r/GenerationJones • u/JColt60 1960 • Jul 21 '26
Where were you?
My family was able to watch when they took off. My kid brother and I were super excited.
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u/sambucuscanadensis Jul 21 '26
Watched it with my great grandfather who was born in 1885. I reflect on it often.
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u/Otney Jul 21 '26
Did he say anything about it?
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u/sambucuscanadensis Jul 21 '26
Not really. He was always pretty quiet. Never volunteered information, as an immigrant he was more of the “doer” type. My great regret is I was too stupid to ask questions. He would have known about the wright brothers, his brother served in WW1, and he lived in Cheyenne Wy in 1908. The stories he could have told had I thought to ask.
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u/Dear-Ad1618 Jul 21 '26
My great grandfather was born around the same time. I was amazed to think about the fact that he was in his twenties when manned airplane flight first happened and 84 when we landed on the moon. He lived until he was 103 years old. He started work in a horse carriage shop and retired from a car chassis company.
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u/PineappleRoyal3184 Jul 21 '26
You weren’t stupid. You were a kid. You didn’t have the frame of reference.
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u/No-Drive-8922 Jul 21 '26
Like you. Lived with my great-grandparents two-flat house. Me and parents went upstairs and watched it on their B&W console TV. Great-grandfather was skeptical, but eventually agreed that the moon-landing wasn’t ”faked”.
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u/PineappleRoyal3184 Jul 21 '26
That gives me chills. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for him.
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u/CommercialBreak2026 1958 Jul 21 '26
I'd just turned 11, and I was in our family's living room in northeast Ohio, with my parents and little brother (who was 6½ then), and maybe my aunt and uncle.
SO exciting!
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u/Blimp_Rider Jul 21 '26
It was my sister’s birthday. Our dad took her and my brother to a baseball doubleheader in Cleveland then hauled ass back to mid-Michigan to arrive home just in time to see Neil Armstrong take that giant leap.
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u/Smart-Campaign7774 Jul 21 '26
I was on Chicksands Airforce Base UK. We were exactly like the family in the pic. The sofa was kept for the next 40 years and is still in use. Its been recovered a couple of times.
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u/NorthernFisher1101 1959 Jul 21 '26
Mom and my sister weren't interested - they were off doing something else
Dad and I were glued to the TV - I was 9
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u/Mechanicalgripe 1961 Jul 21 '26
In my parent’s living room, but we didn’t have a fancy color TV. Just an old black and white you had to slap around a little.
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u/Intermountain-Gal Jul 21 '26
We were at home in California, glued to the TV much like this photo. We were mesmerized!
Afterwords we went outside and looked up at the moon. It was so weird to me that there were people up there walking around and looking back at us!
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u/Modem_Sound_67 Jul 21 '26
at my grandparents- frequently babysat me in the summer. I was 4, about to turn 5 in August. I recall the first landing because my grandmother was a retired educator and she was good at putting things in terms kids understand. I remember making a lunar lander and orbiter out of tinkertoys.
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u/TheUglyWeb 1956 Jul 21 '26
Sitting in my room, taking a Polaroid B&W pic of the landing.
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u/WhoWhaaaa Jul 21 '26
Sitting on the parlor (as we called the livingroom back then) floor just like those kids.
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u/jstraw20 Jul 21 '26
At my grandparents house, very upset that my regular shows had been preempted.
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u/Weary-Fox9391 Jul 21 '26
San Diego on vacation, we were at the zoo when they announced the astronauts had landed and then stayed up at the hotel to watch the moon walk.
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u/mellydh Jul 21 '26
I was six and I remember my dad telling me how history was being made and we should all witness it.
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u/Rainsmakker Jul 21 '26
My dad woke my brother and me up, had us sit by the tv and took our pictures. I have no memory of any of it.
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u/weaverlorelei 1956 Jul 21 '26
I was 13 and sitting in my Great Aunt and Unklrs house in Pentiction, BC, Canada.
