Do you remember where you were?

[p38arover]

It's coming up for 40 years since Apollo 11 blasted off to the moon - the 16th July, 1969 in the USA (17th July, 1969 in Aus).

Do you remember where you were on that day?

I do.

I was on duty at the Moree Satellite Earth Station which provided the moon shot comms back to the USA. Mine is the fourth signature on the envelope on the day of the launch. The names are the people on duty that day.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/06/104.jpg

Neil Armstrong walked on the moon on 20th July, 1969.

Do you remember where you were?

I do.

I was in my future M-I-L's lounge room, glued to the TV watching the landing and the walk.

Do I believe it happened? Absolutely.

I expect a lot of you weren't even born!

[amtravic1]

In school. (Kew High in Melbourne) Form 1 or two. We got to watch it on TV.

Ian

[MickS]

O.T.C. - now there's an acronym I have not heard for years!!

Yes Ron, I remember - I was sitting on a cold timber floor at St. Joey's watching it on a black and white t.v with Sister John breathing down our necks...:Rolling: She was the original penguin!! :eek:

[V8Ian]

We were sent home from school to watch it on TV.

[JDNSW]

No television where I was - Maprik, East Sepik, PNG!

John

[Ricey]

I was too young for the moon landing, but vividly remember 9/11 as it happened.

What's the world coming to :eek:

[Bearman]

Driving D9 bulldozer in West Qld scrub pulling. I remember hearing it on the RFDS HF radio.

[one_iota]

We watched in glorious black and white on TV at Goulburn High ;)

[Disco_owner]

I suspect I was not even concieved yet :D Born april 1970.

[drivesafe]

It’s amazing the events that stick in your mind.

I was at school in Metal Work, which no body was doing, standing around a black and white TV the teacher had brought to class for the day, to watch the moon walk.

I can remember our neighbour screaming out over our front fence, very early one morning, “They’ve killed Kennedy, They’ve killed Kennedy”

I can remember as a 12 year old, standing in my front yard in Riverwood, watching a 707 carrying the Beatles into Sydney.

I was working on the railway in Moree when the Granville smash occurred.

I was in also Moree when the first Space Shuttle flight was launched.

I was watching West Wing when, at first it was just a news break but then the program soon stopped so they could go live the New York on September 11. I was recording the show and still have it.

Makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck every time it’s watched.

What events does everybody else remember

[dullbird]

I wasn't even a twinkle neither was my brother :lol2:

[V8Ian]

My Grandfather was born in 1901, he saw the world transform from horse and cart to man landing on the moon.

[Bundalene]

Last year at High School but at home for Trial HSC Study. Watched it on black & white TV in my parents loungeroom.

Erich



Sheila says...sitting in the Rothmans (Granville in Sydney) canteen watching the landing on TV especially installed for the event.



....one of the very few places we remember when.... ''do you remember where you were when........" etc.

[djam1]

I was in grade 1 at Port Kenny Primary School in South Australia

[p38arover]

What's the world coming to :eek:

Too much red wine tonight! :D

[JDNSW]

It’s amazing the events that stick in your mind.
.......

I can remember our neighbour screaming out over our front fence, very early one morning, “They’ve killed Kennedy, They’ve killed Kennedy”
.........

I was in our office in Roma - one of our senior technical blokes, an American, came in that morning in tears. A few minutes later, his offsider, a Canadian (and a stirrer), came bounding in to the office, shouting as he did "Whacko! They got the b*!" This led to an international incident in the office that we had trouble hosing down.

John

[Bundalene]

My Grandfather was born in 1901, he saw the world transform from horse and cart to man landing on the moon.

My dad was born in 1912 and saw pretty well the same... he passed away in 2004.... what amazing transformations he saw in his lifetime as well......

[MickS]

Driving D9 bulldozer in West Qld scrub pulling.

Bearman, that is gold......:eek2::clap2:

[3 Lions]

I'm having difficulty remembering where I was when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, same with JFK, absolutely no idea.Maybe I'm losing my marbles.

