Moonwalking -- 48 Years Ago Today

Pearlee · ‎06-11-2011

It is hard to believe that today is the 48th anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's walk on the moon. The Eagle has landed! I remember it as if it were yesterday. We had our "main" TV, a color one that certainly not every household had back then, in our den on the first floor of our house.. My family -- both my parents were still alive then - and I were glued to the TV as Neil Armstrong descended the ladder and planted the American flag. We were swelling with pride at all America had accomplished in the "space race" with the Russians, and were also in complete awe that a man was walking (or rather it looked like bouncing!) on the surface of the moon. I remember going outside that night and looking up at the moon, marveling that two Americans had walked on it and still not quite believing it. As I don't quite believe that almost half a century has gone by.

Those were exciting times and those were very, very courageous men, those astronauts.

Here is a link to the NASA site describing what happened. Which in a nutshell was this, those famous words of Neil Armstrong's as I heard them firsthand as he uttered them all those many years ago:"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

Who else remembers watching it? What a memory!

From the NASA site:

At 10:56 p.m. EDT Armstrong is ready to plant the first human foot on another world. With more than half a billion people watching on television, he climbs down the ladder and proclaims: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

Aldrin joins him shortly, and offers a simple but powerful description of the lunar surface: "magnificent desolation." They explore the surface for two and a half hours, collecting samples and taking photographs.

They leave behind an American flag, a patch honoring the fallen Apollo 1 crew, and a plaque on one of Eagle's legs. It reads, "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon. July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind."

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/apollo11.html

alicedee · ‎07-25-2010

I remember watching it as well. Our family was all gathered in the living room in front of our black and white television. As he stepped on the moon's surface I looked out the window behind the couch up at the moon, marveling that someone was actually walking there.

I've lived to see some amazing historical moments...this was one of the good ones!

Pearlee · ‎06-11-2011

@alicedee Thanks for sharing. I should have added that despite watching it on our then-one-and-only-color-TV I"m pretty sure the tranmission from the moon was in black and white anyway so it didn't matter about the TV being a color one.

Those were exciting times back then.

151949 · ‎03-09-2010

I was working. I had just graduated and was working in the newborn nursery at the small hospital where my Grandma & I both had gone to nursing school. Anyway there was a lady in the delivery room having twins, and the doctor had us bring in a TV so we could see the moon walk. Thankfully, the babies didn't come until after it was over, so everyone saw the moonwalk - even the Dad. The Mom was pretty PO'ed at him for watching TV instead of paying attention to her.

Pearlee · ‎06-11-2011

@151949 Great story! If I were the mom, I don't think I would have allowed it! Who would want a distracted doctor - and husband - during a delivery? Yikes!

151949 · ‎03-09-2010

@Pearlee There isn't really anything for the doctor to do if it is a normal situation and the babies haven't started to come yet. He was there if he was needed. My job didn't start until the babies were born as I was the nursery nurse, so I was just hanging out.

kjae · ‎07-24-2012

@Pearlee

thank you for bringing this to our attention.

It was such a monumental accomplishment for mankind and I can't believe it was ignored in the media today-maybe they will cover it at 50 years-but it should be mentioned every year.

I absolutely did not know it happened on July 20.

Pearlee · ‎06-11-2011

@kjae wrote:
@Pearlee
thank you for bringing this to our attention.
It was such a monumental accomplishment for mankind and I can't believe it was ignored in the media today-maybe they will cover it at 50 years-but it should be mentioned every year.
I absolutely did not know it happened on July 20.

@kjae Thanks for your post. I saw it today in our newspaper, under the "today in history" column of events. Until then, all I remembered about that day of the moon landing (well it was at night) was that it was super hot outside, just like it was today. Yep, July 20th makes sense. You are right though; there was no publicity about it other than being listed in our daily "today in history" events column of our paper. I suspect there may have been something about it on Decades TV today - they do an hour of "events that happened on this date" in videos from the events.