Friday 20 July 2007

Do You Remember?



Do you remember where you were 38 years ago, on the 21st of July 1969 , if you were in Australia, or 20th July 1969, the official recorded date?
Where were you when Aldrin and Armstrong walked on the Moon?
I was in 5th year high school, and we all went to the assembly hall, all 900 of us or however many there were. They scattered all the TVs the school owned throughout the hall and we sat, in our formal rows of chairs, rivetted to the flickering grey images... of a man climbing down a ladder, stepping on the Moon's surface....the MOON'S surface...and speaking those famous words we all remember, if we were there.



I also clearly remember that night, as I put the garbage bin out onto the footpath for collection early next morning, looking up at the luminous Moon in the night sky, and marvelling to myself ..." Wow, there're human beings up there...NOW... people.. up there, on the Moon!"
So...do you remember where you were?

9 comments:

Jules said...

I was in Gr 8 - God now I have given it away!!! We lived in Roma in Western Qld where there was no TV unless you had a tower in your back yard high enough to cause a dangerous to planes, to pick up the signal. My Grandparents did so I my sister and I got to go home to see it.

Well during the day the signal wasn't very good and to me it looked like they had landed in the middle of a snow storm in the depths of Siberia. Total waste of time it was - but I did get the afternoon off school!!!

I remember doing the same thing. All my family lay on and under blankets in the front yard, in the freezing cold to look at the moon and wonder of the marvels of man.

Jules said...

PS - that should read danger not dangerous - my fingers are slower than my thoughts!!!

GMG said...

I was watching TV to hear Amstrong saying "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"... Further, I was preparing my 1969 two-and-a-half-month-Europe-hitch-hiking-trip...

Sally said...

Yes, I remember! First form (Year 7)....and our experience was similar to yours except it was the school library. Maybe the older ones were in the hall - the lib wouldn't have held us all!

Still have a scrap book that I kept from the time.

Marie said...

I don't remember where I was but July 1969 was the month when my elder son was conceived :-))

Irina said...

I don't remember because I wasn't born yet :) But the date is worth remembering, you're absolutely right.

And thank you for your regular visits to my blog.

Neva said...

I was 15 and visiting my grandparents in Washington DC and I remember my GREAT-grandmother wondering if they were "pulling our leg" that "moon landing" was impossible.....and my grandfather assuring her she was "living the history". I, too , remember thinking there were people up there...truly amazing.....today's kids have no idea.

Anonymous said...

I was pregnant with my first child at that time, and vaguely remember watching the landing on TV. I also remember the words, "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind".

Ann (MobayDP) said...

I wasn't born yet, but that must have been one interesting day.