Sat Aug 25, 2012, 03:19 PM

Faygo Kid (21,473 posts)

Where were you when Neil Armstrong stepped off that ladder on to the Moon?

I was a 17 year old stock boy at Federal's department store on Gratiot in Detroit. All of us - customers and staff - stopped what we were doing, and went into the appliance section where it was aired on multiple TVs of the era. As Walter Cronkite said, Wow.

P.S. I am devastated; he never capitalized on his fame. He was a hero to the whole world.

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219 replies	Author	Time	Post
Where were you when Neil Armstrong stepped off that ladder on to the Moon? (Original post)	Faygo Kid	Aug 2012	OP
This message was self-deleted by its author	kickysnana	Aug 2012	#1
I thought the landing was on a Sunday?	louis-t	Aug 2012	#45
July 20. 1969, WAS a Sunday.	WinkyDink	Aug 2012	#131
On vacation in Nevada.	ChazII	Aug 2012	#118
In class in July? Unh hunh	Bernardo de La Paz	Aug 2012	#148
This message was self-deleted by its author	Gormy Cuss	Aug 2012	#152
This message was self-deleted by its author	kickysnana	Aug 2012	#179
Remember it very, very clearly.	cbayer	Aug 2012	#2
At home, glued to the TV. One small step -	pinto	Aug 2012	#3
Sitting in the living room of my Grandmother's house trying to understand why everybody	Egalitarian Thug	Aug 2012	#4
I was on the couch, extremely pregnant, in our beach apartment at the Jersey Shore..n/t	monmouth	Aug 2012	#5
Oh, I was pregnant too!	PatSeg	Aug 2012	#89
It was an exciting time. My sons were 7 and 8 years old and just in awe...n/t	monmouth	Aug 2012	#90
It was an exciting time	PatSeg	Aug 2012	#97
Just like my mom	loyalsister	Aug 2012	#216
Half a block off Mack Ave. On Detroit's east side.	Motown_Johnny	Aug 2012	#6
I'm an East Sider too.	Faygo Kid	Aug 2012	#9
I went to driver's ed at Denby and to Notre Dame High, right next to Eastland	Motown_Johnny	Aug 2012	#40
Me, too, driver's ed at Denby, on that stupid track.	Faygo Kid	Aug 2012	#67
Denby was my high school	MrScorpio	Aug 2012	#75
Still alive! Mom worked there from @1960-1982. You may recall her.	Faygo Kid	Aug 2012	#79
I graduated in '79, so we were there at the same time	MrScorpio	Aug 2012	#94
Your mom met Eleanor Roosevelt?	Bertha Venation	Aug 2012	#142
Eleanor Roosevelt met my Mom.	Faygo Kid	Aug 2012	#162
That is so cool!!	Bertha Venation	Aug 2012	#171
My mother's womb	gollygee	Aug 2012	#7
I have you beat: I was split between an ovary and a testicle	Occulus	Aug 2012	#74
This is my very first memory of an historical moment	Proud Public Servant	Aug 2012	#8
Also glued to the TV	flor-de-jasmim	Aug 2012	#10
Nine months old. No memory of it...	Aristus	Aug 2012	#11
PRAB, RVN	HubertHeaver	Aug 2012	#12
We were in Japan	enlightenment	Aug 2012	#61
Long Binh, Vietnam	pinboy3niner	Aug 2012	#77
Yup. On an all-expense-paid year-long tour of Southeast Asia.	TahitiNut	Aug 2012	#114
All that...	pinboy3niner	Aug 2012	#120
And all the C-rats you could eat	glacierbay	Aug 2012	#125
On the top of a bunker looking up at the moon in awe N/T	IBEWVET	Aug 2012	#156
Welcome to DU, brother	pinboy3niner	Aug 2012	#158
I gotta say, the skies WERE awesome.	TahitiNut	Aug 2012	#218
I was 20 and watching it over Grandma's house	HockeyMom	Aug 2012	#13
Finally, a topic that makes me feel young	CabCurious	Aug 2012	#14
A motel lobby somewhere on the way to do an antique show with my mother..	Fumesucker	Aug 2012	#15
Saw it on TV	Mr.Bill	Aug 2012	#16
Sitting criss-cross-applesauce on the floor in Mrs. Maclary's 1st grade class.	woodsprite	Aug 2012	#17
I bet you are remembering the liftoff.	louis-t	Aug 2012	#54
In 1st Grade class in July? ?	Bernardo de La Paz	Aug 2012	#149
17-year-old salesclerk at a W.T. Grants store in Pompton Lakes, NJ	LiberalEsto	Aug 2012	#18
(personal aside) My uncle was a mathematician / physicist who worked with a Lincoln Lab team.	pinto	Aug 2012	#19
