When we walked on the moon 40 years ago, where were you?
Wow! Forty years ago man walked on the
moon! With Walter
Cronkite dying this weekend,
the anniversary takes on new meaning for many of my generation..
Rather than hash out new thoughts, here
is the short
post I did on the 35th anniversary
of the first walk on the moon.
When we walked on the moon 35 years
ago, where were you?
It almost totally slipped by me. 35
years ago today we landed
on the moon. The next day,
man walked on the moon for the first time.
I was seven years old at the time. There was no such thing as cable television.
No TIVO. No VCRs. No DVDs. If you did not see these events happening live,
you did not see them again. This was truly "must see TV". I remember
this was the first time my brother and I got to say up late so we could
watch the first moonwalk. Like most of the world, we sat in front
of our black & white television (ours was a home built Heathkit)
with our eyes glued to the screen. It was undoubtedly one of the most exciting
things I had seen or ever will see in my entire life. Why? Because the
event needed no hype. It was what it was: our most daring expedition as
humans. As a seven year old, it played on my imagination and dreams much
more than any other event could have.
As children, we did not know anything about Viet Nam or the way our country
was splitting apart at the seams. All we knew is that we wanted to go outside
to see if we could see them from our backyard.
Where were you 35 years ago? If you were not alive then, what event of
your generation gives you the same type of memory?
Comment posted by howard07/20/2009 12:39:28 PM
Well, as I'm 21 now I wasn't alive.
But I think that 9/11 was the most marking event of human history for my generation. Is not a good thing to remember, but was so chocking that is the first thing I can remember right now.
07/20/2009 01:05:50 PM
Comment posted by Eric Mack07/20/2009 12:45:52 PM
Homepage: http://www.EricMackOnline.com
Great post!
Where was I? Where every other little boy in America was - glued in front of the black & white TV set. Spent the next few days in front of a metal TV tray - did not want to miss any news from Walt on how the space travellers were doing.
Eric
07/20/2009 03:09:50 PM
Comment posted by Carl Tyler07/20/2009 02:41:07 PM
Homepage: http://www.iminstant.com
I was a fetus.
07/20/2009 05:17:50 PM
Comment posted by Wayne MacKirdy07/20/2009 05:12:16 PM
I had just returned from 19 months in Viet Nam, and was working on Fort Sill, OK.
07/20/2009 07:33:50 PM
Comment posted by Ian Randall07/20/2009 07:28:18 PM
Homepage: http://www.integrum.com.au
I was in year 4 high school and watched the moon landing "live" on a black and white TV in the school assembly hall with hundreds of other students and teachers.
I say "live" because due to the position of the moon at the time, the TV signal was relayed from Tranquility Base to earth via the Honeysuckle Creek satellite tracking station in Canberra Australia (later from the Parkes station in Australia) and the rest of the world watched with a 7 second delay.
07/20/2009 09:00:49 PM
Comment posted by Mary Beth Raven07/20/2009 08:54:54 PM
I watched the moon landing from the kitchen of my great-aunt-claudette's farmhouse kitchen. I think I was 8 yrs old.
The TV was one of those with a round screen-- black and white.
My family had been camping in the adirondacks, but we went to Aunt Claudetee's house just to watch the historic event. (meaning, we were all dirty and smelly from camping!)
08/14/2009 07:59:28 PM
Comment posted by lottie08/14/2009 07:54:01 PM
Homepage: http://www.lotties-shenanigans.com
I wasn't even born...my parents weren't even married at that time.
I think the same type of event(s) that would be similar would be 9/11 (I was in the middle of doing a software presentation to 50 people) and Princess Diana's death (dealing with a horrendous migraine in Covent Garden).