved here from North Carolina. Also, the "Pure Michigan" slogan may have to go away because the citizens of Flint would like to differ with it!
I wished I lived here under Milliken. I read his biography he sounds like a sane Republican - something of a rarity nowadays.
TexasBushwhacker
(20,726 posts)However, I saw JFK's motorcade in Houston the day before he was killed. It was a cool, crisp sunny day. I remember his hair looked red in the sunlight.
llmart
(16,331 posts)You must have been what, about 6 years old? Bet that made an impression on you.
TexasBushwhacker
(20,726 posts)Someone came into our class and whispered in my teacher's ear. Her eyes widened. When I got home, I wanted to watch the Mickey Mouse Club like I always did. My mom was watching the TV, crying. She told me Mickey Mouse Club wasn't on because the President had been killed. I guess it was my first experience with death.
samnsara
(18,296 posts)
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)Tapes were flown to Vietnam so the Armes Forces Vietnam TV service could show it.
llmart
(16,331 posts)Those were some exciting/interesting times to come of age, right?
I often wonder if I'm wallowing in nostalgia too much. I understand the psychology of looking back as being more about youth than truth, so we tend to see those times with more wistfulness than it warrants, but hell, even when I try to be objective I still have to say that I am glad I came of age at that time.
The music was the best, I looked great in a mini skirt, we boomers were changing our culture, and the guys in uniform were.....well, I'll just leave it at that
duncang
(3,722 posts)And telling people about it who didn't know it had happened.
No I'm not kidding. I was working at a gas station. Some of the people had no idea it had happened or that a attempt was even being made.
jarhead69
(8 posts)I was in Marine Corps boot camp in San Diego, in the company office waiting to go out on guard and trying to stay awake. My platoon commander Staff Sergeant Hatton was watching the landing. I dozed off then a piece of chalk hit me in the chest. He never said a word I was afraid to doze after that.
Great story!
Ah, those were the days, right? Young and so full of optimism for the future and all those great looking guys in their military uniforms......
I digress. 
jimmil
(633 posts)No bone spurs???
Seriously though, so many of my high school guy friends were drafted and in Nam and my room mate's fiance was killed. I will never forget how torn up she was.
Ah, those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end.
Ironically, my son now works for NASA at the Cape.
Talitha
(7,472 posts)It was the summer between my Junior and Senior years in high school. My family was visiting relatives in Ft. Lauderdale FL and we watched it on tv... what a memory! Afterwards everyone under 20 ran outside to wave at the Moon. We thought it was an original idea but everyone up and down the block was out there doing the same thing.
I remember Walter Cronkite getting all teary-eyed. Up until then I thought he was as strong as stone but it was comforting to witness him shedding his professionalism if only for a few moments.
Fast forward 10 years, and I lay in the labour room awaiting the birth of my first child. As the pain spasms sent me to hell and back time and time again, my mind was sporadically occupied with the 10 year anniversary of the Moon landing being broadcast on the small tv anchored in the upper corner of the room. It's something I couldn't have imagined 10 years prior, as I stood on a sidewalk in Ft Lauderdale waving wildly at the Moon.
llmart
(16,331 posts)Ironically, I just got back from vacationing in Florida visiting my son who is an engineer for NASA at the Kennedy Space Center. Pretty ironic for me also since I got married to his father the day before the moon landing. I, too, went out in the yard and looked up at the moon that evening and remember being so amazed that men were actually up there. I couldn't wrap my mind around it.
By the way, PBS has a three-part series called "Chasing the Moon" that is an excellent documentary on that week in history. My son and I watched it while I was visiting. He said there was a lot of footage in that series that he'd never seen before. I would recommend you watch it if you can.
Talitha
(7,472 posts)Yes, I've seen 'Chasing The Moon'.. it's wonderful! Another really good film was shown on CNN this past Sunday.. a special on Apollo 11. The archival footage had obviously been digitally re-mastered. Oh my my, it was so crisp and clean! It looked as though it had been filmed using our modern equipment.
llmart
(16,331 posts)I don't have cable but I may be able to stream it.
My son always gets a kick out of the way women dressed and their hairdos and how everyone smoked. He loves my stories of those times.
kelly97
(55 posts)Wasn't alive!