Watching with my family & granddad who remembered hearing about the Wright brothers flight	vademocrat	Aug 2012	#20
my mother in law's house	Celebration	Aug 2012	#21
in family room with hubby - woke up three week old son	elfin	Aug 2012	#22
Chattanooga, TN. I was six years old. I will never forget it. RIP Mr. Armstrong. nt.	CottonBear	Aug 2012	#23
At home watching it on TV like everyone else.	Cleita	Aug 2012	#24
Sitting in a school room auditorium	zappaman	Aug 2012	#25
It was a SUNDAY.	WinkyDink	Aug 2012	#132
A Sunday in July. Never forget what?	Bernardo de La Paz	Aug 2012	#151
you sure that wasn't for Apollo 13?	eShirl	Aug 2012	#209
We were having a family picnic. I told my niece this was something she could tell her grandchildren.	libinnyandia	Aug 2012	#26
sitting on the living room floor, glued to the tv, and wishing I were there	niyad	Aug 2012	#27
2:56 UTC July 21, 1969. How were so many kids in school in the middle of the night?	Bernardo de La Paz	Aug 2012	#28
Thought I remembered it being daylight.	HubertHeaver	Aug 2012	#42
I just looked it up -- they landed at 4 - something EDT, that must be what	gateley	Aug 2012	#52
They landed in the afternoon but it was hours before they got out.	louis-t	Aug 2012	#59
Yeah, and now I'm thinking my memory is of the landing, not Armstrong's	gateley	Aug 2012	#76
Yeah, I recall it being at night	Lifelong Protester	Aug 2012	#53
I believe they are remembering the liftoff on Wed.	louis-t	Aug 2012	#57
people's memories are funny, aren't they?	graham4anything	Aug 2012	#66
That was first step.	HubertHeaver	Aug 2012	#214
Yeah, all I remember about it was being allowed to get up in what seemed to be the middle of the	treestar	Aug 2012	#215
Sitting in the living room with my dad . . .	fleur-de-lisa	Aug 2012	#29
I and all the school were in the library glued to the tv.	lunatica	Aug 2012	#30
It was a SUNDAY.	WinkyDink	Aug 2012	#134
You're right!	lunatica	Aug 2012	#138
My brother worked for GE/NASA at the time and on all the Apollo missions. He was in quality control.	juajen	Aug 2012	#176
Thanks for that. I was sure I was at school	lunatica	Aug 2012	#207
If you remember being at school, it was probably the Apollo 13 mission	eShirl	Aug 2012	#212
Armstong hopping off the ladder onto the ground has been played a million times	lunatica	Aug 2012	#213
Hate to be a Debbie Downer, but I was in the dorm for a group of	hedgehog	Aug 2012	#31
Watching the TV...	Atman	Aug 2012	#32
Probably just a simple cell somewhere....	Panasonic	Aug 2012	#33
on the back poor with my girlfriend and her dad watching it on teevee	spanone	Aug 2012	#34
I was in my parents car outside of Aztec New Mexico driving to Colorado	Ichingcarpenter	Aug 2012	#35
i was in a car too, listening to it the radio	shanti	Aug 2012	#93
I was a teenager, too	DippyDem	Aug 2012	#36
It happened about 11 years before I was born.	Initech	Aug 2012	#37
Visiting my parents...sitting on the sofa holding my month old daughter.	FLyellowdog	Aug 2012	#38
At my summer job in the pool office at a country club. I was alone and couldn't make out the images	gateley	Aug 2012	#39
Not born yet. :( But Neil Armstrong, and everyone at NASA who worked on Apollo, are true heroes.	backscatter712	Aug 2012	#41
Agree. It was a huge undertaking, involving hundreds of people in an array of fields.	pinto	Aug 2012	#51
still dont think	outsideworld	Aug 2012	#43
really?	Shankapotomus	Aug 2012	#48
I was waiting for that one.	HubertHeaver	Aug 2012	#49
Please, don't start here, now. Please.	Bernardo de La Paz	Aug 2012	#58
And the president was born in Kenya, right?	Faygo Kid	Aug 2012	#65
There's a special forum on DU for you flat earthers, IIRC.	kestrel91316	Aug 2012	#71
That's some weapons-grade deliberate ignorance, right there. (nt)	Posteritatis	Aug 2012	#106
Oh for god's sake.	Zoeisright	Aug 2012	#110
Ditto that.	glacierbay	Aug 2012	#126
What's the other nine impossible things you believe before breakfast?	hobbit709	Aug 2012	#116
