Just realised it's 40 years this year since the Apollo 11 landings....
The whole Apollo saga in the 60's was pure excitement.. and when the landings came it was unbelievable.
What memories do you have...
Man, that just makes me feel so old.
I don't feel old enough to be able to remember something that happened 40 years ago.
My primary school class was lined up and we all walked over to a house near the school, where they sat us down on the floor, gave us a glass of cordial, and we watched the landing.
I've been interested in Space ever since.
I was in grade 7 and the whole class was walked to the teachers home to see the first man step onto the Moon, on a snowy B & W TV. Yes we say it, but only just through the snowy reception.
I was in grade 3 and was allowed to go home to watch it because we had a TV. Kids that didn't have one, or couldn't go home, watched it in one of the school rooms on the school TV. I remember it was a wet rainy day.
I now have my own piece of Apollo 11 and Apollo 17
I also remember that on one of the later missions Jupiter appeared very close to the Moon when they were on the way home and many people rang the radio stations to say that they could see the craft coming home . I guess they didn't think of looking at it with binoculars or a scope back in those days.
I was in 1st grade at Castle Cove Primary School. We sat in class, up the front out of our chairs to group around the classroom TV. Every classroom had one, so each class watched it seperately. I even remember where I sat - on the left of the group near the window - remember it like it was yesterday.
I was in 3rd grade at Kanwal Public School and I was with 1/2 the school crammed into the library (which was the same size as a normal classroom) since it was the only room with a TV in it. I remember the teachers brought another TV in and set it up in the room next door so the other half of the school could watch it. Black and white TV, lots of kids squashed together, sweaty, I was about 3/4 of the way back on the LHS, all the windows were open but it was still hot inside... but the vision and realisation of what was happening was just fantastic!
I'm glad they got off the rock... imagine the all devastated kids if they hadn't!
LOL! It's a great pity Mike. It's good to be young but I'm SO GLAD I'm the age I am, so that I got to see this - arguably the most significant history ever made. Sure - world wars, civilisations rising and falling were and are monumental in their effect on humanity - but in my mind they all pale into insignificance in comparison to landing humans on another world for the first time. Actually getting to see that in real time is completely off the wall! How many generations of humans have there been throughout time - and mine gets to see it? Wow.
Primary School in Wingham, NSW. They had to get a B&W TV in for us to watch. This was pretty well what started my facination and interest in astronomy. They took us into our Assembly Hall. I was lucky and got to sit on the floor in the second row from the TV, so I had a good view.
For the next few nights, my two brothers and I stood outside to see if we could see the moon and hopefully see the spacecraft. No luck by the way.
The next day they marched us back into the Hall for a polio vaccination.
I remember my dad pulling me in front of the black and white TV one morning. I think it must have been a week-end coz he wasn't working. He told me: "just watch this. it's pretty important". All I saw was a bloke getting down a ladder on a noisy picture, then I must have said "ok, can I go and play now?" Still remember it like it was yesterday though. Looking back on it I'm glad he did.
I was at work but a couple of my friends had already seen the video as it was transmitted. They had taken the information straight off the microwave link that was transferring the material to NASA.
I was in 1st grade at Castle Cove Primary School. We sat in class, up the front out of our chairs to group around the classroom TV. Every classroom had one, so each class watched it seperately. I even remember where I sat - on the left of the group near the window - remember it like it was yesterday.
My recollection very similar Chris -- except as to the numbers of the T.Vs at school! Like Chris I was in 1st grade, about a month before I turned 7. I see from Chris's profile that he is exactly two days older then me! Hey Chris, you weren't born at King George V Hospital for mothers and babies opposite RPA in Missenden Rd Newtown, were you?
In my case, the school was Oyster Bay Public School in Sydney's leafy south. In this school, the "Infant's Department" (Kindergarten and Grades 1 & 2) was about 300 yeards up the road from the main primary school (Grades 3-6). The whole of the Infants Department (about 130 kids) were herded into the big kindergarten room (where the only telly was) and we watched it en-mass sitting cross-legged on the floor. It was a pretty big telly on a metal stand that tilted it slightly downward and the B&W telly had wooden shutters that could close the screen.
Lunch-time came part of the way through proceedings and most if not nearly all the kids went out to play leaving the teachers, and a handful of kids to watch the rest -- I was one of them. The whole Apollo thing transfixed me -- even then. I have a very clear recall of Aldrin's Kangaroo (Bunny) hops as part of the thing.
At the end of the school-day I walked the exactly one mile (as it was then) home and remember walking in to see my mum watching replays in the lounge-room. I watched it again!
I wrote away to NASA for the picture-packs and souvenir stuff that included a mission patch. It arrived a few months later and I also wrote away for the Apollo 12, 14 & 15 ones.
I still have my (faded and tattered) Apollo 11 mission patch that used to be on a Larco tracksuit when I was a kid (remember Larco track-suits? -- lots of kids had one). When I grew out of the tracksuit I took the patch off and kept it.
As posted once before on this subjectI was on a jungle dropping zone in Malaysia listening to it on the "Voice of America" broadcast from Vietnam.
Then when I got back to Singapore watched continuous reruns over the next week
It was a very exciting time in human history
Makes me feel young!
