A ha. I was 5, my father was a David Brinkly man so we watched it on NBC and we too ran out into the yard to see if we could pick out the spot where they had landed. I wonder how many people stood outside looking up at the moon on that night.

I was working as a counselor for a day camp for handicapped children. I listened to the moon launch on a transistor radio about the size of a small brick on the steps of the craft cabin.

I was in the family room in our home in Louisville, KY and I stayed up all night just to watch it. Incredible! I remember that people rushed out to buy color TV's and the moon walk was all in black and white. What a time! Thanks for the memory, George!

I was living in a Miami highrise over Biscayne Bay with my baby son. My hubby was in Vietnam. I remember thinking that I would always remember the moment, and I took a photo and I talked about it to my son right then. I shall have to remind him of that day, which he could not remember, except for the photo.

I was nearly 5 years old and my sister, who is 5 years my senior, mom and I watched the moon landing on TV. Yes, I still remember it clearly and I was aware even of it enormity at that time. My father rushed home from work to catch some of the coverage. The TV did not move from CBS during that entire period. I was mesmerized. I remember walking outside that night and my dad pointing to the moon saying "those men you are watching are all the way up there." It was a moment I'll never forget. Good job George.
Rated

George, my story mirrors yours in a few ways. I was also 15 that summer and was sitting in the living room with my parents and brother. I watched the whole broadcast and I even recorded the audio from the television set onto my reel to reel tape recorder. I still have the tape but have never played back more than 20 minutes or so of the event.

I also recall that he had experienced in this part of NY State an unusual number of rainy days around the time of the Moon walk. My brother and I thought it would be very cool if Neil Armstrong said something dramatic about our ending the Vietnam War when he stepped onto the surface, but he went with the more generic, history-related sentence that we know so well.

ocularnervosa…. David was another great anchor that will be long remembered, too. One could not help but go outside and look… it was just too amazing!

MTood… thanks for your memories. What a wonderful thing you were doing that summer. Those transistor radios are now in the Smithsonian with the Apollo Moon Lander…

Pam… thanks. I, like you, stayed up throughout the night in total amazement.

jane… age has its advantages, but youth will beat old any day!

Lea… great way to bring that incredible moment to son. It is hard to believe that while we watched Neil on the moon, your husband and thousand more Americans were fighting for freedom in a faraway land. God Bless them all!

Blue… thank for your memories – I can’t think of another time like that, when the world stood still in awe and marveled at the achievement of man.

I will never forget that day. I sat in the living room of my parents home watching CBS abd running outside to see the moon that night. I was twelve years old and expected to see the lander on the moon from my yard. I did not, of course.
Good memories here George. Very good things.

I was camping with my folks and siblings at Red Willow Reservoir somewhere in south-central Nebraska, fishing for really big bass. We all gathered around the transistor radio, and I can remember my dad trying to manipulate the antenna to find a station.

I was not a news broadcaster reporting the news.
I was screaming from 10, 000 away. Medic. Help!
Send letter to America! Send canoes, trains, mule!
Get a Amish buggy! Get us duped kids home alive!

John – I knew there was a kinship – if not just age similarity… your tape is a great piece of history that I hope will be passed down generation to generation.

Mission… thanks for adding your memories. I would think that youngsters around the world ran out to their yards in hope of seeing history in the making.

HL…. Great place to be on the historic night… out amongst the stars. I have to laugh at your comment about your dad – “trying to manipulate the antenna to find a station” – my Dad wasn’t very good at rabbit ears or radio antennas. Thanks for stopping by and adding your memories.

I was thirteen and had followed the space program for years. I don't remember anyone else being in the room although I know they must have been. I was completely absorbed and wishing myself into their boots! If NASA called today, I'm ready to go!

I was studying Arabic in Egypt. It seems like a million years ago.

I know EXACTLY where I was, and what I was doing, when Neil Armstrong took that small step/giant leap for mankind. I was ..................




......................... in bed fast asleep! Bearing in mind the different time zones, for us it was in the early hours, possibly about 3 am, on the 21st July. (We were clearly ahead of you all ...... and reached midnight first lol)

Arthur James… you are probably right, that a lot of people thought this would bring an end to the world as we knew it back in ’69. Or that now that we were on the moon, it would open the door for exploration to the planets beyond and bring mix populating with aliens.

COS – you would make a terrific addition to their team. Thanks for sharing your memories and your dreams.

Ralph… sounds like there could be an adventure in your Arabic studies – hope you tell us one. As for years ago… time sure does fly, but memories last forever. Thanks for stopping by.

jon… you Scottish are always ahead in words, in wisdom and in a few drams of my favorite drink. Thanks for commenting 5 hours ahead and sharing your 21st of july '69 story with us.

I was 20 years old and visiting a friend in my home town. She was on a date and her parents were also out , so I watched alone, in her family's den: ABC-Walter Cronkite.
--rated--

I have very clear and vivid memories of that night. I had been fourteen in 1966 when Star Trek became my favorite TV program, and I was all into space exploration. I was also aware that my father was an employee of the US Department of Defense and had some work to do with satellites, and I suspect he knew way more about the moon landing and space program than he ever told us about.

