50 YEARS AGO

[Pumpkin_Head]

Hi Folks:

I meant to post this earlier, but forgot. This is very important to me as it was the single most profound historical event that took place within my life time. It happened in the Summer of 1969, just 4 days before my 9th birthday. There were 9 of us living in the house at the time, my parents and my brothers and sisters. Not one of us took our eyes off the tv for a moment as this event took place. In those days, it was a 19 inch black & white portable tv on a stand that was showing it's age, but we stared at that tired old tv none the less, intently without even a bathroom break.

What we were witnessing was the successful landing of the Apollo 11 on the moon. Live tv coverage from the moon for the first time ever in human history. It was comparable to being privy to the discovery of America and other such discoveries made by great explorers such as Christopher Columbus and Captain Cooke. Neil Armstrong was the very first human being to set foot on the moon and to set foot on another planet, and even though I was almost but not quite 9 years old at the time, I knew that I was seeing something that up until that point was a dream relegated to science fiction stories.

July 20th is the 50th anniversary of that event, and I am planning on having a celebration at my house in honor of the crew of the Apollo 11 who are Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldren and Michael Collins. I feel it's important because it truly was "....one small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind..."

I don't know how the rest of you feel about that, and I realize that many of you weren't around in 1969, but it would be interested to hear what your take is on it. If you were around for it back in 69, share your experience and how you felt at the time. Planning on celebrating? Perhaps your community is planning some sort of a shin-digs. I think it would be fun, and being that Halloween is about the unknown, space travel can be just as scary as monsters, vampires, ghosts and the like. Just think of yourself, stepping out of the lunar lander, not knowing what could be waiting for you. Not knowing what to expect, or who or what might be watching. Back then, we didn't know what to expect to find there.

I just thought it interesting.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

I was 14 that summer, and I remember it very well. My mother and I sat up long after midnight to watch Armstrong take his first step. Truthfully, I fell asleep during the wee morning hours, but Mama woke me up for it.

Armstrong's first words were scripted, and everyone knew ahead of time what he was goimg to say. Mama and I thought he sounded stiff in his delivery. However, the Lunar Module was called the Eagle, and when it first touched down on the moon, Armstrong naturally radioed back to the command ship, "The Eagle has landed". Those were literally the first words spoken on the moon, and we thought they were far more poetic.

[Pumpkin_Head]

I agree. People in general use the expression "The eagle has landed" in daily conversation to indicate arriving at a destination or completing a chore or what ever, NOT EVEN KNOWING where that expression came from. "Houston we have a problem" is another commonly spoken cliché when something goes wrong people often use, and again, they don't even know where it came from.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

The movie Apollo 13 perhaps revitalized that expression.

[Pumpkin_Head]

I've heard both expressions used long before the movie "Apollo 13" came out.

Mike

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

I know this thread is a few years old now, but I hardly ever visit this part of the forum so I just came across it and I wanted to share my thoughts on the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing.

I was born in 1981, so I missed the Moon landing by over a decade, and I always wished that I had been around to witness the historical event as it happened live on air. When I was growing up I was always fascinated by anything related to space exploration, and I would love to watch old footage and documentaries of the original Apollo missions. Of course, back then we had to watch it on old reels in class or go to the library to watch it, and today you can find them on Youtube without leaving your house.

To me, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldren and Michael Collins were not only American heroes, but they were heroes to the whole of humanity, and it upsets me when some people say that the Moon landing was fake. I know in my heart that it was real, and when they did interviews about it you can hear it in their voices and know it was real. It was one of the greatest moments in history, and it brought the whole world together, regardless of what country you were from, on that day, at that moment, we were one people, one nation, one world taking that leap together in peace.

When I was a kid I asked my parents what It was like to watch it live, and I always loved to hear their stories about what they were doing, where they were, and what they were feeling when it happened, and I asked other adults in my life the same thing as well, such as my teachers or friends parents, and hearing their individual experiences and what it meant to them was always interesting to me. As a adult, most of the people that I work with are older than me, most of them are in their 50s-60s, and while there wasn't any celebrations here when the 50th anniversary happened, I asked them to tell me their stories, some of them said they were too young to remember even watching it, while others told me in great detail about what it was like to be there for it.

As I said before, I know this thread is a few years old, but I wanted to thank both Mike and Murfreesboro for sharing their stories here, I enjoyed hearing them.