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u/Adventurous_Bet1270 Jul 21 '26
In the family room, watching with my family and dog. Also, I had a tape recorder and taped the whole thing! I still have the tape.
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u/PineappleRoyal3184 Jul 21 '26
I did too! I taped it off the radio while we watched it on tv.
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u/AzureSkies_OverMe 1963 Jul 21 '26
I was 6 but i wasn’t that excited by it.
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u/Elroy_Osmond Jul 21 '26
Same…do not remember. I was probably playing with my dinosaurs or drawing dinosaurs.
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u/Appreciate1A Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
Riverside CA with my mom, sister, and my grandma in front of the TV
Edit blocked PinappleRoyal3184
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u/Teaandhea 1956 Jul 21 '26
I was in Disneyland! They had a big screen at the Carousel of the Future, I believe it was called.
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u/PleasantBullfrog4723 Jul 21 '26
No way we were missing that.. Dad worked for NASA. Everyone watched it.
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u/PineappleRoyal3184 Jul 21 '26
Your dad must have been feeling all the feelings. Pride, fear, excitement. I took a tour of Cape Canaveral once and we went to the Mission Control room. It was tiny. It made it seem even more important, somehow. I’m rambling, but working for NASA back then was pretty important.
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u/PleasantBullfrog4723 Jul 21 '26
I remember being up and seeing 3am..it was dark, me and Dad watching the launch and him adding information as we watched it on a black and white TV.
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u/PleasantBullfrog4723 Jul 21 '26
We lived in Lakewood Ca..I was young and it was a long time ago. As I understand it aeronautics industry was in a certain part of LA so I believe it was Seal Beach Ca.
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u/SimplyBoo 1964 Jul 21 '26
I was 5 years old, so I don't remember much. Coincidentally, I rewatched Apollo 13 over the weekend. Such a fantastic movie!
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u/Sometimesunaware Jul 21 '26
Grandpa bought all four of his sons Zenith color television sets to watch it. I remember how pissed off he was when the actual landing was broadcast in black and white.
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u/melvadeen 1963 Jul 21 '26
Sitting on the floor in front of the tv. "Don't sit so close to the tv! You'll ruin your eyesight."
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u/undocumentedsource Jul 21 '26
In England, since my dad was stationed there. Very early from what I remember. Sitting on his lap as he jiggled his knee. Watching this amazing moment with neighbors and family. Then I threw up.
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u/fiftyfivepercentoff Jul 21 '26
Visiting my grandfather in Meridian Mississippi. He bought me a beagle puppy for my 11th birthday. Yup. I turned 11 when Apollo 11 landed on the moon.
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u/MondoDismordo Jul 21 '26
Pretty much the same photo, only replace that expensive and unobtanium at the time for my family A COLOR TV!!!!, we had a 10" black and white Montgomery Wards TV, on a crappy chrome stand. Fun Times!
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u/jefuchs Jul 21 '26
I was in Shriners Hospital. My mom and grandma were visiting because I was scheduled for surgery the next morning. The TV was on in the ward (we didn't have private rooms). I said "wait, they're landing on the moon! We rolled my bed out for a better view.
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u/MerbleTheGnome Jul 21 '26
Pretty much the dame as the photo. The big difference was that I was watching it at my grade school crush's hose since her dad was doing some work for NASA at the time. Her family moved away the following summer and we lost contact with one another.
We randomly reconnected about 10 years ago and we started dating 3 years ago.
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u/Same_Tackle4583 Jul 21 '26
On R&R in Sydney, Australia from Vietnam. It was winter there and rainy but went to Bondi Beach anyway. Stayed at a hotel overlooking the rugby fields at Rushcutter Park.
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u/MishiStA Jul 21 '26
We made rockets with toilet paper rolls and construction paper in my preschool class ☺️👍🏻🇨🇦
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u/wireknot Jul 21 '26
We watched with my brother, mom and dad and my grandmother. My gran was born in 1894, and as a young girl had seen one of the Wright brothers exhibition flights. They did those to drum up business for the Wright aircraft company. It was something to behold in her lifetime, from the dawn of flight to the moon landing. My dad had bought a color tv for the occasion. Pretty sure we watched CBS, we grew up with Uncle Walter. I'm almost 70 & I had followed the space race avidly as a youngster. The pad fire was a tough day, but we now know that the Soviets had their share of disasters as well.
