So Where You Were You 40 Years Ago?

Forty years ago in mid-July, 1969 the whole world was holding its collective breath as three American astronauts on board the Apollo XI spacecraft rocketed their way towards the first lunar landing.

So what were you doing, particularly the night of July 20 when the moon landing took place? It's an event so unique and special we should all remember pretty clearly what we were doing and where we were that night, just like we do for the JFK assassination or 9/11. So please share your thoughts and memories below.

Courtesy of Google here's a look back at the Apollo XI mission.

The Space Race played a role in several of the songs we sang in Sing-Out. There's the song honoring the late astronaut Ed White, who was the first American to walk in space and was later killed in the tragic fire while getting ready for a Gemini mission. And then there was the line in "Gee, I'm Looking Forward To The Future", where the soloist (usually for SOS, it was Edna Vilars) sang: "But just think about today, why we've almost landed on the moon!"

I guess they had to change that line after Apollo 11. I don't know. My days in Sing-Out South were all but over by the summer of 1969. I had finished high-school and spent the summer on my own (for the first ever) attending a broadcast school in Atlanta. I also worked at a McDonald's Restaurant in Buckhead to make some pocket money.

The day of the moon landing, I was just about to take the bus to work. It was late afternoon and since I didn't have a TV set I listened to the moon landing on the radio.

Since the astronauts were not due to begin their moonwalk for several hours, I thought I had plenty of time to do my shift and be back at my place at Amherst Hall, which just of Peachtree Street was near Piedmont Park, to watch the event on the community TV at the boarding house.

But when I got to work I learned the moon walk was going to start early. Not surprisingly there was almost no one eating out that night, even for a fast food meal at McDonald's. So the entire staff told the manager, either bring in a TV so we could stay open and watch the moon walk, or shut it down so we could go home.

We went home and I got there just in time to watch the moonwalk.
Here again is what some of it looked and sounded like courtesy of YouTube..

At that time, the largest audience in the history of television (over 600 million people)watched the moonwalk. A national holiday was declared for the next day, so many folks stayed up late.

They also got on the phone to call family and friends. Now making a long distance call in those days was a big deal and an expensive thing to do. So I probably called collect. :)

I'm pretty sure I called my family at home and I do remember calling some of my Sing-Out friends (including Molly Hudgens who was my girlfriend at the time). She had several Sing-Out folks over that night for a moonwalk party (Allison Smith, Henry Swider and probably a few other folks).

I'm not sure how many people in Nashville actually got to see the the moon walk that Sunday evening. News reports say there were some strong storms in the area and several parts of town lost power.

What a shame to miss something that historic because of some lightning and thunder. Even 40 years later the memories of that time remain quite strong and clear for me.