On the night of July 20, 1969, I was seventeen years old, preparing for my senior year in high school. We lived in Mt Sterling, Kentucky, a small town of about 5,000 people. I had been out running with my football friends, getting ready for the upcoming season. Mom had kept my supper warm in the oven for my return--it was pork chops, corn and white bread with gravy.

My whole family was in the den, watching the TV. Two of my sisters, younger, were acting like girls and being general pains in the ass. My older sister, thankfully, had already gone off to college a couple of years before, and wasn't home that night.

What an awesome thing it was, that telecast. I sat mesmerized by it, and ran outside so I could see them. I couldn't, of course, but wondered where, exactly, they were. I was proud, and happy, and I thought that the world was a better place for those astronauts. The Democratic Convention riots of '68 stopped being so important, and I thought that maybe we were doing something really important and meaningful and lasting.

mothership - Thanks for your memories of that night, when the world was watching with you that incredible achievement.

Stephen – your memories of the late ‘60’s are so significant to the new hope this moon landing brought to a tumultuous decade. Thanks for sharing them.

tre… young & old were following your lead and hoping they could see those two men walking & jumping across the surface of a faraway world. Thanks for stopping by and telling us your memories of that historic night.

I wasn't even a glimmer in my mother's eye...

In summer school. Trying Pot. All of us trying to get Joanne home before she got us all arrested, yelling about "I'm having a bad trip! I'm having a bad trip!"

Love this! Finally a boomer anniversary with positive memories, unlike so many of the other anniversaries. See "Laurel, not Lauren"'s post today and enjoy my flashback too!

Bethany…. You miss a hell of a night; filled with drama, anticipation and excitement.

zuma… it must have been a great party and sounds like you were tripping with the stars & moon out in space.

Deborah… thanks for stopping by and celebrating this awesome ‘boomer’ anniversary

That's an easy question. On July 20, 1969 I wasn't born.

I do enjoy reading the accounts of those who remember this. I can't imagine what it was like not taking for granted the fact that we got a man on the moon. Thank you for this post.

RenaissanceLady – it was quite an exciting time to be old enough to know what was happing. The Sixties decade was filled with so many news worthy things. The assassination of three great men, the Civil Rights movement and the much debated Vietnam War are just a few.

Glad you enjoyed reading the various memories… it is the personal stories of a given time that bring history alive.

I was 16 years old. We were watching the news in our family room. My baby brother was 10. I am pretty sure that all four of us were watching it together, but I'm not sure. It was one of the few times when Dad didn't fall asleep as soon as he sat in his chair in front of the television.

In reality, glued to the b and w Zenith in the basement. But in my mind? Playing Catch with Neil. . .

Harp… it was compelling television – possibly the best in our lifetime! Thanks for your memories

CG – “in my mind? Playing Catch with Neil. . .”
Was that Neil standing on the moon? – Now that would be a heck of a game! Thanks for stopping by.

Just graduated from high school and was playing American Legion baseball and working for the minor league baseball team. I remember that I was happy that we had beaten the bad Russians in the space game. My hippie urges were about to pop. People complained about my hair sticking out from underneath my ball helmet and I wore love beads underneath my uniform which was tolerated cause I was the star. This caused my cranky old ball coach to take me aside and say"Jesus Christ, can't you wait until the season is over? Then you can go to San Francisco and go ape shit."
This amused me grandly. Summer of '69 was not just a line in a song, I lived it. By the way, china was still known as Red China.

I was driving into downtown Manhattan, on the urgings of my mother and the orders of my father, to go and pick up and bring home my younger sister, who decided to have it out with mom and dad and pack her car and run away! How rude of her to put herself in the spotlight while our first American was walking on the moon!
Got to some NY YWCA, walked into the lobby where an old black and white tv was playing, displaying the first fuzzy shots of our first lunar walk. I got to see it a little, while convincing my sister to come home. That attempt failed, as she knowing stated she was 18 and not going home. The experience was a let down.

Dr…. The sixties was a wild decade for sure. ‘Love, sex & rock-in-roll’ and beating the Soviet Union to the moon. Hippies in Asbury Park and rocking at Woodstock!

I can relate to the long hair… I attended The Academy of Richmond County and had to take Army ROTC… if your hair touched your ears or collar – you got 100 demerits and had to walk the walk for 4 minutes per demerit. I walked to the moon numerous times during my four high school years. Thanks for your memories…

Cathy… What older siblings have to go through? And to think it was pre-NYC Village People’s YMCA or Studio 54! But, sometimes memories are best forgiven… which I’m sure you did.

Ha! I was thirteen and whacked out on pain killers after leaving the emergency room after a chain saw accident that required ninety stitches. I remember the event, but I have to tell you that the details are fuzzy at best.
I guess I could have written a story about it and the baseball that caused the whole thing, but I keep forgetting about it.

Oh, I love baseball stories and have to hear this, Mikey!

6 years old. I didn't understand why all the adults and older kids were watching TV and saying "Shhhhhh!"

Michael… you know the readers here at OS like a good ‘blood & gore’ story. So, like Pam, I hope you do tell it one day. As for being fuzz due to the pain killers; we all were see a little grainy fuzz, as we watch the ‘step for mankind. Glad this post brought back the memory of you; a baseball and the chainsaw… please enlighten us.

Eva… being six can really be a pain; especially when you are ‘shhh’d’ during a historic event – grown-ups can be so noisy sometimes. Thanks for stopping by.