20 July 1969: Where were you?

Poststructural Pub
1

I was playing an outdoor park pavilion concert with the DeRosa All-Star Jazz Band. An interesting experience. A typical, muggy New York summer evening. Touchdown had already happened around 4 PM EDT. Through most of our show, at least half the audience had transistor radios up to their ears. Then as the LEM door opened, everything came to a dead halt. The sound engineer patched a radio into the PA, we in the band went backstage where someone had set up a portable TV, and we watched Walter Cronkite’s coverage of that first step and Armstrong’s famous garbled words. As a future linguist, I remember thinking “That doesn’t make sense!” A few minutes later we were back on stage to finish the show. I’d like to remember that we played “Moon River” or “Blue Moon”, but I don’t think that happened. :slight_smile:

Big Band Jazz and real moonwalking, not the fake MJ variety. A memorable night. For those too young, I guess it’s hard to convey how truly exciting it was. Viet Nam raging, the US tearing itself apart. And yet there was this transcendent moment of science fiction become reality. Or at least a great NASA sound stage production. :laughing:

2

Headed toward Fresno from Yosemite.
We pulled into a road house, parked the bikes, when in,
the place was empty, stuff on a few tables,
tv going in the kitchen…

We wandered back into the kitchen just after touchdown.

3

Sitting in front of a Black and White T.V.

Watching the evening news…

An incredible achievement .. what amazed me most was how they got them back…

Slan,
D. :slight_smile:

4

I was a child. I was not impressed. I had seen way better touchdowns on the sci-fi movies that my older brothers always made me watched. And besides, they found rockin life and love interests and civilizations on the planets in the sci-fi shows. The video was grainy. NASA was just going to have to do better to impress me.

5

In utero. I was born the following March, so my mother was about 6 weeks along, I think.

6

I was in a neighbor’s horse barn, getting shoes put on my mare. They had the radio on and we stopped to listen.

7

The youth of today…ha.

Slan,
D. :laughing:

8

I was heading down the M1 to London in my dad’s red Vauxhall Viva to find accommodation for my upcoming student life.

9

Watch out or I’ll throw my cute little 3" heel at you :wink:

10

Making out with a girl named Cathy, who would later become my first ex-girlfriend.

11

I was 8 years old. They let us stay home from school to watch it on the news (and yes…on a black and white TV!).

Redwolf

12

My brother had driven his new Porsche from Indiana to visit me in Arizona. I remember watching TV images of the moon event, looking through store windows in a Mexican border town. It is fitting that the next day we drove the Porsche through Luna, New Mexico and camped outside of town.

13

In kindergarten, watching on a black and white TV they wheeled in to the class.

14

At home watching a black and white TV. It’s kind of a fuzzy, grainy, monocolor memory. Not much about it that’s remarkable.

Odd, because I remember in vivid detail exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard that John F. Kennedy had been shot.

Gonzo, that’s disgusting! Eww!

15

Not being conceived for another two months.

Mukade

16

Let’s see - I was 14, in Spokane, Washington. Watched it on a BW TV with my parents.

17

Maryland. Parental unit living room. Sophomore in High School.

18

No idea, though I was 2 years and 11 months old. It just doesn’t feature in my memories at all. Maybe we didn’t have a TV.

19

That was a few years before my parents had even met.

20

Hampshire, England. I was 12. Living room in the family home, presumably after school, as I don’t remember being given a day off! Like dubhlinn, I felt that their greatest achievement was finding the way home again. Having grown up on programmes like “Lost in Space,” I was both used to people landing on other planets and to them getting lost!

Ro can’t remember where he was!