The furthest back I can really remember feeling "astronautical" as a kid was when I sat in a classroom in July 1969 and saw, with billions of other space-smitten people, LM Eagle land on the moon. I've been enthralled with it all ever since. I was interested in Gemini before that (and of course wasn't old enough to remember Mercury) but Apollo really tugged a nerve in me.
The combined US, Russian, Indian, Chinese and European space activities today are a pale reminder of the glory days. I'm very much looking forward to the Ares/Orion missions and hope that the human race's interest in space is properly rekindled. I can only imagine what coverage we will get in a modern world - it should be incredible. The general population is far more tech-savvy that their 1960's counterparts, and I think that the level of interaction that NASA and the US Gov will give us will be brilliant given that the Apollo missions were almost a strategic defence-level operation and not truly civilian, unless this changes in the light of recent events.
I was just having a good read of the Apollo 15 press kit - a 170 page document that outlined the mission objective and planned activities. Brilliant stuff. How they concieved this and then successfully put it into action without having done it before is beyond imagination.
Anyway - for those of you who might also be stuck in a 60's time warp - here is that document. Enjoy!
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a15/A15_PressKit.pdf