40 Year Anniversary

[jaybet]

Forty years ago Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldren walked on the moon for the first time. I remember watching the landing and the first steps...I remember Walter Cronkite choking up when they landed.
Good stuff. In those days there was some SPIRIT in this country and we were proud....in fact the whole world was proud of us (except the Russians).

[Pathfinder]

I agree, absolutely fantastic. Anyone else remember exactly where you were and what you were doing? I do. Living room of our cook's house (I was on an archeological dig that summer) with the rest of the crew and her family - maybe fifteen people crammed into the LR of a double wide.

Sorry, can't resist this though. From despair.com, for all of the tin foil hat wearers out there . . .

[twyacht]

I was in the living room of a tiny Miami apt. in utero, during my mother's 3rd trimester.

But she was watching for me, I was just listening....

Awesome accomplishment. Marshal'ette's "crackberry", has more power than the onboard computer used than.

We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
Pres. John F. Kennedy

for all of the tin foil hat wearers out there . . .

[fightingquaker13]

I am not one given to flag pen wearing, flag waving, Lee Greenwood listening, overt patriotism. I just think that that kind of patriotism is a bit cheap and easy. Its doing the real stuff day by day thats hard. You can keep your yellow ribbon bumper stickers, its the young military wife with a small kid depending on food stamps while her husbands over seas that makes me tear up. That being said the fact is that ever since we climbded down from the trees, man has wondered what was on the moon. My whole life I've known there was an American flag flying there. THAT makes me tear up as well. Free minds, free markets and a free society. Don't think it works? Step outside one night and look up. God Bless the USA (okay I don't totally hate Lee Greenwood ).
FQ13

[MikeBjerum]

I am not one given to flag pen wearing, flag waving, Lee Greenwood listening, overt patriotism...
FQ13

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Shock !

Shouldn't this comment be over on the confessions thread 

[Sponsor]

[tombogan03884]

 3 Generations of the family gathered at my Uncles house to watch it on the black and white TV.
Any body else remember the Paper model of the Lunar lander given out by the gas stations, Then there were the plastic scale models of the whole rocket that came apart just like the real thing, and pennies with the lunar lander in front of Lincolns nose

"One small step for man, One giant leap for mankind."

[tombogan03884]

Just got this,

Posted by Ilya Somin:
Buzz Aldrin on the Need for Private Property Rights in Space:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_07_19-2009_07_25.shtml#1248147606


   Before the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing ends, it's worth
   noting that Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon, is a
   leading advocate of allowing private property rights in space. I
   blogged about some of his ideas in [1]this 2007 post, as well as
   considering the more general case for private property beyond Earth.
   Unfortunately, Aldrin's article on the subject (coauthored with Taylor
   Dinerman) no longer seems to be available online (though I excerpted
   some parts in the above post). This [2]Boston Globe article provides a
   good summary of proposals to establish private property in space.

References

   1. http://www.volokh.com/posts/1172136960.shtml
   2. http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/05/18/my_space/

[fightingquaker13]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Shock !

Shouldn't this comment be over on the confessions thread  

Any comments on the rest of the post, or should the silence be on the cofessions page as well? Just askin'.
FQ13
PS Call me what you want, I have a pretty thick skin. But don't question my patriotism, because I signed on the dotted line when I was 18. Just like my father, uncle, grandfather and great uncles before me. We've never been a military family, but we have always volunteered to serve. Thats something I don't joke about.

[Pathfinder]

I watched Moonshot on The History Channel last night, an interesting combination of made-for-TV-movie and video (kinescope?) from the day). Learned one thing - the moon stinks according to Moonshot. There was the clip where Armstrong and Aldrin re-entered the LEM, pressured up, and then started to take off their space gear to chuck it to lighten the take-off load. Aldrin is shown sniffing his fingers and going - onions? skunk? To which Armstrong replied, let's not tell people the moon stinks. Who knew?

[Rastus]

.........Any body else remember the Paper model of the Lunar lander given out by the gas stations, ........"One small step for man, One giant leap for mankind."

\
I got three of those paper models from eBay this year.  They were Gulf Oil giveaways.  I also remember they moved up the schedule for the first moonwalk, as it was scheduled to occur later after they landed.  My family and I were swimming in Lake Maurepas and word got around the schedule had been moved up so there was a mad dash of boats back upriver so everyone could get home to watch the moonwalk.

Does anyone remember the Apollo 11 Command Module being trucked across the nation and being put on public display?  That was most kewl too. 

It's a shame our greatness is diminishing daily.  All these things that were accomplished as a nation, by a government of the people, for the people, by the people....the interstate system, the space race, stadiums, parks, solid school systems that truly educated, an awe inspiring military for the common defense....then came the Gimme Great Society.  For those who are too young to remember what it was like to walk the streets without fear of crime, to live behind unlocked doors, to know your neighbors would support you in the bad times, to live knowing your government IRS was not a political tool....consider those things and know you are poorer now.