July 20, 1969 Moon Landing Anniversary Part II

My husband, Andrew and I finally got a chance to visit the Neil Armstrong Museum in Wapakoneta while we were driving back from a recent vacation out on the islands.

As we were somewhat pressed for time, we weren’t sure if we’d be able to take it all in, but figured since it only cost $10 each, we wouldn’t have much to lose.  Though we didn’t read every plaque, we felt we pretty much saw it all in the hour or so we were there. “I really just wanted to see the stuff that was unique to him (Neil Armstrong), since we had already watched most of the NASA coverage of the moon landing,” Andrew said.

Among other things, there was a machine that would tell you what your moon weight was for the cost of a quarter. Since I had the spare change and was curious, I stepped on the scale. My earth weight (fully clothed, carrying a heavy purse with 2 cameras) was about 121 lbs, and my weight on the moon was only a fraction of that – 20 lbs.

Andrew said he wanted to correct the man who was telling his grandkids (?) all about the space program and the Gemini flight and kept pronouncing it Gemini, when, in actuality it was pronounced “GEM-uh-knee.” “The “pronunciation is part of the agency’s culture, and serves almost as an insider’s shibboleth – a word whose proper delivery identifies you as someone in the know. ‘If you get it right, you’re part of the space club,’” according to NASA spokesman, Bob Jacobs. Another theory is that “the pronunciation could have to do with the early space program’s Southerness, in the way that ‘every pilot speaks like Chuck Yeager.’” (NY Times 10.17.18, article by John Schwartz).

I had a couple more responses to my question of what memories people had of the Moon Landing.

“I remember where I was at the time, standing outside a shop window in the centre of Nottingham at about midnight on the Sunday watching a black and white TV with a group of others. As I remember there were no pictures from the moon at the time, just a message on the screen that, "eagle has landed." There was no TV in the flat I was living in at the time; hence the trip into town.  Quite low key for such a momentous event. It was a few weeks before we got married and Ros was living with an aunt in Yorkshire at the time so we could get married in the church there.  I had just got back from visiting her at the weekend.  Guess I saw pictures of the landing later.” Graham May (Andrew’s uncle)

Graham and Ros (August 9, 1969)

“I'm not sure where I was, but I can say for sure I was watching it on TV.  Everything that had to do with space travel was on all the channels. The scariest was when they were coming home and entering the atmosphere to keep from burning up, then going to pick them up in the water.” John Denison (my father)

John & Jean Denison (August 2, 1969)

Funnily enough, both Graham and my father were preparing for their weddings, so it’s only appropriate I give them a shout out now, “HAPPY GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY!!!”