# Where were you 41 years ago today (July 20)?



## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

I was with my family at a vacation cottage on the east shore of Lake Michigan, rather peeved that we did not have a TV there and so had to listen to the first moon landing on the radio. (Otherwise it was a great vacation.)


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## Thumper (Feb 26, 2009)

I was in Munich, Germany, and watched it on a 5" Black & White TV. Seriously no more than five inches. It was my dad's TV, and for this he let me sit on the floor next to his chair--maybe 12 inches away--and I got to stay up way past my bedtime.


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## Groggy1 (Jun 21, 2010)

I was 5.  Mom put us to bed I suspect.


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## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

Glued to the T.V.


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

intinst said:


> Glued to the T.V.


Watching the television while de-stemming seedless grapes and putting them in baggies. (We had picked several boxes of grapes the day before at a self-pick place. We filled most of an upright freezer that day.)


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

well, my parents were married... but I wasn't around until '71.


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Sitting up late (in the UK) with my Grandmother watching it on her ancient B&W TV. (I was 11)


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## MamaProfCrash (Dec 16, 2008)

not yet conceived.


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

Watching the moon landings with my friend Cathy at my Auntie Em's cottage in Meredith, NH. We didn't have a TV in our summer house; Auntie Em did, so we trooped up the hill to watch it with her.

This is my same friend Cathy whose birthday was yesterday--a birthday she shares with my daughter, Hannah. Cathy's son and my mother have the same birthday (December 8th) and my mother and her mother also had the same birthday. Lots of parallels here...

This year, I gave Cathy a Kindle (one of the WOOT kindles, great deal!) so who knows, she may be showing up here at KindleBoards, looking to be enabled. Give her a big welcome if she does arrive, okay?

L


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## Linjeakel (Mar 17, 2010)

williemeikle said:


> Sitting up late (in the UK) with my Grandmother watching it on her ancient B&W TV. (I was 11)


Me too. It all happened in the wee small hours here and my brother and I were allowed to stay up and watch on our little b/w tv.


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## Tripp (May 28, 2009)

We watched it on TV.  But I don't remember that as much as going with my dad to pick up my sister at the airport right after.  It was a really clear night and I remember looking at the moon from the car and thinking, "There is someone on there right now."  It totally boggled my mind.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

I was 4 and thought it was a great early birthday present.


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

I was a day shy of my 1st birthday.


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## identicaltriplets (Jul 16, 2010)

I was glued to the television in OK where my dad was stationed.


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## Jane917 (Dec 29, 2009)

I had just graduated from college and taking graduate courses in the summer. I watched TV on our tiny b&w TV with my roommates. I am sure we must have also been drinking beer, or something.


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## rho (Feb 12, 2009)

I was sitting on the counter in the kitchen watching it on the tiny black and white tv.  How come that seems like yesterday but thinking back to when I was 16 seems like forever ago


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## LibraryGirl (Dec 16, 2008)

Since I was just 3 1/2 weeks old, I imagine I was just hangin' out sleepin and eating.


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## sheltiemom (Dec 28, 2008)

I was in college at UT in Austin, but met my parents at my brother's home in Lufkin so we could watch the landing together.


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## HappyGuy (Nov 3, 2008)

Working after my first year in college. Watched the Eagle become lunar base on a color TV my father had built from a Zenith kit.


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## Victorine (Apr 23, 2010)

I wasn't born yet, but what a wonderful day.  Truly a remarkable event.

Vicki


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## Cindy416 (May 2, 2009)

I was sitting in my living room with my best friend and some of our college friends, as well as my mother. I lived in the town where my college was located, and my friends often came to my house to watch tv with us rather than fight for the tv in their dorms.  

Watching the first moon landing was one of the most incredible things I've seen.


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## talleylynn (Apr 24, 2009)

I watched it on a state-of-the-art tv in an apartment on the 23rd floor of a high-rise near Lake Michigan in Chicago. I was visiting friends who were 'house' sitting for someone really, really rich. I remember watching the chandelier swaying with the movement of the building while I was watching the tv, which gave the whole experience an eerie feeling.


