Half a Century Ago

02019-07-17 | Ottmar | 4 comments

Saturday at 20:56 (8:56PM NM time) is the fiftieth anniversary of the moment that man set foot on the moon for the first time. I was ten years old and played soccer with other kids in a small village in Austria when I heard my dad whistle and holler. He made me come into the house and watch the event, and I am glad he did… It was grainy black and white, but it was exciting and great.

Where were you? Or perhaps you are too young?

4 Comments

  1. jane katz

    No, not too young! I was at home in Oklahoma with my mom and a bunch of her music students from the university. We were all so thrilled to share this event that we knew would change “mankind,” and I felt it was the beginning of vast space exploration to come. We celebrated with ice cream and singing!

    The wonder of it never left me, and I ended up working at NASA. I was in Florida in 1988 and witnessed Space Shuttle Discovery’s launch from merely a few miles away. First I saw the immense cloud of steam pour out onto the launch pad, and when I saw those first flames ignite just before lift-off and then began to FEEL the roar deep in my chest as I watched the magnificent Shuttle disappear within seconds into the blue, leaving giant column of white, white vapor, I knew I had to be a part of it. Events unfolded, and I was hired, first at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA, then at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. I met such wonderful people, including Neil Armstrong. It was a great privilege.

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  2. Ann Landis

    I was 6 years old at the time and living in Alamogordo NM and this day is my Birthday so what a great day!

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  3. Jane katz

    I spent an enchanting two weeks in the village of Sankt Johann am Pongau, Austria. Wonderful!

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  4. Steven Lea

    My dad, an aviator himself in WWII who was shot down over Poland, had taken us to the beach in Galveston. We holed up in the hotel room with drapes closed to make it as dark as possible to watch the feed from the Moon and I remember him weeping as when he was a child he marveled at Charles Lindbergh flying the Atlantic in 1927. This weekend I went down to the beach house he and I built down the coast from Galveston and watched the Moon rise over the Gulf. I thought of him and softly played my guitar, letting the memories and sound of the waves take me back. Growing up in Houston and his Mom working as innkeeper at the Holiday Inn NASA, we lived the space program.Will post photo on Instagram of Moon 50 years later

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