Ooop! Remembered! I wasn't born until 71', gee there's some old buggers on here:twisted:

[Pedro_The_Swift]

Apollo11 was probably the first of those moments,,
our class was walked to a classmates house to watch,,
Do you remember Joan Bernard NM??(wait 12 days for answer)
Princess Di at Kilcoy Pub,,
My big Sister's boss was killed at Granville,,
9/11 happened at work after it all came down,,

[lewy]

had a day off from liverpool high to watch,

[JDNSW]

My Grandfather was born in 1901, he saw the world transform from horse and cart to man landing on the moon.

My parents were born in 1901 and 1903. My mother used to talk about the time she was in school in St Peters, and the class was allowed to go to the window to watch the motor car go past. Her father was a coachsmith, apprenticed alongside Henry Lawson in Gulgong.

My father's father drove a horse and dray on the building of the railway to Narromine (among other occupations over the years). The first shoes my father owned were when he started high school.

Both my parents went through all their schooling including university without once living in a house or being in a classroom with electric light. Born before the first heavier than air flight, they lived to see a man on the moon, and travelled by jet aircraft. They were adults before radio broadcasting started, but watched television in their old age.

John

[MickS]

That is brilliant John.....

[Bundalene]

9/11 happened at work after it all came down,,[/QUOTE]

Andrew came home late...very late that night.... we were asleep and he had put the TV on. He woke us up to tell us the first plane had crashed into the Twin Towers. We sat up & watched, unbelievably, as the rest unfolded...

[Ricey]

Nice read John!

[Sleepy]

I was 6 - dont remember much, except getting the day off school to watch it at Nana's house. (She had the big 26" AWA!:D).

Time to post up my favourite website again ;)

Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Journal (http://history.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11.html)

[Panda]

:Rolling:Oh Pete, you're a bad boy! :Rolling::Rolling:


What's the world coming to :eek:

[scarry]

Grade 4 Cooparoo state school,watched it on B&W TV

How time flys

And the series one was the old mans daily driver:p:eek:

And it cost 5c to get to school on the bus,only on rainy days,all other days it was a 1 mile walk:(carrying those horribal brown fibreglass ports we used to have

[Pedro_The_Swift]

From JD's post---

probably the most change in 1000 years,,:eek::cool:



but they copped the worst too,,

the great flu,
both world wars,
and the depression,

its been a heady 100 years or so,,,

[Bundalene]

[QUOTE=Panda;1010271]:Rolling:Oh Pete, you're a bad boy! :Rolling::Rolling:....

......Well... it is Sunday night:D

[vnx205]

I was at school.

However as I am one of the older forum members, I wasn't a pupil. That was my first year of teaching.

Most of the school, probably about 400 pupils, crowded into Narrabri High School library to watch it on the one and only TV in the school.

[MickS]

From JD's post---

probably the most change in 1000 years,,:eek::cool:



but they copped the worst too,,

the great flu,
both world wars,
and the depression,

its been a heady 100 years or so,,,

Here, here....I doubt that much change in such a short time will be seen again. We can whinge about the war on terror, the global financial crisis, Michael Jackson ad nauseum...but at the end of the day, our parents, grand parents and beyond saw more change, more wonderment and more horror than I believe will be seen again.

I've seen my uncles, in their 70's grasp the internet like children with a new toy. Yep, they've all seen more change than I ever will.

[Captain_Rightfoot]

Very cool Ron. And yes, I wasn't born :o

[Disco95]

To reply to the original, I was either sleeping or sucking a boob, born January 11 1969.
As for 9/11, woke up to get ready for work and put the box on. I was wondering why they were showing a movie at that time, I was incredibly shocked to see it was real. Saw the second tower come down.

[350RRC]

It's coming up for 40 years since Apollo 11 blasted off to the moon - the 16th July, 1969 in the USA (17th July, 1969 in Aus).

Do you remember where you were on that day?

The day they landed I was at West Heidelberg Primary School in Melb. I had been up early to listen to the actual landing, which had more importance to me at the time than the walk.

We all went home to watch the walk (or went to people's houses that actually had b&w TV).

Can remember both Kennedy shootings and parents talking about them..

Weird one is 911. Was watching 'When men were kings' on SBS when the plane hit the fan.

