WSB photojournalist Christopher Boffoli notes his subject was approximately 234,913 miles away as he captured this image of this morning’s moonrise, observing, “The moon appeared strikingly orange as it rose above the horizon.” Reminds us that the Apollo 11 anniversary is just four days away. If you’re at least, oh, say, 45, do YOU remember what you were doing on July 20, 1969?
Great pic, Christopher!
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Being around two months shy of my 11th birthday, I should be able to actually remember what I was doing at the time. Perhaps that fact that there had just been big changes in my life around that time makes it kind of blend in with those changes, and not stand out on it’s own.
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Dad had remarried in May, so my Brother and I gained a Step-Mom, and a Step-Sister. Then, in June after finishing 5th grade at Lafayette, we moved over to Kitsap County.
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The only moon landing I have some memory of would have been in the Fall of ’70 or after, as I remember it being on the TV in the lunchroom at the Junior High.
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I can only assume our newly formed family was gathered around the old B&W, in our little “shoebox” house in Tracyton/East Bremerton! :)
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Mike
Stunning photo, Christopher!
As for the Apollo 11 launch, I was 6 years old at the time and glued to the TV. I was obsessed with the space program and sci-fi. I think I was planning on being an astronaut too, at least if being a stewardess (what they were called back then) or archaeologist fell through. :)
Thanks for the kind words.
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I had technically been alive for four months by the time July 1969 rolled around. But as I was living in my mom’s uterus (talk about small apartments) my view of the television was rather obstructed.
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Lucky for me the Boston Globe posted these fascinating images from Apollo 11:
http://bit.ly/nKKnR
Always memorable for me as I turned 6 on July 20, 1969!!!! Vividly remember watching it on TV.
My 12th birthday was July 19th, 1957, so I kind of figured it was all in my honor! I came in with Sputnik, so I have always considered myself a true child of the space age. When I was six, I was shocked to discover that no-one had yet been to the moon, so my attitude to Apollo 11 was, “Finally! Now we can get on with moving out to other planets!”
My family didn’t own a television set, so we watched at my dad’s boss’s house (director of NASA Edwards)–a fairly geeky gathering, although we didn’t think of it so at the time.
(talk about small apartments)
Christopher, good thing I wasn’t eating or drinking anything as I read that! :D
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As it was, I was using my nebulizer (asthma treatment), and darn near spit out the mouthpiece!
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Saw something interesting on ABC News, just last eveing. It’s been discovered, that fetuses (feti?), can actually have some memory of experiences in utero.
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They found, for example, that a baby would relax after hearing the theme music to a Soap Opera, that it had been exposed to quite a bit, and apparently became familiar with, in utero.
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Don’t recall for sure, but I believe they found the recognition started after about five months of gestation. But hey, who knows, maybe your Mom had the TV cranked up during the Moon Landing, and the experience is tucked away, somewhere in your mind! ;)
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Mike
I have only a small story to relate and I wanted to wait until others shared theirs, so now I can chime in: On the landing day, my mom picked me up from my first-ever week at summer camp. It was a fun place in the hills of Malibu, with horseback riding and archery and side trips to Zuma Beach, so I wasn’t particularly thrilled about coming home to the boring old San Fernando Valley. I remember walking into our den, where my grandma was watching the coverage on one of those classic ’60s freestanding console TVs. I can’t remember for sure whether I dropped everything to sit down and watch with her, but despite my later nose for news I have this sinking feeling I probably didn’t! – TR
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and p.s. I cannot recommend enough a funny little movie from several years ago called “The Dish,” telling – with liberties – the story of the Australian satellite-dish crew who wound up playing a larger role in the transmission of the lunar landing photos than they had expected. It was in art-house-size theaters during its first run and I think I went to see it 10 times, I loved it so much. Despite it being an Aussie production, there is a huge sense of American pride in it too – montages with JFK saying, “We will go to the moon” and so on – plus some great music, both Australian and American. (Russell Morris’ “Wings of an Eagle” is stuck in my head after I pulled it off YouTube while publishing Christopher’s photo earlier today.) Gonna pull out the DVD sometime between now and Monday.
Mike: Sorry about that. Hope you’re OK there ;-)
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I really shouldn’t complain about that place. It was tiny but all of the utilities were included. Even food! And the whole apartment was basically a heated swimming pool. Can’t beat that.
Yes, TR! “The Dish” is great! As a household full of computer geeks, we loved the bits about reprogramming the computer. And great characters!
I forgot to mention people can follow along on with the mission in “real-time” (40 years delayed) on wechoosethemoon.org
That’s what’s hotlinked in the original post above … Also followable on Twitter, @ReliveApollo11
I was 8 years old and spending the summer in Colorado. My Aunt Norma made sure I was plopped in fron of the TV with all my cousins. At the time I couldn’t figure out what the big deal was!!
While we’re mentioning movies…it would be a great weekend to see “Moon”! I loved this movie at SIFF. If you love real science fiction ala 2001 and Silent Running, don’t miss this one. It’s at the Harvard Exit and Metro, but I don’t know how long it will be here.
Christopher, I was just thinking a day or so ago, about my “first apartment”.
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During a TV weather forecast, they popped up the graphics that said that the record high for the date, was 92 degrees!
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Hmmmmm……cooking in amniotic fluid 51 years ago……
That explains alot! :P
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MIke
Age: 10 in 1969, firmly planted in front of the black ‘n white Philco in our Bellevue home. With aeronautic engineer – pilot father, and other Boeingistas huddled near, we had a party watching Neil+Buzz do their thing. Will never forget it!!
The summer of ’69 found me at the Boy Scout Jamboree in Farragut, Idaho. 35,000 Boy Scouts in one place; cool. We all had little American flags on our tents to celebrate the landing on the moon. Neil Armstrong, Eagle Scout, sent us a message from the moon. What a great time in history!
jeez, am I the oldest here? 17 in 1969, awaiting senior year in high school, and watching on huge console tv
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I heard on the news tonight that the original footage we all watched on tv was accidentally erased? is that really possible?
so it’s confirmed; just on Nightline; that NASA accidentally erased original film that we all watched on tv in 1969, and that digital experts are now working on remastering original live feed from the moon; I don’t really get the 2nd part, but the first part is crazy/sad; they interviewed the guys who did the original filming of moon landing
If my aunt were alive she’d throw that right into her old conspiracy theory about the whole thing being staged …
There was a great Mythbusters episode (last year I think) where they did a great job of debunking all of the lunar landing conspiracies.
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