Do you remember where you were when Neil Armstron landed on the moon in 1969?

Question

Please tell the story of where you were and everything you remember about that day/evening. Please give as much detail as possible and say what country you live in now.

Answer 1

I was a child like most of you now.
My sister and brother, dad and i were watching the whole thing on a black and white telly. We were just doing kid stuff in the living room. Mum was working out of home, so missed it all.

It was fascinating and we stayed in all day/evening watching all the plans and so on. All the discussions on how astronauts ate, drank etc. How the rocket was made and what out of. I remember when they came back how they all had to go into quaranteen too. How the cockpit landed in the sea.

It was on all afternoon and evening i think, and it was a very big thing back then, not like today where everything is all technology.. i remember all the stuff humankind learned from the experience and were able to develop stuff for society..
I remember my school teacher telling me in his child hood how they never believed anyone could get into outer space, he was about 40 years then i guess.
(I remember going to the film theatre 2 years before then, and Flash gordon in black and white, never needed oxygen when he went up in his rocket, and all the female aliens wore next to nothing.. nothing much has changed there i'm afraid ladies. The trip to the moon changed how society saw the heavens and the universe.

It was televised all around the world, and on the radio. It was very serious and was taken very seriously by society ......

I enjoyed the information they showed us on the TV. I remember that Neil Armstrong kind of bounced down the ladder and on to the surface of the moon...one small step for mankind. No gravity, like swimming in the air i suppose.The uniforms they wore were bulky and basic and looked like the mitchilin man. They had huge packs on their backs and i thought how fragile they and life were at that moment, how thin that oxygen tubing was, how unsafe they were, and how far away from help they were too.

The men in the ground centre were all older people with serious faces and serious machines with buttons and lights, and huge metal boxes everywhere.
They had so much to do and had so many issues to overcome before, during and after the trip. There was loads of responsibility riding on their shoulders.....And they were making history no matter how basic it seems now.
That they brought moon rock back and the rock managed to find its way to the museum in London England where i went and saw it. It just looked like regular stone to me, i think it was grey..

Anyway it was something to see and i never will forget it, i was glad we had a TV and did not have to listen to it on the radio.

I grew up a Brit and i now live in Canada. In fact most of my friends the same age as i travelled abroad to live.

TV was poor quality back then, communication was difficult. I believe communications have improved because of space travel and because of war.

Answer 2

I, my wife, and two sons (7 and 8), sat in the living room and watched the landing. As they came into land the tension was so heavy that it was like a load had been lifted from our shoulders when they finally touched down. When he made that first step on to the surface of the moon it was if a light in a new world had been turned on.

As looked at my sons watching this unbelievable event, I couldn’t help but think of when a close friend of mine and I “watched” the radio listening to ”X Minus Three” and talking about landing on the Moon and Mars and the other planets. It was about 1954 or 1955. We knew it would happen, and when it did our connection to the Moon grew stronger.

Lo, the moon ascending,
Up from the east the silvery round moon,
Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon,
Immense and silent moon.
Walt Whitman: from Dirge for Two Veterans [1865 - 1866]

We were living in Lansing, Michigan, USA

Answer 3

I was at home and watch the whole thing on Television with my family. I lived in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada at that time; and I was 9 or 10 years of age at the time the moon landing happen. Though it was a long and boring experince to watch on TV it still had it's moment as being the greatest thing to happen to man kind in a long time and it gave us a break from the Vietnam War that was waging for about 5 years now on the Television sets of the world at that time.

Answer 4

I was in the 7th grade. I asked my Mom and Dad if we could stay up to watch the lunar landing. It was originally scheduled for early in the morning, then NASA rescheduled it for a time when everyone could watch.

I remember being very excited about it. We watched it in the evening all sitting around the t.v.

That was the big news in our city. We lived in a small Ohio town.

My family name was Armstrong. We were not related, but we just thought it was great watching someone with our last name land on the moon. It was so cool.

Answer 5

I was 9 years old, and my family had driven cross-country from Harbor City, CA to Queens, NY.

I was at my cousins' house, watching "the simulation" of the landing, walk, et al.

The actual decent of Neil Armstrong from Apollo 13 down the ladder to the moon was very hard to see, due to the limited video technology of the time.

The simulations were very easy to see.

Answer 6

I was 12 years old. It was a hot summer day. I was home in Wisconsin, watching it all on TV. I remember the song: "In The Year 2525" was number 1. There were "Ham" radio operators that picked up the secret NASA radio frequency not used on TV, who listened in on it, and heard the astronauts talking about UFOs on the moon. It was a day I'll never forget.

Answer 7

I was at home watching it on a black and white tv, 7 years old, I was living in Clovis, California, USA. I remember how exciting it was and everyone was watching it all over the world and on their tv's. I don't remember much about that day/evening, it was a usual day/evening as far as I was concerned. Now I still live in California, USA.

Answer 8

Sure do! I was about eight months pregnant, and my 84 year old grandmother and I stayed up to watch. It happened at about 1AM where we lived. We marveled that when she was born, people used horses and buggies for transportation and in her lifetime she was able to see a man walk on the moon.

Now, as then, living in the U.S.

Answer 9

I was 18.

Answer 10

sorry, but wasn't around in 1969. so I guess I wasn't anywhere, not even a thought in my parents' heads at the time either.