Being stupid enough to be an Apollo denier probably counts as six or seven impossibles. (nt)	Posteritatis	Aug 2012	#123
Time for this again...	Confusious	Aug 2012	#172
Fan of Alex Jones?	chknltl	Aug 2012	#119
Alex Jones - LOL - even conspiracy theories on steroids does not describe Alex Jones. n/t	RKP5637	Aug 2012	#170
Sadly, he pulls in all too many who should be voting for Democrats.	chknltl	Aug 2012	#180
And on top of that we have Glenn Beck. A real problem is the human psyche for many drifts	RKP5637	Aug 2012	#200
Maybe on your planet they didn't, outsideworld	pinboy3niner	Aug 2012	#124
Time for this again....	Confusious	Aug 2012	#173
Really? ...Are you serious?	Warren DeMontague	Aug 2012	#177
Then you're an idiot. nt	Codeine	Aug 2012	#206
I was 5 years old	abolugi	Aug 2012	#44
probably getting my diaper changed (nt)	Shankapotomus	Aug 2012	#46
I was 2. My mom tells me that I watched on TV.	underpants	Aug 2012	#47
I wasn't born yet	Aerows	Aug 2012	#50
San Pedro CA, at Ports o'Call	madamesilverspurs	Aug 2012	#55
I was 8 mos old	chloes1	Aug 2012	#56
I was ironing & watching it all on TV.	CrispyQ	Aug 2012	#60
In the basement of our home,	Ms. Toad	Aug 2012	#62
I was in the back seat of a 1965 Oldsmobile Cutlass heading west on Interstate 8	slackmaster	Aug 2012	#63
In my grandparents' living room in Ft Collins, CO. With the whole family,	kestrel91316	Aug 2012	#64
At home with my mom...	We are Devo	Aug 2012	#68
I did that too	jberryhill	Aug 2012	#129
I was a few miles away in my house on McDougall and Mullett, FK, watching it on TV	MrScorpio	Aug 2012	#69
In Italy.. accepting all kinds of undeserved congratulations!	annabanana	Aug 2012	#70
In my sisters bed room....	WCGreen	Aug 2012	#72
I was -3 years old at the time n/t	LadyHawkAZ	Aug 2012	#73
9	MFM008	Aug 2012	#78
Welcome to DU! Paul Revere and the Raiders were the Bomb.	Faygo Kid	Aug 2012	#80
Last I heard they were still touring, doing great shows	pinboy3niner	Aug 2012	#165
Chu Lai, RVN.	glacierbay	Aug 2012	#81
Thank you for your service, sir.	Faygo Kid	Aug 2012	#84
If you mean my opinion on Mittens	glacierbay	Aug 2012	#95
Long Binh Post, USARV HQ	TahitiNut	Aug 2012	#113
Welcome home brother	glacierbay	Aug 2012	#115
Long Binh Post, USARV Special Troops HQ	pinboy3niner	Aug 2012	#160
As we discussed, we probably 'knew' each other (on sight, at least).	TahitiNut	Aug 2012	#217
At school, sitting in an apt. with my roommates. n/t	RKP5637	Aug 2012	#82
Definitely one of my favorite astronauts	jimlup	Aug 2012	#83
Long Binh, Vietnam	Crabby Appleton	Aug 2012	#85
I was eight...	MANative	Aug 2012	#86
I was a week away from being born.	smokey nj	Aug 2012	#87
In a bachelor pad in Sunnyvale, California that I shared with other naval flight officers and pilots	FightingIrish	Aug 2012	#88
with my dear dad and brothers . Dad was so excited the next day he bought	lunasun	Aug 2012	#91
I was seven	LiberalLoner	Aug 2012	#92
I was in studio B cleaning up the Arizona "moon dust".....j/k...RIP our nations hero...	lostnote12	Aug 2012	#96
We lived in military housing in Spring Valley, NY	WCIL	Aug 2012	#98
I watched it in French ....	oldhippie	Aug 2012	#99
I was 13 yrs old.	DearAbby	Aug 2012	#100
Hope you kept that puppy.	Faygo Kid	Aug 2012	#103
Nice.	Bertha Venation	Aug 2012	#145
I was 17 years old and was a cook at a steakhouse.	Doc_Technical	Aug 2012	#101
I remember Sesame Street but I was a little too young	TBF	Aug 2012	#102
At the next door neighbors house	TrogL	Aug 2012	#104
Sitting at the TV control board of	RC	Aug 2012	#105
I was 8 and I have no memory of it!	cpwm17	Aug 2012	#107
Sitting in a TV lounge in a hotel in Paris...	regnaD kciN	Aug 2012	#108
Watching it in our family room.	Zoeisright	Aug 2012	#109
Sitting in front of a grainy black and white only TV	chknltl	Aug 2012	#111
Sitting at my home, watching it on our black and white TV..	LeftishBrit	Aug 2012	#112
