50th Anniversary of the July 20, 1969 Moon Landing

History and astronomy buffs (not to mention those who are just nostalgic) have no doubt been revisiting the past today in celebration of the 50^th anniversary of the July 20, 1969 Moon Landings by a trio of American astronauts (one from Ohio!).

My husband, Andrew, and I have been watching the PBS series, “Chasing the Moon” on “American Experience” PBS: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/chasing-moon/ That, in addition to seeing the movie, “First Man” last summer has largely made up my education about the whole Apollo program, so I feel pretty well informed, and also a little sad that I wasn’t yet born to experience the excitement.

“Chasing the Moon” in its six hour length spent quite a lot of the time setting the scene for what life was like during the 1960s, certainly a tumultuous time in history owing to the situation in Vietnam. I’m sure I would have been just as overjoyed as everyone else by this remarkable achievement. Depending on my age and cash flow, no doubt I probably would have sought out whatever souvenirs were available at the time (lately I’ve only seen Snoopy on the moon t-shirts, a souvenir edition of Time Life magazine, and these specially themed Oreos).

My friend Lisa who had just turned 6 had this story about her commemorative toy, “My sister and I had an Apollo 11 puzzle which we made many times. There was one piece that was a perfect picture of an eye of one of the astronauts. My sister and I would see who could find it first. We would also hide that piece or another so we could put in the last piece. I wish we still had it (the puzzle).”

I asked my mom (21) what her memory was of the day. She was a little fuzzy on the details, but said she definitely remembers watching it on TV, “It was on everywhere…It was quite a big thing.” She said she also remembers the worried looking faces of those in charge at NASA.

my uncle Russ in his early days of education

My uncle (27) had this memory of the day, “I had a grant to attend a six week geography institute at Syracuse University. I had driven from California to New York state. There were about 30 teachers housed in a big dormitory and we watched the landing on TV in the dorm lounge. Of course the TV was tuned to Walter Cronkite, often referred to as “the most trusted man in America.” Somebody had brought some champagne and we sipped from paper cups as we witnessed history.”

Lisa also shared her memory, “I would have just turned 6 earlier in July 1969.  So for me it was the summer between Kindergarten and first grade. At the time my family lived in Wisconsin. I don’t remember seeing the astronauts walk on the moon, but I do remember seeing the capsule come back to earth. Also, I remember seeing them in some kind of quarantine container. I asked my dad why they were in there, and he explained that since no one had been to the moon we did not know what kind of germs they might have on them.”

I love that they used an Airstream! (made here in Ohio)

As I said previously, as I was not yet born I have no memories of that day, but I can tell you where I was for the 25^th anniversary of the Moon Landing. I was 24 and had just graduated from college and was spending most of the summer in the UK traveling with my then boyfriend (now husband), Andrew. In mid July I took a solo trip to Ireland to visit my pen pal and happened to be staying at a youth hostel in Galway. Since it was yet another rainy day in Galway with nothing to do (or at least nothing to do on a student budget), I found myself, along with the other American students there, huddled around the TV watching the Moon Landing anniversary coverage from America.

Since my sister was born on the fourth anniversary of the Moon Landing, last night we had a little pre-birthday Moon Landing anniversary celebration (of which the Oreos were one of the presents).

Andrew and I have plans later to visit the Neil Armstrong Museum in Wapakoneta. https://armstrongmuseum.org/  and perhaps eventually stream a few more space-themed films.