Was watching "When men were kings' again when the Pommy bombings interrupted the scheduled programming.

cheers, DL

[JDNSW]

From JD's post---

probably the most change in 1000 years,,:eek::cool:
........,,,



No, I don't think so. We all like to think that the time we live in is the most critical in history, and certainly a lot happened in the 20th century. But consider some of the things that happened earlier.

1. On 22nd August 1872, the time to communicate a message from London to Sydney dropped from three months to three minutes. In my view, this is the really big change in communications, that dwarfs the effect of the internet for example.

2. In 1712 the first practical steam engine (Newcomen) was applied to industry. The development of this led to the industrial revolution, with arguably more changes in everyday life over the next century than in the 20th century.

3. 1450 - the first moveable type printing for an alphabetic language by Gutenberg. This was a bigger information revolution than the current one and is probably the biggest and perhaps the most rapid change in the dissemination of knowledge in recorded history.

4. About 2600 BC the invention of writing was perhaps the most critical development in history, meaning that information could, for the first time, be stored indefinitely.

John

[BigJon]

Ooop! Remembered! I wasn't born until 71', gee there's some old buggers on here:twisted:

I was born in 74, I think you ARE an old bugger :angel:.

[abaddonxi]

Couple of weeks off my first birthday, and parents didn't get a tv until the next year.


<snip>

I was watching West Wing when, at first it was just a news break but then the program soon stopped so they could go live the New York on September 11. I was recording the show and still have it.
<snip>

SNAP!

How's this for coincidence?

My father was in New York on the day of the first WTC bombing, was in Washington on 911, was in London on the day of the underground bombings, and had decided to walk to work that day, so missed being on that train.

On the first anniversary of 911 I was delivering laptops to a client's office. I put the boxes in the elevator, the doors closed and they went up alone. Phillip Ruddock's office was on the floor above.

They were a little concerned.

[Bushie]

Apollo 11 - At high school in the UK but the landing had been delayed (or was that the walk) anyway mate and I went fishing instead.

John Lennon driving past ANSTO on my way home from work.

911 - Tucked away in bed.

Kennedy I can remember my parents being concerned, but not much recollection myself (I would have been 6)



Martyn

[Sprint]

Apollo 11 - wasnt even a twinkle in my dads eye then
John Lennon - definitely a twinkle in both my parents eyes by this stage
Princess Diana - laying in bed reading, dad woke me up a couple of hours later to tell me, i told him i already knew and went back to sleep
9/11 - sitting roughly where i am now, playing one game or another on the computer, looked up for the newsflash, and spent the next few hours glued to the TV

[willem]

No, I don't think so. We all like to think that the time we live in is the most critical in history, and certainly a lot happened in the 20th century. But consider some of the things that happened earlier.

1. On 22nd August 1872, the time to communicate a message from London to Sydney dropped from three months to three minutes. In my view, this is the really big change in communications, that dwarfs the effect of the internet for example.

2. In 1712 the first practical steam engine (Newcomen) was applied to industry. The development of this led to the industrial revolution, with arguably more changes in everyday life over the next century than in the 20th century.

3. 1450 - the first moveable type printing for an alphabetic language by Gutenberg. This was a bigger information revolution than the current one and is probably the biggest and perhaps the most rapid change in the dissemination of knowledge in recorded history.

4. About 2600 BC the invention of writing was perhaps the most critical development in history, meaning that information could, for the first time, be stored indefinitely.

John

It is the rate of change that is the amazing thing over the last 100 years. The internet itself is only about 15 or 16 years old, and look how much it has changed our world in that short time.

I agree that the events you list here are just as significant, but they are spread over millennia. In the last 100 years there has been a vast number of changes compressed into a relatively short time. These changes have, of course, been built on the achievements that have gone before.

Willem

[JDNSW]

It is the rate of change that is the amazing thing over the last 100 years. The internet itself is only about 15 or 16 years old, and look how much it has changed our world in that short time.
.......

Willem

I think even if you look just at rate of change, the nineteenth century saw just as much change if not more than the 20th. The internet has made changes, but I argue no more than the telegraph made in 1872. And in 1800 the maximum possible speed of travel on land was about 20mph on a galloping horse and about 12kts at sea - if the wind was fair. Well before 1900 speeds on land of 60mph were routine, and what is more, ordinary people could afford it, and at sea speeds were routinely 20kts regardless of wind.