Nine years old in Columbus, GA	auburngrad82	Aug 2012	#117
Watching it on TV.	ananda	Aug 2012	#121
Sitting in a bar in Colorado Springs, sipping a beer with a friend.	1-Old-Man	Aug 2012	#122
Home sick with a strep throat.	greatauntoftriplets	Aug 2012	#127
Probably taking my own space trip on LSD	graywarrior	Aug 2012	#128
"At 4:18 p.m. EDT on July 20, 1969, the landing module landed...." SUNDAY.	WinkyDink	Aug 2012	#130
I was a "Twinkle in my daddy's eye"	AsahinaKimi	Aug 2012	#133
camp Nellie Huckins	flamingdem	Aug 2012	#135
I was -11 years old...	Earth_First	Aug 2012	#136
Working at an interstate gas station in Iowa	rurallib	Aug 2012	#137
It's my earliest memory...	Mad_Dem_X	Aug 2012	#139
In front of the tv.	LWolf	Aug 2012	#140
Probably celebrating one of my sister's 10th birthday	Catherine Vincent	Aug 2012	#141
An undeveloped sperm in my father's testicles.	Alduin	Aug 2012	#143
Flipping burgers at a Dog 'n Suds Drive-In	NNN0LHI	Aug 2012	#144
Sitting in my Girlfriends apartment	SteveG	Aug 2012	#146
In Marietta Ga with my two oldest children.	asjr	Aug 2012	#147
My family was stationed in panama.....	rppper	Aug 2012	#150
On dad's shoulders at the Sport Center in Mexico City	nadinbrzezinski	Aug 2012	#153
I found it peculiarly undramatic.	kwassa	Aug 2012	#154
I had to hear it on the radio	Lydia Leftcoast	Aug 2012	#155
losing my virginity	Gabi Hayes	Aug 2012	#157
I would have sworn the TV cut from a Cubs game to the landing but...	Gidney N Cloyd	Aug 2012	#159
I didnt exist	darkangel218	Aug 2012	#161
Sitting in front of the TV	liberal N proud	Aug 2012	#163
At the Can Tho Army Airfield in South Viet Nam	Homer Wells	Aug 2012	#164
A 12 year old at summer camp	IDemo	Aug 2012	#166
In Holly Springs Mississippi for my Grand-dads funeral.	Greybnk48	Aug 2012	#167
Watching It On A Zenith Black & White, In Sacramento, With Our Entire Family, On The Couch	WillyT	Aug 2012	#168
We also had a Zenith black & white TV...	rexcat	Aug 2012	#174
I Was 14...	WillyT	Aug 2012	#178
The cool thing about the space program...	rexcat	Aug 2012	#182
My Old Man Was A Marine B-25 Pilot In The SouthPacific In WWII, And Was A Democrat And Journalist...	WillyT	Aug 2012	#185
I was stationed at Patrick AFB in Cocoa Beach, FL...	rexcat	Aug 2012	#187
I Hear Ya... My Dad Got "Sucked" Into Korea... His Words... Thought WWII Would Be The End Of War...	WillyT	Aug 2012	#191
My draft number in 1971 was 18...	rexcat	Aug 2012	#193
Nine years old at home with my parents, siblings	Brewinblue	Aug 2012	#169
My parents were dating.	RandySF	Aug 2012	#175
lol	darkangel218	Aug 2012	#181
10 years old, hotel room, Spokane Washington	steve2470	Aug 2012	#183
With a bunch of other	beveeheart	Aug 2012	#184
In the day room of the enlisted Student Battalion,	jdadd	Aug 2012	#186
I was 12 years old, sitting in my cousin's living room, eating dinner on a TV tray.	KatyaR	Aug 2012	#188
this is a great thread, thanks for starting it	Kali	Aug 2012	#189
+1	CabCurious	Aug 2012	#190
I was minus 11 years old.	Terra Alta	Aug 2012	#192
Yankee Stadium, Bat Day	BeyondGeography	Aug 2012	#194
working at the factory...	madrchsod	Aug 2012	#195
My parents were only 21 and newly engaged.	Jennicut	Aug 2012	#196
breastfeeding	arely staircase	Aug 2012	#197
I was camping at the time	Canuckistanian	Aug 2012	#198
Going outside to dig a "shadow" with NOTHING in it. /nt	TheMadMonk	Aug 2012	#199
I was 17 years old...	virgdem	Aug 2012	#201
I was a 9 yr old watching on TV at home.	rateyes	Aug 2012	#202
I was a pre-k kid in New Orleans.	Bucky	Aug 2012	#203
In Shriners Hospital in Shreveport	Courtesy Flush	Aug 2012	#204
I was about two months along.	Codeine	Aug 2012	#205
Summer camp. nt	avebury	Aug 2012	#208
Illinois State University	noel711	Aug 2012	#210
Taking a picture of the television set in our living room	Gabby Hayes	Aug 2012	#211
One thing I remember is that the Soviet Union	Lydia Leftcoast	Aug 2012	#219