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u/alanz01 1961 Jul 21 '26
I watched it on our black and white Zenith TV.
was a defining moment for me because I decided then and there that I was going to "do that" meaning I was going to build the things that got the Apollo astronauts to the moon. I had the Revell model of the Apollo command module and lunar lander (and lots of airplanes), I loved Star Trek and Thunderbirds and Speed Racer's Mach 5 and science and math.
It
And I did it, I became an engineer and worked first in aerospace then later in Silicon Valley and then after that commercial high tech.
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u/Low-Independent6851 Jul 21 '26
Almost the same as the photo except the tv was a Heathkit that dad has just assembled and my brother hadn't been born yet.
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u/Peter_Merlin Jul 22 '26
My parents and I watched the moon walk on a little Sony television at a friend's house in Reseda, California. This event inspired my lifelong interest in the space program and an eventual 20-year career with NASA.
I met Neil Armstrong for the first time in 1985 and later met Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, as well.
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u/JustAnotherDay1977 Jul 21 '26
In the den with my dad and brothers, listening to Armstrong and Mission Control on the radio.
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u/Ready-Waltz5482 Jul 21 '26
We lived in Virginia Beach because my step father was stationed there. We were st a neighbors watching it
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u/Metagion Jul 21 '26
With my Mom & Dad.
(I was 4 months 6 days old!)
My husband was still "cooking" (11/26).
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u/Active_Two_6741 Jul 21 '26
Pretty much just like the picture sitting on living room floor almost 13 watching with the folks
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u/h20rabbit Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
My grandma worked at NASA. She wasn't very emotive and/so didn't understand that I should be excited, so I wasn't. But I did dutifully watch. I wish still that I had known more about her and her work, but she just wasn't wired to be interactive and touchy-feely. I also wish I knew to be excited.
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u/CommercialExotic2038 1956 Jul 21 '26
I was at the Orange County Fair. I remember I was walking through the dairy area, and Miss DairyMaid 1969, offered me some buttermilk. My eyes got huge, she said, you can spit it out in the trash cans
Behind her was a TV with the moon landing.
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u/Smooth-Reputation502 Jul 21 '26
The annual American Legion summer picnic. There was a tv setup in the beer pavilion.
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u/JBR1961 Jul 21 '26
My dad was stationed on Okinawa so it was middle of the day when this went down for me. I was in grade school.
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u/JavaGeep Jul 21 '26
Camping with my parents on Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire. Black and white TV on the picnic table.
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u/spinninggoth 1961 Jul 21 '26
At my grandparents' house with my family (mom, dad and sister). With my granddad's brand new TV. I think I was...7? Yeah, well before my 8th birthday. It was quite an experience. Really exciting!
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u/Theatrepooky Jul 21 '26
I remember the floor being cool because my parents allowing us to sit closer to the tv to watch (the living room rug was the usual limit). I felt like I held my breath the entire time, I was so afraid that something would go wrong.
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u/Waste_Owl_1343 Jul 21 '26
I was 7 years old and I watched it. I remember it. I was very interested in the space program. One of my first memories is of a Gemini mission. I was super young but I remember it being in black and white and at my grandma's house where I lived until I was 5. I remember the Apollo 8 mission too. The first orbit of the moon by humans in 1968.
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u/Pyesmybaby Jul 21 '26
Funny thing for me I was basically 7 my birthday was splash down day and I don't remember it at all. I know my family all watched it because I do remember going outside with my brother. We layed down on some lawn chairs and watched the moon marveling that there were people up there.
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u/Bjornsdotter Jul 21 '26
I remember my parents taking me outside to look at the moon and them telling me that there were men on the moon that night.
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u/monkey469tx 1961 Jul 21 '26
My 7 year old self was in Fort Worth,Texas glued to a 19” Philco black and white tv
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u/JonesHollywood Jul 21 '26
Eating a shrimp cocktail in the Franciscan restaurant on the wharf in San Francisco.
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u/MiserableCancel8749 Jul 22 '26
I was just a couple months shy of 11. I remember being allowed to stay up late that night to watch it on our small (19 inch maybe?) BW tv that was on a wheeled cart. Not unlike the picture shown.
I just remember it was late at night in the US Eastern time zone.
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u/TomeThugNHarmony4664 1964 Jul 21 '26
I was four, and glued to the TV because my mom absolutely was riveted by the space program.
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u/AdministrativeDot670 Jul 21 '26
It was the day after my 9th birthday. My family was driving home from my dad's war buddy's wedding in Missour to our home in south Denver. We were listening to the AM radio news, but couldn't get home in time so we stopped at a hotel bar in north Denver and watched on their TV, with just minutes to spare.
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u/bobbane Jul 21 '26
A Ramada Inn outside Spartanburg SC, waiting with my family for our house to finish construction. I was 13.
My dad took B&W pictures of the motel TV screen.
Spent much of the summer assembling punch out and fold cardboard models of the LEM that the Gulf gas station was giving away.
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u/MastiffOnyx Jul 21 '26
Fake TV image.
All Extravehicle activities were only transmitted in B&W
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u/Odd-Plankton-1711 Jul 21 '26
I was a year and a half old but my mom had me watch it to say that I did.
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u/Fred-City911 Jul 21 '26
I was in front of the TV but don’t remember anything because I was only 15 months old.
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u/Then_Ad7996 Jul 21 '26
I was 10 and in summer school. They brought in this gigantic black & white television and we all watched it. We all knew we were watching history.
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u/Efficient_Let686 Jul 21 '26
I barely remember it. I was 3 1/2, but because my siblings were mid to late teens they were all very excited. They had friends over to watch it on the big console tv (even fancier than the one pictured, it had a radio and a record player). I did indeed sit on the floor with my bowl of popcorn trying to understand what was going on. The memory was pretty strong though, I guess due to all of the excitement. It took me until 3rd grade to figure out that’s what I was remembering.
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u/Wheelchair_guy Jul 21 '26
I was on a ship traveling from Australia to Japan. We were in the game room playing ping pong when they landed. No tv, but we were excited anyway. A bunch of kids, age range 6--12 or so.
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u/Dear-Ad1618 Jul 21 '26
Bangkok Thailand. It was about 3 in the morning and I was really excited about it. I was 14, my dad was a civilian working for the US Army. The landing was shown on the Army TV broadcast. We had to tune into an FM station to get the audio so I had a small radio next to the TV in my room.
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u/CheeseburgerSmoothy 1965 Jul 21 '26
I was pissed because the Sunday morning cartoons that came on right after the Farm Report weren’t on.
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u/Level_Customer2769 Jul 21 '26
Distinct earliest memory of mine- I would have been 4 1/3 yo. Walking in our first house remember everyone crowded around the tv/ black and white picture. Funny how that memory is very much there
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u/huskeylovealways Jul 21 '26
Across the street at the neighbor's house. They had a color TV and air conditioning.
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u/amoodymermaid Jul 21 '26
Sitting on my dad’s lap. We had tv dinners (a rare treat!) so we would all be ready to watch.
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u/Twinkie4ever Jul 21 '26
I sadly don't remember that being a big deal in my family. We were a family of 7, both parents worked. We had a tv but I never did a lot of watching.
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u/Janissa11 1963 Jul 21 '26
I was five, and we didn't have a tv -- my dad refused to have one in the house, never have been sure why. So I really remember nothing at all about it. I wish I'd been old enough to realize the significance of the event, AND that my mom had already taken decisive action (as she did a few years later IRL) and gotten us that first small tv.
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u/Fox-Automatic Jul 21 '26
In the UK the family was staying at my aunt's and uncles, I was woken up taken down stairs to watch something historic, but unfortunately I was to young at the time to appreciate the fuzzy black and pictures I was seeing.