John

[p38arover]

I was at school.

However as I am one of the older forum members, I wasn't a pupil. That was my first year of teaching.

Most of the school, probably about 400 pupils, crowded into Narrabri High School library to watch it on the one and only TV in the school.

You weren't far away from the action (at Moree).

I noticed that the History Channel is using a pic of Moree Earth Station in the promo about the upcoming TV series about the epic.

[vnx205]

I think what has changed is the speed with which inventions are adopted.

I have forgotten the exact figures, but I believe that the time between the invention of the steam engine and its general use was several decades. The time between the invention of the telephone and its general application was not quite as long, but still significant.

Now when an electronic device is developed, it is likely to be in general use and then superseded within a year or so.

However what is really important is the impact the inventions have on people's lives. On that subject I am inclined to agree with JDNSW.

[vnx205]

You weren't far away from the action (at Moree).

I noticed that the History Channel is using a pic of Moree Earth Station in the promo about the upcoming TV series about the epic.
Tell me more about Moree's part in the events. I was unaware of any facilities at Moree.

[Shonky]

I was minus 18 years and 4 months old. :eek:

[hoadie72]

I have an ex girlfriend who's great-grandmother turns 102 in the next 2 months. She was born in Russian and lived through the Russian Revolution, left a brother behind when they left for Manchuria and ended up living in Australia. I've met the lady a couple of times and am amazed at how mentally sharp she is, and how strong she is physically - especially after seeing the world's oldest man on the news a week or so ago and the man was blind and barely had the strength to hold a champagne glass in his hand. It sometimes blows me away think of the hardships her family went through as well as the changes she's seen, particularly since the end of WWII

[tracker]

sitting on my but somewhere in SVN. found out about the landing about a week after:(

[drivesafe]

I think it’s a bit of both worlds. Many inventions have had a profound effect on mankind but some have taken a long time to come to their full value while others have become instant successes.

An example of what I mean, electronics is something that has really only come into it’s own in the last 50 years yet the most profitable paten ever lodged was done so in the 19th century and that was the paten for Bell’s Telephone.

And hear ( pun ) we are today, pouring more development into this ancient device than anything else.

[p38arover]

Tell me more about Moree's part in the events. I was unaware of any facilities at Moree.

Moree Satellite Earth Station was built in 1968. I started work there in 1968 whilst still a trainee technician.

The 90 ft. antenna was mounted on top of the building.

It looked like this when I worked there:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2013/05/465.jpg

The station was built for international telephone and telegraphic communications. We also provided data links from Honeysuckle Creek to NASA in the USA. (Carnarvon Satellite Earth Station in WA provided data links from the Carnarvon Space Tracking Station but it was not used for telephony. See OTC Satellite Earth Station Carnarvon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia )

See Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station (http://www.honeysucklecreek.net/Apollo_11/TV_from_Moon.html)

[JDNSW]

I think it’s a bit of both worlds. Many inventions have had a profound effect on mankind but some have taken a long time to come to their full value while others have become instant successes.



I think there is a lot of truth in that, and in part it is because many inventions are dependent for development on other inventions and developments.

Some examples - communications satellites were first proposed by Clarke in 1945 - but did not even start to come into use until the late sixties.

In contrast, the first X-ray image was made by Roentgen in December 1895 in Wurtzburg in Germany - and by the middle of the following year they were being used for medical diagnosis as far afield as Bathurst in NSW. This rapid implementation would not have been possible without the ready availability of electrical equipment that was the result of fifty years of the electric telegraph, so that wire, batteries etc were available off the shelf, as was a lot of electrical theory.

Similarly, the instant success of the telephone was possible because of the availability of the same equipment - early telephones shared lines with telegraph services initially.

John

[Hymie]

The day they landed I was at West Heidelberg Primary School in Melb. I had been up early to listen to the actual landing, which had more importance to me at the time than the walk.

We all went home to watch the walk (or went to people's houses that actually had b&w TV).

Can remember both Kennedy shootings and parents talking about them..

Weird one is 911. Was watching 'When men were kings' on SBS when the plane hit the fan.

