Apollo 11 - what were you doing

[BILLYL]

I can't believe that 40 years ago today Apollo 11 set off for the moon.

What were you doing that day.

A great day

Bill

[FireLion]

I don't remember! (due to the stupid use of drugs & alcohol, most of 1969 is a haze)

[Mike B]

My girlfriend at the time (then wife, then ex-wife) was really upset with me because I wouldn't go out with her. I spent the time in my parents living room, watching the coverage on TV.

Mike
Hayden Lake, ID

[Nitetimes]

IIRC I was sitting in a grade school classroom watching it. We watched all those we could in school on TV back then...it usually pre-empted most classroom stuff in those days, it was not something to be missed. Big news, not like the shuttle now where no one really notices except a select few. I was sitting in a bar in '86 and we were watching the launch when the Challenger exploded.

[madjack]

CAMPING!!! We were camping on Lake Bruin in Louisiana and watched the festivities on a little black&white portable belonging to the campground hosts/owners...pretty cool, watching, outdoors on the TV and simultaneously looking up at the moon while it was happening....pretty cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
madjack

[Alfred]

Hey Gang,

I was only 4yo in 1969, but I remember my Dad showing me on TV the man walking on the moon, and telling me it was important and not to forget it. Then I think my parents must've reminded me about it every day for awhile, to keep it in my mind, because it is really one of my earliest, fuzziest memories.

I can still see my Dad bent over to look me in the eyes and pointing at the TV set: "See that, pay attention this is very important! He's on the moon!".

AL in Asheville

[mk10108]

I was eight. Watched on a 15" black & white TV with 13 channels and 2 viewable UHF channels.

Forty years to think about it and concluded it was a political statement wrapped in a great technological achievement.

[rebapuck]

I was 20. First job. First apartment. First real boyfriend

Worked all day. Then came home and watched with everyone in the apartment house. Walked outside to see if I could see them up there.

[ssrjim]

At summer camp.

[ssrjim]

IIRC I was sitting in a grade school classroom watching it. We watched all those we could in school on TV back then...it usually pre-empted most classroom stuff in those days, it was not something to be missed. Big news, not like the shuttle now where no one really notices except a select few. I was sitting in a bar in '86 and we were watching the launch when the Challenger exploded.

Summer school, bummer for you

[toypusher]

I was a sophmore in HS at the time. We watched coverage on TV . Did not see it live, but watched the replays.

[Marck]

I was 2 soo I have no clue what I was doing but it was prolly something bad

[Larwyn]

For the launch, I do not know. For the landing I was in the "day room" which had the only TV in the barracks I lived in at Yamato Air Station Japan. The coverage was in Japanese and we could not hear most communications between the astronauts and control because the Japanese translators drowned them out. There was no live English language coverage of the event as Japan did not allow AFRTS a television transmission frequency at the time.

[teardrop_focus]

madjack

We were camping on Lake Bruin in Louisiana and watched the festivities on a little black&white portable belonging to the campground hosts/owners...pretty cool, watching, outdoors on the TV and simultaneously looking up at the moon while it was happening....

That's awesome.

Nitetimes

We watched all those we could in school on TV back then...it usually pre-empted most classroom stuff in those days, it was not something to be missed. Big news, not like the shuttle now where no one really notices except a select few.

Indeed.

I remember sitting transfixed, watching this coverage in the evening on the west coast... I was just 14 and was watching with my stepdad, mom, my two stepbrothers and younger brother. It was a pretty big deal, obviously.

[jeep_bluetj]

Hey Gang,

I was only 4yo in 1969, but I remember my Dad showing me on TV the man walking on the moon, and telling me it was important and not to forget it. Then I think my parents must've reminded me about it every day for awhile, to keep it in my mind, because it is really one of my earliest, fuzziest memories.

This is almost my exact story. The singular first event of my entire life that I remember is watching the moon landing on TV. (I was 4 too)

I remember that it was indeed a very big deal. And truely it was. Still is, really. When has _anything_ so ambitious and so grand been attempted since? This was vision, technology, and pushing the limits of what people could do.

Today we got flat panel TV's and iPhones and all, but we don't have that wild sense of exploration or that we could get to the stars someday.