Fun fact about the moon landing
 

On this day in 1969, man landed on the moon. It was an amazing feat soon followed by an amazing coincidence. In 1964, Alvin Dark, manager of the SF Giants, joked that there will be a man on the moon before Gaylord Perry, the Giants weak-hitting pitcher, hits his first home run. Sure enough, 30 minutes after man landed on the moon five years later, Perry hit his first home run, a shot against the Dodgers. Alvin was right, but just barely.

Haha, that is a fun fact.

That is interesting, Charlie.

52 years ago - and I watched while at the local High's Ice Cream store, in Norfolk. They had a little black and white set there up in one corner of the ceiling.

https://www.penguin.co.uk/content/da...ticle-card.jpg

I watched up in Bellevue, Washington at my Great Uncles home. I was 3.

Earliest memory.

it was a really big thing. I was 15. Our family went to a moon landing party at some family friends. They had a hell of a set up. Multiple TV's. Moon cheese and crackers. Alien punch and mixed drinks. The Cow That Jumped Over the Moon BBQ. A lot of theme decor.

I had a hell of a time.

One of those events that has everybody remembering where they were...

We lived in Hawaii at the time. We ate dinner and gathered around the TV at prime time to watch it.

In the early 1960s dad was on the Air Force presentations team. They traveled the country talking about space flight and the upcoming men landing on the moon. Most of the audience laughed in disbelief when he said that we planned to land men on the moon, and they would use a small portable hand held video camera and beam the images back to Earth live and we could watch from the comfort of our living rooms as men walked on the moon and retrieved samples.

At the time video cameras were mostly seen on TV sets and were on a dolly with wheels.

I spent the night at my friend Fred Ritner‘s house. His dad woke us up to watch, but Fred didn’t wake up. His dad, sister and I watched. I was 10.

So Fred died?

Stanley Kubrick was hired to fake the moon landing footage, but being a perfectionist, he insisted shooting on location.

Well, he didn’t die that night, but die a few years later from cancer.

We lived in Hawaii then too; dad was stationed at Kaneohe MCAS. Mom, dad, and I were in Honolulu that day, popped in to a small liquor/convenience store and huddled around a small (~10-inch) black and white TV with about 8 other people to watch. So proud!

I had scale models of Saturn V, the CM, the Lunar Lander all spread out and re-enacted the whole drama over the ensuing day’s after lift-off right up to splashdown.

Buzz Aldrin used a non-regulation felt tip pen to fix the most important breaker, ascent engine arm.

https://apollo11space.com/apollo-11-broken-switch/

I was 4 years old, and don't remember anything about the moon landing. I do remember seeing the capsule recoveries.

Wow just amazing to hear from those of you who were alive when this happened. I am shocked in one respect at far we have come where just this week a private citizen went to space in his own rocket yet in another at how far we have not come since then, social ills, a global pandemic, etc.... yet here we are are. Despite all that has happened since that day, we are here on earth. Alive to see the sun rise yet again on what in the grand scheme of the universe is a small spec of dust at just the right distance from just the right star to make life possible. Make the most of every day that you can, love life, seek peace where you can, never stop, and God speed to all of us on the good Earth.

Thank you. And back atcha!

I can't help but think a similar accomplishment in this era would not be as universally applauded nor as unifying.

I remember the teachers turning on the TV's in the classrooms to view liftoffs and splash downs. That was cool.

I can't imagine ANY accomplishment that would be universally applauded or unifying these days.

If someone came up with a universal cancer cure, there would be a bunch of folks that would find something to gripe about.

You mean like a cancer vaccine? No way everyone would take it.