Posted on 07/20/2019 7:06:19 AM PDT by Skooz
My dad was USAF, stationed at Minot AFB, ND.
I was a 9 year-old space nerd. Most of my friends were also space nerds and we followed the Apollo program closely.
During the summer, the housing area was crawling with kids all day until the sun set about 10:00 pm. Every house had at least one kid, and most had 2 or 4. The winters were harsh, so we took full advantage of the summers and stayed outside as much as possible. GREAT place to grow up. The best.
The evening of July 20, 1969, I was playing with some friends and one by one they headed home to watch the moon walk. I walked home and sat on my dad's Ford Falcon, head down and listening to the news cast on a transistor radio my grandma had given me.
After 30 minutes or so I looked up and was amazed. The neighborhood that a few minutes before had been overflowing with people -- kids playing, moms gathered in groups chatting, dads washing cars--- was a ghost town. Empty. Not a soul. Not even a cat. Nothing. It was still and void. I had never seen it like that. I felt like the last person on earth.
That was when I went inside and sat down in front of the TV with my family. And like everyone else, watched Aldrin and Armstrong walk on the moon.
Vandenberg AFB. Just a kid, but we used to watch the launches from a hillside. Today, 50 years ago, I was glued to the black-n-white TV wondering how they got the images into our TV.
It was because of living at Vandenberg and watching launches that I became a space systems engineer.
Love it!
Nixon declared a national holiday for July 21st because of the moon walk and my physical was postponed.
That gave me enough time to go join the Air Force instead of being drafted into the Army.
Best decision I ever made. It altered my life immensely because I met my wife of 45 years in the Air Force on my first assignment and we are still together.
I remember the day well. One of a few I have remembered vividly my entire 71 years.
July 20 or was it 21, 1969...USAF. Ban U-Tapao AFB, Thailand. working on KC-135s and B-52s. Saw the moon landing at the USO. The place was packed!
My dad and I likely hunted on or near your farm at some point.
It was a Sunday and my Dad came down for a visit.
He brought along a bucket of chicken, a 6-pack of coke and a transistor radio and we listened to the radio broadcast of the event.
Not yet a gleam in my daddy’s eye.
Me too, Oh, the humanity!
I was at our summer home in Bay Beach, Ontario Can. ( Lake Erie), watching with my family,except my older brother who was serving on swift boats in Nam, I was 9 years old at the time.
That, of course, would be a WATER ski weekend, not snow skiing. :-)
I spent many a summer weekend at Lake Havasu with friends water skiing. Fun times.
I was at a place called Hill 55, about 20 clicks southwest of Danang.
I was 18...at home..recall my step Dad worked on some part of the lunar rover equipment for Boeing...but it was supposed to be a big secret
Qui Nhon, Viet Nam
NYPD
We all stopped for about 20 minutes to watch.
I was 9-years-old, soon to be 10, and going into the fifth-grade. I was attending a Honts family reunion in Milboro, Virginia.
As I recall, the adults were teasing us kids that if we looked really close at the moon we would be able to see the U.S. flag!! Somebody had a pair of binoculars that we took turns trying to find that flag. They kept us busy, huh?
I got mine in 1975.
A few days before the landing, dad snuck off to Sears and charged a big color t.v. especially for the event. Mom was furious because they really couldn’t afford it. We were all glued to the new set, but years later I realized there really wasn’t much “color” to see...lol. Mom and dad divorced later that year...sigh. I was 14 that summer.
On Long Island, in the Hamptons. I saw the landing in a bar.
Today? Over 50,000 people live there. How times do change.
What part of the Lake did you go to?
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