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## rainmaker1145 (Jul 20, 2010)

It was a hot and humid night on Maryland's Eastern Shore.  We sat on the "river porch" to watch the sun go down and hear my father tell yet another rich tale of his childhood before he became too drunk and too crazy to be near.  We moved upstairs into my mother's bedroom and watched a 13" black and white television with rabbit ears come in and out of the snow to see CBS and Walther Cronkite cover the moon landings.  My youngest sister was still in diapers and refused to go to bed.  After repeatedly being told she was finally beaten into tears with a flyswatter so we could watch the moon landing in peace.  I remember the sound of the crickets outside and looking out of the torn and dirty window screen at the moon and wondering what those people were doing and why I couldn't see them.  I remember that night and I remember that it was going to be important even though I was only 7 years old at the time.

I'm not old enough to have Alzheimer's, but I do get Sometimers...


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

Last year we talked about this and there was a contest. I think there was one other thread before the contest was started, but I can't find it.

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,11215.msg219269.html#msg219269


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## terryr (Apr 24, 2010)

Watching the moon landing.  We had just moved to NJ from Washington DC after my dad retired from 28 years in the Air Force. I was not looking forward to summer in a new school: I was ten and starting 6th grade. (I skipped a grade and hated being a year younger than anyone else.)

1969 was an action packed summer. Man on the Moon. Our new house hit by lightning. It doesn't seem all that long ago...


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## B-Kay 1325 (Dec 29, 2008)

We were on vacation in St. Louis, MO visiting at my Aunt's house and all of us were gathered around the b/w tv watching.  I remember thinking that we were living during a truly remarkable time.  My dad worked at Hughes Aircraft Co. and had designed and made parts for the Lunar Landers that he put his initials on and they are still on the Moon today.  He was so very proud.  This was also my DDH birthday, he would have been 60 today, RIP.


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## The Atomic Bookworm (Jul 20, 2009)

On July 20, 1969... I was... about three years away from being born


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## Magenta (Jun 6, 2009)

Somewhere in New Jersey (the horror! the horror!) being awakened by my mom and ushered downstairs to watch the astronauts land and walk on the moon on a black & white TV that was very fuzzy. My memory is fuzzy too. Not sure if it was the landing or the first walk.

Do ya'll realize they did this using PUNCH CARDS?!!!!! Can you imagine


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## Melonhead (Jan 1, 2010)

Watching the moon landing on my family's color tv, but there wasn't color in that broadcast! And we didn't have air conditioning, in Florida, so, for sure I was sweating.


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## Alle Meine Entchen (Dec 6, 2009)

I'm pretty sure I wasn't around.  My parents weren't even in their majority.  My parent's didn't marry until 1975, so I wasn't even a gleam of a gleam in my dad's eye.


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## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

Magenta said:


> Somewhere in New Jersey (the horror! the horror!) being awakened by my mom and ushered downstairs to watch the astronauts land and walk on the moon on a black & white TV that was very fuzzy. My memory is fuzzy too. Not sure if it was the landing or the first walk.
> 
> *Do ya'll realize they did this using PUNCH CARDS?!!!!! Can you imagine*


It isn't so hard to believe when you realize that the Apollo "computers" had less processing power that a cell phone.And I don't mean a smart phone, either.


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

I recall that the summer of 1969 was unusually rainy, and some of the fuddy duddies blamed it on the moon landing (even though it was on July 20, well into summer).


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## Kathy (Nov 5, 2008)

I was at home watching on a black and white TV. I was 19 and working at NASA, so for me it was so exciting. I worked at the base where they trained the astronauts how to fly the lunar landing module. I was in purchasing and bought all of the replacement parts for the lunar landing training module. We bought lots of parts because it was very difficult to fly and was always falling over breaking something.


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## Gerry (Dec 9, 2009)

I was watching the landing on our black and white TV.  I remember going to the door and looking up at the moon and thinking WOW, somebody is walking up there on the moon.  A real feeling of wonder.


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

NogDog said:


> I was with my family at a vacation cottage on the east shore of Lake Michigan, rather peeved that we did not have a TV there and so had to listen to the first moon landing on the radio. (Otherwise it was a great vacation.)


I was four and a half, but I do remember lying on my parents' bed watching the landing with my mom and dad.


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

Magenta said:


> ... Do ya'll realize they did this using PUNCH CARDS?!!!!! Can you imagine


They also had access to punched tape and magnetic wire as well as analog computers (with the programming wired in  ).



mlewis78 said:


> I recall that the summer of 1969 was unusually rainy, and some of the fuddy duddies blamed it on the moon landing (even though it was on July 20, well into summer).


