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What were you doing when they landed on the Moon ?

M

Martyn Miles

pfm Member
I had gone to my girlfriend’s house on Saturday evening, not expecting to be there until late on Sunday morning.

As the moon mission progressed my girlfriend’s family asked if I’d like to stay and see the landing.
I had to go to a telephone box to let my parents know what was happening.
Fortunately my family had a telephone, as my Father ran a business from home.

It was a long wait to the actual event and I recall some naps being taken.
All worth it though and we celebrated with cups of tea.
That Monday morning I had a long trip to Oxford, where I was working in the Chemistry Dept.
I have a feeling I was a little late arriving, but I wasn’t the only one...
 
It was 1969 and I was 4.5 years old at the time, so switching channels* between coverage of the moon landing and whatever Star Trek episode was on the telly.

It was a rerun of Tomorrow is Yesterday. How fortuitous I thought.


Joe

* Does anyone remember switching channels on a TV with a pair of pliers? Them were the days...
 
I was 8. My dad got me out of bed to watch it in grainy black and white (obviously!) at 4 in the morning. I feel privileged to have watched it live.
I think it is an affront to the bravery of those involved to believe in the various 'it didn't happen' conspiracy theories.
 
I was three, so sadly before my time.

In the early 90s I worked on a project securing some of BBC's 2" master video tapes* for the archive.
It was fascinating to view the unedited recordings.

edit: *these were continuous recordings of a satellite feed.
I can't remember the ultimate source, but presumably a USA state broadcaster, or NASA.
 
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We watched it at school, everyone in the hall trying to glimpse a single, small black and white set. I think a teacher must have brought it in, as I don't remember the school having one.But if it happened at 4am I guess we were watching edited recordings.
 
Crossing the border into Yugoslavia. The border guards told us that there were now men on the moon, which seemed quite astonishing at the time.
 
I was 12 years old, watching it on TV. The images from the Moon were incomprehensible when first broadcast, at least on my uncle's B&W TV, Armstrong's first moment just looked like some amorphous blob.
 
I was seven years old, and my mother was a very strict Norwegian woman. I was totally unaware at the time of the Moon landing. The bedtime routine was as simple as it was rigid. The Magic Roundabout ended at ten to six [pm], and then came on the News. As Zebedee said, "Time for bed," and so it was! Off went the telly and it was up the wooden hill!

My own thoughts on this piece of Political one-up-manship with the Soviet Union is that what should actually have happened was that the US and the USSR should have teamed up, and put all that money spent on the Space Race into developing clean Nuclear Energy in the form of Fusion, and we would not be in nearly the mess we are today with Climate Change.

Best wishes from George
 
I was old enough to stay up and watch it, and was interested in space travel, so probably did. Shockingly, however, I can't remember anything about it. We'd just got back from holiday in Anglesey, and what I remember most vividly is how high the grass had grown while we were away.

Some time later, my uncle, who was a chauffeur for the US Consulate in Liverpool, drove either the astronauts or some moon rock round Liverpool in a massive Lincoln limousine.
 
Watching it live I think, was very late/early and lying on a couch, my mum had gone to bed.

Remember the grainy pictures on our old TV, I think the program started earlier the previous evening as I remember it was late/early morning when they landed.

Remember where/when I was to the yard/metre where I was when I got told JFK had been killed.
 
Watching with my parents and sisters ... one of the few times my dad was prepared to watch tv because generally he avoided it. I was 10.
 
Revelling in my new ability to walk. I also liked rusks.


I remember watching one of the later landings with the moon buggy. And my grandmother sitting on the sofa peeling potatoes.
 
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