Was watching "When men were kings' again when the Pommy bombings interrupted the scheduled programming.

cheers, DL

Hey I was at West Heidie at that time as well, go figure!
I was in Grade 1. I remember I was a Milk monitor and we drank our moo juice as we watched the landing.

[hoadie72]

I was at school.

However as I am one of the older forum members, I wasn't a pupil. That was my first year of teaching.

Most of the school, probably about 400 pupils, crowded into Narrabri High School library to watch it on the one and only TV in the school.

I went to NSW DET's office at Bridge Street this afternoon and there's a book in the foyer called A Pictorial History of (whatever the building is named), and there's a story about a teacher shortage in the late 60s / early 70s, so they went off to New York on a recruitment drive. There are photos of the top brass in NY, as well as one of the Americans who apparently loved it so much that she settled down here.

Just thought I'd throw that in as it's slightly relevant lol.

[vnx205]

I went to NSW DET's office at Bridge Street this afternoon and there's a book in the foyer called A Pictorial History of (whatever the building is named), and there's a story about a teacher shortage in the late 60s / early 70s, so they went off to New York on a recruitment drive. There are photos of the top brass in NY, as well as one of the Americans who apparently loved it so much that she settled down here.

Just thought I'd throw that in as it's slightly relevant lol.

While we are drifting just slightly off topic, I'll mention a couple of other things.

I wasn't an American recruit, but one of the members of staff was and a friend I now paddle kayaks with regularly was one of the Aussies who was sent to the US to interview potential recruits.

[Lotz-A-Landies]

I was in the auditorium of my high school watching a 21" B&W TV for the moon landing.

Stayed home and went to school late to watch the Beatles arrive.

Was in the Emergency Department of Sydney Hospital when the Granville Train disaster happened, drove past the scene on the way to the ED just after the Hilton Bombing happened.

Was in the Sydney Children's Hospital ED about to go home when one of the RN pointed to one of the ceiling TV's showing the Sky news live feed news break just after the first plain hit on 11th Sept. 01. The same emergency department I was working when news came through of Diana being involved in a car crash.

Diana

P.S. Ron I noticed that you had to be the only person to sign in black pen!

[Thommo]

It’s amazing the events that stick in your mind.

I was watching West Wing when, at first it was just a news break but then the program soon stopped so they could go live the New York on September 11. I was recording the show and still have it.



I also remember watching the "West Wing", I got up for a coffee and when I got back to my chair I thought it was all part of the show (It kind of fitted in with the plot at the time). I recon it was about 10 mins before the penny dropped and I realized this was for real :)

As for the moon landing, like many of you, we were sent home as the school did not have a TV (or at least one that 600+ rug rats could get close enough to to actually see anything).

I remember that some kids in the street did not even have a TV and about a dozen of us were all crammed into our lounge room to watch the ONE x TV in the house (how did we survive?)

Thommo

[Tote]

I remember watching the moon landing on a black and white TV in a shop in Bathurst, I would have been 4.
Working on the ute in the shed at Narromine when I heard on the radio that Princess Di had been in a car accident. Watched her wedding in the Royal Hotel Parkes while doing an AI course.
I vividly remember the Whitlam Govt being dismissed and the elation of the locals in the small town I grew up in (Newbridge NSW)
Don't Have any particular memory of the WTC collapse, watched it all morning at work.

Regards,
Tote

[p38arover]

P.S. Ron I noticed that you had to be the only person to sign in black pen!

Probably with the Parker 61 Elisabeth gave me for my 21st birthday - I still have the pen and I still write with a fountain pen in black ink.

Regrettably the nib on the 51 is worn out and I can't find anywhere to get it repaired. Parker no longer service these pens (since the company changed hands). I hae a "new" Parker fountain pen.

[Bytemrk]

I was in grade 2 at school...

I clearly remember watching the landing on TV.

It's one of the very few days I clearly remember from primary school - a great event.

..... We all got to go into the grade 4 classroom!... it was the only one in the school with a TV:p.

Mark

[land864]

For the Moon landing - I had just celebrated my 7th birthday and we got sent home from Grade 3 at Rosanna Primary school to watch with our families.

For JFK I get confused because I think there is a song called " What the world needs now is love sweet love " that includes a sound bite from the JFK assasination and that makes it hard to pin point as the memory gets jumbled:confused: