[Magdalen] Where Were You?

[Simon Kershaw]

I was 10 years old and followed the events with all the intense interest 
of a 10-year old.

Here in the UK touchdown on the lunar surface was at about 9pm, which 
was at or after my bedtime. I remember that Sunday evening sitting 
around the tv, listening to the communication between the LEM and 
Mission Control. I clearly recall that there were no pictures, just 
audio -- a recollection confirmed on tv last night (watching "Chasing 
the Moon"). The pictures of the descent to the surface were on cine 
film, and not available until some time after the return to earth.

So my sister and I were allowed to stay up for this. But we weren't 
allowed to get up at 4am on a schoolday to see Armstrong climb down the 
ladder to walk on the surface. Again, my recollection is that my mother 
got us up at about 6am (a good hour earlier than on a normal schoolday) 
and I watched a complete repeat of the earlier broadcast. Very blurry 
pictures, which some time later were significantly enhanced. This would 
have been on a b&w 405-line VHF tv, which was what we had at the time. 
An enormous pieces of furniture, about the size of a modern washing 
machine, but cased in rather beautiful mahogany!

And then off to school.

Memories from that age are a strange thing. I can clearly remember 
Apollo 8 (Dec 1968), and by the time of Apollo 10 just a few months 
later (May 1969, I think) I was an expert on Saturn V and Apollo and 
everything to do with them, and most of which knowledge I have retained 
to this day. But I have zero recollection of either Apollo 7 or of 
Apollo 9, though I must surely have watched at least Apollo 9. I suppose 
that the fact that they stayed in Earth orbit meant they made less 
impact on me.

simon

On 2019-07-17 02:19, Brian Reid wrote:
> I was in a small auditorium at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in
> Greenbelt, Maryland. Goddard was not directly involved with manned
> space flight, but there was an strong sense of community. I got to be
> there because I had a job working for one of the researchers involved
> with Apollo 17.
> 
> It was a transcendent experience. Despite being in a group of 300
> engineers who mostly did not know how to weep with joy.

-- 
Simon Kershaw
simon at kershaw.org.uk
St Ives, Cambridgeshire