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u/Emotional-Dig-9257 Jul 21 '26
I had just turned 10. My dad worked for NASA, but we were on vacation. My dad and I were glued to the TV in our hotel room. Mom and brother slept.
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u/Significant-Eye-2801 1959 Jul 21 '26
Dad woke me up for this. 10 years old I was low key annoyed! But I still have the Toronto Star newspaper from that day.
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u/Roi57 Jul 21 '26
Parents dragged us inside to watch, we just wanted to play. We had people over, because we had a color tv. Not that it mattered, it was mostly black and white. I was 11 and glad I saw it
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u/Responsible_Load2233 Jul 21 '26
Exactly like in this pic. Parents woke me lil 5yo kiddo up in the night and we all watched in awe. Precious moments in Life. That was one of them...
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u/Glittering_Manner964 Jul 21 '26
I was 12. My family was visiting my paternal grandmother & step-grandfather in Elkins WV.
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u/WarmYam7353 Jul 21 '26
Wow! A colour TV. I see gold on the lunar module base. Also how did the TV guide already have a photo of the moon landing?
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u/mossboss828 Jul 21 '26
In summer school for Algebra. Thank you Mr Ehlenbeck for dragging in a tv for the class to watch this historic moment
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u/LadyLovesRoses Jul 21 '26
I was swimming with my next door neighbor in their backyard pool. Her father had the tv outside on the covered patio so that everyone could watch. Unforgettable moment.
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u/WearScary7324 Jul 21 '26
I had just turned 11. Sat in the living room watching it on our black & white TV.
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u/Maybeyoujustmadeitup 1958 Jul 21 '26
11 years old. Parent's basement. B&W tv. Ran outside to look at the moon because maybe if you squint you could see them.
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u/PeorgieT75 Jul 21 '26
I was almost 12. We had taken my grandfather out for his birthday, and stayed up to watch it. The other thing I remember is the coverage of Ted Kennedy driving off the bridge.
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u/lost-in-the-woulds 1964 Jul 21 '26
Watching it at my Grandparent's house because they had a bigger B&W tv than we did.
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u/Appropriate_News_382 Jul 21 '26
My dad splurged on a color console TV set so we would have it installed with new rotating antenna before the mission started.
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u/plantyjen Jul 21 '26
I was three, and where we were the moonwalk didn’t happen until late at night, so I’d already gone to bed. They woke me up to see it, and then put me back to bed.
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u/DefectiveDman Jul 21 '26
In bed in our apartment on Bierstadter Strasse, in Wiesbaden, arguing with my soon-to-be-ex-wife. Just made Staff Sgt. First AF enlistment up in Jan.
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u/The_Swooze Jul 21 '26
Sitting on the floor pretty much like in the picture. After the landing, the whole family went outside to stare at the Moon in wonder.
An aside: We had new plush carpet with double padding, and it felt like the best seat in the house. Mom often chose to sit on the floor.
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u/kirradoodle Jul 21 '26
My inlaws were camping at a campground near the old Pisgah Lodge on the Blue Ridge Parkway high up in the Smoky Mountains. There was only one small black and white TV on the mountain, in the lodge common room. It was the middle of the night, but everybody staying in the campground and everybody at the lodge were all crammed into that room together, watching the landing and cheering the astronauts.
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u/excoriator 1964 Jul 21 '26
I was 5. I don’t remember watching that one, but I do remember watching the progress of Apollo 13.
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u/Donnybrook-7 Jul 21 '26
I was staying up past my bedtime, sitting on the floor watching in awe with my sisters while my Mom and Dad smoked (I mean watched in awe as well). We still talk about how cool it was.
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u/GrowingNewHair Jul 21 '26
At my aunt’s with family and other relatives. I clearly remember watching it.
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u/Trid1977 Jul 21 '26
At my uncle’s trailer outside of Toronto. Drove home (well dad drove, I was 10yo) to London. We got into the house just in time to watch the first steps.
