Continuing the discussion from Back to the Moon! Artemis program follow along (it's going to be a long long time):
Spoons suggests a new thread. It started like this:
So yes, Spoons, good idea: I ask you and anyone else who remembers the first moon landings. What do you reply to Frodo?
My answer would be there are amazing experiences in every age. I didn’t get to (have to) see D-day. I won’t get to see the first manned Mars landing in 2115 either.
Now the 1969 Moon landing was one of the earlier things which was a) of nigh universal interest worldwide, and b) broadcast on TV live. So fairly groundbreaking for that alone, regardless of what the event / achievement was. Doubly so for being good news; so much of what was / is broadcast live is reporting of disasters in progress or the aftermath.
My response would depend on when the question was asked. At one time I would have said that I actually envied them, since while I had the memory of an epochal event, they’d live to see far greater advances (and possibly leave the earth themselves). Unfortunately, I’m not nearly as sanguine about the future now; still, even though the spirit that led humanity into space seems to have atrophied, the potential remains and they’d be there for it.
For context, I was 21 when Apollo 11 landed.
You say “That’s nothing. I was in Lakehurst, New Jersey on May 6, 1937 when the Hindenburg blew up.”
I doubt Frodo would swallow your tall tale. I sure wouldn’t.
I remember all the Apollo landings. It was exciting-an adventure! In retrospect the thought that sticks out was back then was the assumed historical inevitability of the mission. People questioned the cost, but never the reason for the trips. I don’t remember a single comment about whether we should go to the moon-of course we should that was inevitable. We might have done it cheaper or safer, but going was always the right decision. Until Nixon and congress decided the costs were too much and canceled the program after Apollo 17. It was a great experience and I still remember feeling the importance of going just because it was what humanity does.
I was pretty young, but remember it was an exciting time! My mom let me get out of bed so I could see the first steps on the moon, and I was holding my Apollo 10 Snoopy doll.
We were talking about space travel in class in June (2nd grade?), and I asked the teacher why there weren’t any girls going to the moon. She just rolled her eyes, and the rest of the class laughed at me. That’s when we learned the word stamina, something females didn’t have. If I were older I would’ve mentioned Valentina Tereshkova, but I doubt my teacher even knew about her.
That was mostly my father’s answer.
Sadly when I first told him that, in the 80’s (in fact it may have been in 1989, when there was sort of a celebration/remembrance of the 20 years since the first landing), we were sure there would be something space-related in my lifetime that would surpass the moon landing, not so sure anymore.
I remember Challenger explosion as my first Big space memory.
I knew we had a space program, from studying it in earlier grades.
But my teacher(probably whole school) made a big big deal about a teacher going to space.
I remember the first moon landing. I was four. We were all at my aunt’s and they let us kids stay up late to watch it. I fell asleep on my grandmother’s lap. When she tried to wake me up, around midnight, to see Armstrong step out on the moon, I was cranky and groggy and refused to wake up. So maybe “remembering” is a little bit of hyperbole as I remember the family event more than the landing itself. Most everyone has memories of significant family occasions, so nothing to be jealous of.
That happened in many schools, and a lot of teachers had their classes watch the launch (which occurred during the morning, on a school day). And, so, schoolchildren around the U.S. wound up watching the disaster in real time.
The moon landing was on Sunday July 20. Sundays had the highest tv audience at the time, probably not coincidentally. The landing was at 4:17 EDT but the walk didn’t take place until 10:56 EDT; an awkward time for younger kids and adults who need to get up early for work. Nevertheless Neilsen reported 93% of all television sets were on. Global numbers were said to be 600+ millions, about 1 in 6 of everybody living on Earth. (I flatly don’t believe that. The US, where almost every home had a tv set, provided only 110 million viewers, half that many households. My guess is 600 million was the potential audience.)
I was a space nerd fueled by reading science fiction. I followed the space program since Sputnik. All I really remember though are the grainy b&w images that seemed to be transmitted more from the past than the future. Today that memory feels more like a finish than a start; I’m sure that then I thought the opposite. I was waiting for space stations and moon bases. Pretty sure everybody else was too. When none of that happened, the mood soured. Vietnam sucked all the attention out of distant non-events. History at a distance is hard to emotionally relate to.
Was all that money I made last year
For whitey on the moon?
How come I ain’t got no money here?
Hmm! Whitey’s on the moon
Y’know I just 'bout had my fill
Of whitey on the moon
I think I’ll send these doctor bills
Airmail special
To whitey on the moon
Gil Scott-Heron, 1970
Oh people said something all right. It just got drowned out.
What would I say, if someone told me they envied me for seeing it? I’d say, I envy you for being so young. Now get off my lawn!
And then I’d say, I’m glad you believe it happened.
I’m not old enough to remember the first landings. I do remember what I assume was the last landing. I have a clear memory of everyone watching the TV at night and my father telling me that there were people on the moon. I remember going outside and looking up at the moon in wonder. I have a much clearer memory of the Apollo Soyuz mission. I was very excited about watching the two spacecraft docking.
Telling my kids I remember a moon landing is like telling them I saw dinosaurs.
Just a small benefit from being old. The rest is not much of a benefit.
Watched the first steps on the moon on TV at my friend’s house. Purely by coincidence I’d taken LSD for the first time the night before. I was 18. No one has ever expressed envy at my being old enough to remember. On the other hand, many people have envied my having seen The Beatles in 1965 when I was 14.
I wasn’t clear in my earlier post. There was a LOT of negative commentary about the cost of going to the moon. Many members of congress voiced concerns. There were demonstrations about the cost. What I was trying to say is that I didn’t hear anyone objecting to the idea-just the cost. Remember this was the Vietnam era, there were lots of protests about the idea of being in Vietnam, as well as the cost in money and lives. Nuclear weapons likewise. Heck, I remember arguments about medicare-both the cost and justification. The space program was unusual in that I don’t remember anyone arguing whether we should go to the moon. just whether it was a good value. It was a long time ago, but that is my memory from those days. Time passes and memories alter so I am sure I don’t have all the details correct.
I fully agree that there were protests about spending money on the space program but not on urban re-development or anti-poverty programs.
I watched the Apollo 11 landing and Armstrong’s first moon walk as a young teen. The thing I remember most clearly was how crappy the video quality was, even by the standards of the time. So go ahead and watch your 4K videos and don’t envy me.
Polls found only around 50% approval of the moon program. Yet 93% watched the first moon walk. Both attitudes were true simultaneously.
I had just turned 17 in 1969. Me and a friend went to a movie that afternoon but got home in time for the BIG EVENT, as presented by Walter Cronkite. No one has ever told me they envied me the experience. If they did I would tell them that I also experienced 1968, one of the worst years in American history. The moon landing was certainly an upper for the country after that!