Saturday, July 16, 2022

FIRST LUNAR LANDING

      There are some days in our lives that we remember with all the details. July 20 , 1969 is a day for me that stands out. This was the day of the first lunar landing. 

     I had more than a usual interest in space , particularly the lunar landing. Up until July 20 , I had still been in the Arctic with out much radio reception. I was happy to be south where I could follow the landing on the car radio. 

    On July 20 I was driving in northern Ontario north of lake Superior. It's a sparsely populated area with few services. You just want to cover this territory and get to civilization. 

    I did find a radio station that covered the lunar landing. I was glued to the radio. It's funny I didn't drive into the ditch. I was listening to the final count down and then all of a sudden I had no radio reception. I had to wait until radio reception returned to see if they landed safely. Yes , they had landed safely so now we listened to the first astronaut getting out of the lander and walking on the moon.

   By my calculation, this happened 52 years ago. I still remember all the interest and tension of this event. 

34 comments:

  1. I remember events, but not dates. I have no idea when that moon landing was, but remember the peril of the astronaut in charge if picking hem up from the surface of the moon.

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    1. I admit that I don't remember the date. However, once I have the date I remember what happened.

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  2. I remember the date because I was a newly wed and we had gone to our old Whidbey cabin for my birthday, which was July 17th. We brought along our old black and white TV with rabbit ears and were able to get reception. Tom and I and several other members of his family were glued to the TV.

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    1. I think many people made special plans to see the event. I'm afraid I didn't make plans.

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  3. You have a good memory Red. I can't recall whether I saw the event "live" on our old B & W or if I only saw it on the news clips later.

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    1. There were other things going on in my life at that time so I had lots to remember.

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  4. Curiously I remember very little about it - but, hey, it was mid-summer and I was sixteen; I expect I had other more important things on my mind.

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    1. Most 16 year olds had much more on their mind than science.

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  5. I remember it well - and my son's excitement - he was twelve.

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  6. I do remember watching it on TV, I would have never remembered the date. Have a great day and happy new week!

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    1. I don't remember the date but when the date is given it all comes back.

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  7. We watched in George and Cindy’s basement apartment, right across from our basement apartment.

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    1. So you remember your situation. Yes, those good old days when we wee young and living in apartments.

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  8. Yeah, that was something, wasn't it! I spent that summer bumming around Europe (remember "Europe on $5 a Day"?) and watched on TV from someplace in France. It made me proud to be an American!

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    1. Thee wee many $5.00 a day travelers. Sadly , I wasn't one of them.

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  9. I was watching on TV. Will never forget it. Neil Armstrong: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

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    1. I think there would have been much more tension if I'd been watching the event on TV.

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  10. I remember seeing it on television. It was so exciting and we felt so proud!

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    1. There were many different emotions at that time.

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  11. I love being reminded of the first moon landing. I watched it on TV with my grandmother. There was something so special to me watching that event with her, a woman born in the late 1800s who came to America in 1921. To be sitting at her side watching that will stay with me forever.

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    1. Now that's a very special memory. I didn't watch it with my grandma but she was also born about the same time as your grandma so was born before flight.

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  12. I was two years old so I don't remember the landing itself, but of course I remember the years of "space fever" that gripped the country afterwards. I remember watching some of the later Apollo missions on TV. It must have been a mind-blowing time, particularly for older people who grew up riding in horses and buggies!

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    1. My grandma was born before flight. For those people it must have been mind boggling as to how many changes and development took place in their lives.

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  13. I remember watching it in our living room on the old black and white TV. I was 9 years old and a bit of a space geek. A lot of us kids followed the Apollo missions closely and we could tell you about every aspect, including the stages of the Atlas 5, the LEM and the Command Module and of course the astronauts. I remember thinking that the world had changed forever that day. The other images that I will never forget occurred 3 years later; American sailors kicking helicopters off of aircraft carriers in the final withdrawal from Saigon. It was difficult for us to reconcile these events in our minds, but influenced our picture of America and Americans ever since. After that, I was not so starry-eyed.

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  14. I remember watching it, but I don't know where! Fun memory!

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  15. I watched it on TV live, so many years ago now. I was a young woman and also thrilled with the momentousness of the event.

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  16. One of the memories you never forget. I was working part-time in a store and we had it on the radio. It was a great moment in time.

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  17. PS Re my earlier comment … Just putting what Neil Armstrong said into today’s context … bet there are lots of folks out there who don’t like his use of the words “man” and “mankind”. Kind of like all this baloney about pronouns … he/she, his/hers etc. 😊 Let’s reword it for today: "That's one small step for a person, one giant leap for humanity." Yeah, I know, it still has “man” in one of the words … but give me a break. 😊

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  18. I remember it too I was 10 yrs old listened to it on the radio with my dad

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  19. I think a lot of us remember that day!

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  20. I'd forgotten that we just had B and W TV's. Of course , at that time I didn't have a TV.

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  21. I was very young and I only have a vague memory of it.

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  22. I can remember watching the landing on TV in our old plantation home in Waipahu.

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