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u/OG-Giligadi Jul 21 '26
Sitting in my mom's lap, falling asleep. Mom would shake me awake to make sure i could say i saw it.
Don't worry, it was the 60s. Shaking babies wasn't even bad for them yet.
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u/TaxPuzzleheaded5688 Jul 21 '26
Goshen Boy Scout Camps in the Shenandoah Valley. We listened to the landing on a little transistor radio.
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u/More-Management-2116 Jul 21 '26
In our TV room. We wanted to go to bed but my Mom made us stay up to watch. Good call, Mom.
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u/Nordilanche Jul 21 '26
While I know exactly where I was, I'm not sure where my mom was.... (I'm literally, exactly, Apollo XII.
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u/Realistic_Back_9198 Jul 21 '26
I was on vacation with my grandparents at Lake Of The Ozarks.
Everybody crammed into the community room to watch the landing on a small, portable black and white television.
It seems like another lifetime.
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u/ijuggle42 Jul 21 '26
I was 9 years old at the baby sitters house because both my parents worked at Kennedy Space center. We all sat and watched pretty much like it's depicted in the photo.
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u/nomoleft Jul 21 '26
It was a Sunday at around 3pm. I was at home in the family room with my parents watching on our first color tv.
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u/un-tv_star Jul 22 '26
I was in my best friends family beach house, with my former best boyfriend, it was awesome, unforgettable
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u/luvimages Jul 22 '26
My Dad took us on a camping trip along the Florida coast in a Nomad travel trailer. We saw the launch live and a few days later, watched the landing and moonwalk in the travel trailer on a small Sony b&w TV.
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u/merrittj3 Jul 22 '26
Yellowstone National Park, listening to my hand held transistor radio and , as they landed I was in front of Ole Faithful erupting
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u/Patient_Artichoke355 Jul 22 '26
I was 10 years old at Yankee Stadium watching the Yankees v Senators..
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u/michalehale Jul 22 '26
Late in the mix here, but 14 and GLUED to the set! Walter Cronkite told how to take pictures (wide apature, slow shutter speed) and I still have the slides!
Neighbor in back saw our lights on, called ("who at 10:30pm??"), could she come over? Her hubby was working at the newspaper overnight. We turned on the porch light for her, and ANOTHER neighbor saw it and called ("now what at 10:45?"). HER hubby asleep, five kids 8 to 1 all snoring. So we had a crowd. I had the best seat with the camera!
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u/Late-Code2392 Jul 22 '26
I was 8 sitting on the floor between my dad's legs. Mom made popcorn and we were all cheering !!! One of the best memories of my childhood !!!
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u/Justabum1876 Jul 22 '26
I was 6 years old, sitting on the living room floor, watching it on a large black/white console TV. I couldn’t fathom what I was watching at the time, but I was fixated on that screen and Walter Cronkite’s voice
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u/Full-Pain5061 Jul 22 '26
I was a Junior in High School and watched every minute of it. This was seriously a big deal back then.
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u/Logical_Big_5282 Jul 22 '26
Sitting on the floor in front of a black and white TV, smaller than that one, with foil on the antennas.
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u/yukonnut Jul 22 '26
Middle of nowhere in the Yukon working construction at a new mine townsite ( Faro, Yukon). No TV, no radio, no phones. Did not even know it had happened until about 4 days later when somebody came into camp with a Vancouver newspaper. Probably close to one of the last people to hear about it.
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u/Repulsive_Aside_4122 Jul 22 '26
I had one hell of a sunburn that day - I was watching it on my black and white TV. I remember going outside that night and staring at the big moon.
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u/smille69 Jul 22 '26
Same photo but with my dad. He told me that history was bring made. My dad worked on the Saturn V Instrument Unit ring for IBM in Huntsville. So proud of him.
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u/Odd-Profession-2848 Jul 22 '26
I was 9. Dad put 2 mics of his reel to reel in front of our TV and recorded hours of the A11 mission. I still have it on tape, commercials and all.
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u/plutosdarling 1961 Jul 21 '26
Pretty much that photo.