I think it was due to rain and possibly farmworker strikes that was the reason we were out picking grapes the day before. The farmer commented that most of the grapes would rot on the vine before they were picked. My mom showed us how to tell ripe green grapes from unripe ones. We kept picking grapes until no more boxes would fit into the back of the station wagon (double or triple stacked). We froze the grapes and still had some left the next summer. That vineyard did not have U-pick the next year.


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## Shayne Parkinson (Mar 19, 2010)

At Opotiki (a small New Zealand town) Primary School, listening to the radio coming through a funny old intercom. That evening my parents and I watched footage on our black-and-white TV. Only one channel in those days, and there was only one show in town


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

I was in elementary school, but was a total fanboy for the space program, and read everything I could get my hands on about it, so I was totally pumped for the Apollo 11 landing, and I still remember it well.

We were visiting relatives who lived in rural Missouri on the day of the landing....We watched at my Uncle Bill's house, and till he moved to a new home over thirty years later, the first thing I ever thought of as I walked into the front door of the house was...."I sat and watched the moon walk sitting on the floor right THERE...."  On television they'd been saying that the image quality of the live tv might not be good, and I was worrying that my father (who was prone to tinker with televisions) would try to "fix" it and mess things up so we couldn't watch, but fortunately my father exercised excellent sense and judgement, and I had no problems.

We were sleeping at a different relative's house, about half an hour drive away, and I had a fit when my parents announced that we'd have to leave to get to our beds.  Fortunately, they were playing the audio over the radio (when did they last do THAT for anything to do with the space program?!) and I listened to it, and we arrived at our destination just too late, the moonwalk was over!

I must have had a terrible time getting to sleep from the excitement, and I do remember thinking that the astronauts on the Moon were trying to get some rest at that very moment, but I don't remember being wide awake all night.


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

Magenta said:


> Do ya'll realize they did this using PUNCH CARDS?!!!!! Can you imagine


And slide rules.

L


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## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

It would still be 4 years before I joined the world.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Leslie said:


> And slide rules.
> 
> L


Yep, most engineering then was still done to only three significant digits.


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## Tip10 (Apr 16, 2009)

We were in San Diego -- dad was stationed on a repair ship out of 32nd Street.

I, along with my brothers and sister, were firmly ensconced on the floor in the living room in front of the TV. We refused to move even for food -- Mom finally relented and allowed us to eat in the living room off of TV trays "just this once".


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## loonlover (Jul 4, 2009)

Working at a summer job in downtown Toronto, Ontario.  Co-workers and I walked to one of the department stores to watch it on a TV set up in their auditorium.


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## DLs Niece (Apr 12, 2010)

Vacationing with my parents, sister and new little brother at our cottage on Mill Lake in beautiful Parry Sound.


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## Guest (Jul 21, 2010)

I was in my mother's womb. She was 3 months pregnant with me.  I know she watched the moon landing so I guess technically so did I!! LOL


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## prairiesky (Aug 11, 2009)

I was 22 and had been married for one year.  My new husband and I watched the moon landing on a little tv in our little apartment.


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## Bigal-sa (Mar 27, 2010)

No TV down here at that time, so we listened to it on the radio.


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## Brenda Carroll (May 21, 2009)

I know I'm late, but I remember quite clearly where I was. I watched the landing on my Grandma's TV with her because I was staying with her at the time. She was about 81 years old and did not/could not comprehend that those fellows in the funny suits were actually walking on the moon. She thought it was just another TV show and I couldn't convince her otherwise. She just laughed and said "You can't believe everything you see on television." I could only sigh. How could I be mad at "me sainted grandmother"? 


Bigal-sa said:


> No TV down here at that time, so we listened to it on the radio.


Where was that? How interesting.


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## bce (Nov 17, 2009)

NogDog said:


> Yep, most engineering then was still done to only three significant digits.


That kind of thing still carries over. The math for specifying and designing a radar is still done in decibels because it is easier to multiply and divide the really large/small numbers by adding and subtracting. It's also easier to get an idea of scale when you compare signals that are 3 vs 30dB in strength.

Told you the space program turned me into a geek.


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## Bigal-sa (Mar 27, 2010)

Brendan Carroll said:


> Where was that? How interesting.


SAfrica. TV only got here in 1976


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