[Pumpkin_Head]

Thanks for posting, Headlesshorsemen. It has been a few years, but it still applies. It's now been over half a century since "The Eagle" landed on the moon, and if anything it seems that our society and the world has gone backwards. At any rate, be it witchcraft, vampires, or space aliens, Halloween is all about the great unknown. Is there life out in the universe? Is that life intelligent? Are they friendly? What happens when we die? Did astronauts visit the Earth in ancient times? Were the ancient Egyptians Pyramids, and the great abandoned cities in South America built by space aliens, or by a human civilization long lost to some forgotten apocalypse? Was there an Atlantis? Those questions have always fascinated me through out my life. The astronauts who landed on the moon in July of 1969 opened the door to us getting some of those answers.
It's really too bad it didn't continue as I and many others thought it would. I was sure that by the time I was 30, there would be vacation resorts on the Moon. I was sure that the cars would fly, and interstellar space flights would be possible. Now a days, I wonder if we just might just go the same way that Ancient Atlantis did. (if it actually existed)

Mike

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

Those are some great questions Mike, and hopefully one day humanity will get answers to some of them. Almost everything you mentioned I've had a interest in, as I've always been attracted to the unexplained.

It's funny that you mention vacation resorts on the Moon, I remember when I was a kid in school they played a Disney film for us from the 60s that was made before they even went to the Moon, and they talked about the resorts and the other possibilities that awaited us, but unfortunately they didn't go back to the Moon after the Apollo missions.

My whole life they have been saying that they are going to Mars, it was supposed to happen before I was born, then when I was a kid, then the year 2000, then 2015, then by 2020, now they say it will be by 2030. At this rate I'm going to be in the ground being eaten by worms before they get there, but maybe my grandkids will be around for it.

[Pumpkin_Head]

Government stone walling is probably the reason for the delay in getting to Mars. If this war between Russia and the Ukraine heats up into WW 3, we may never get there in even your GREAT grandchildren's life time. Las but by no means leas, NASA is under the control of the government, and like all other government organizations, they operate with all the efficiency and accuracy of a VW with 4 flat tires, no engine and no steering wheel.

I would love it if private industry could get into the act. Unfortunately I don't see that happening in todays socio economic and political climate. BUT, this is Halloween.com. I don't want to make this about politics. Not even in the 'off topics' forums. Suffice it to say, that as far as going to Mars or to any other planet within or outside our solar system are dreams that are a long way away from being realized. Maybe mankind in general isn't quite ready enough for that next 'giant leap' yet. I don't know. All I know is that I wanted to go to the Moon, or maybe just into outer space before I died, and I'm already over 61.

Mike

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

To quote the young philosopher Linus Van Pelt: "There are three things I've learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin."

I agree that this is not the place for any political discussions, though I did get a smile from your comment.

As for privatized companies getting on board, I know that both SpaceX and Bigelow Aerospace are trying to get to the Moon and Mars, and they are developing new technologies every day, so maybe they will actually make it there one day.

[Pumpkin_Head]

I read about those two companies a little while ago, but it's very probable that the government is stone walling them.
I certainly hope you're right.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

I revisited this thread bc you mentioned it, Headless Horseman. One more thing I remember from the first moon landing is that there was virtually no crime anywhere on earth that night. Even the criminals were glued to their TV sets.

My SIL and BIL worked for NASA from the late '70s until their retirement two or three yrs ago. They were very high up in the shuttle program. My BIL told me that voyaging to Mars is harder than people imagine, in part bc it is necessary and difficult to shield the astronauts from the sun's radiation for that long. Not an impossible problem to solve, but there's stuff to consider that most of us don't think about.

I think the reason we stopped going to the moon was political. There just wasn't the will to keep funding it. Perhaps the current involvement of capitalistic companies will change that.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

I revisited this thread bc you mentioned it, Headless Horseman. One more thing I remember from the first moon landing is that there was virtually no crime anywhere on earth that night. Even the criminals were glued to their TV sets.

It's funny, I have heard that same thing from at least 20 different people that I've spoken to about what they remember from that night. The whole world was watching, in fact, I think that the Moon landing still holds the record for being the most watched event in human history to this day.

I know there were multiple reasons why they didn't go back to the Moon, but I'm hopeful that someone will get there again soon. If it's NASA, a privatized company, another country, or even a joint mission involving all of them working together, I think that mankind is ready for that next step.

[Murfreesboro]

It's crazy to think that we did that when our computer power was so slight compared to today. They say the cell phones we hold in our hands have more computing power than NASA had back then.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

I know that when NASA went to the Moon during the Apollo missions the only thing they found was rocks and dust, and with the science back then, they thought they were just rocks and dust, that's one reason why they didn't go back to the Moon. But since then science and technology have advanced incredibly, and they studied the rocks and dust again and found that the Moon actually contains high volumes of a element that can be used on earth as a clean fuel source, so now they want to go back to the Moon. Other countries like China and India want to go there for the same reasons, that's why they are starting their space programs.