Response to Faygo Kid (Original post)

kickysnana This message was self-deleted by its author.

Response to kickysnana (Reply #1)

Sat Aug 25, 2012, 03:51 PM

louis-t (22,350 posts)

45. I thought the landing was on a Sunday?

My dad was home and old neighbors came by.

Where were you when Neil Armstrong stepped off that ladder on to the Moon?

45. I thought the landing was on a Sunday?

131. July 20. 1969, WAS a Sunday.

118. On vacation in Nevada.

148. In class in July? Unh hunh

2. Remember it very, very clearly.

3. At home, glued to the TV. One small step -

4. Sitting in the living room of my Grandmother's house trying to understand why everybody

5. I was on the couch, extremely pregnant, in our beach apartment at the Jersey Shore..n/t

89. Oh, I was pregnant too!

90. It was an exciting time. My sons were 7 and 8 years old and just in awe...n/t

97. It was an exciting time

216. Just like my mom

6. Half a block off Mack Ave. On Detroit's east side.

9. I'm an East Sider too.

40. I went to driver's ed at Denby and to Notre Dame High, right next to Eastland

67. Me, too, driver's ed at Denby, on that stupid track.

75. Denby was my high school

79. Still alive! Mom worked there from @1960-1982. You may recall her.

94. I graduated in '79, so we were there at the same time

142. Your mom met Eleanor Roosevelt?

162. Eleanor Roosevelt met my Mom.

171. That is so cool!!

7. My mother's womb

74. I have you beat: I was split between an ovary and a testicle

8. This is my very first memory of an historical moment

10. Also glued to the TV

11. Nine months old. No memory of it...

12. PRAB, RVN

61. We were in Japan

77. Long Binh, Vietnam

114. Yup. On an all-expense-paid year-long tour of Southeast Asia.

120. All that...

125. And all the C-rats you could eat

156. On the top of a bunker looking up at the moon in awe N/T

158. Welcome to DU, brother

218. I gotta say, the skies WERE awesome.

13. I was 20 and watching it over Grandma's house

14. Finally, a topic that makes me feel young

15. A motel lobby somewhere on the way to do an antique show with my mother..

16. Saw it on TV

17. Sitting criss-cross-applesauce on the floor in Mrs. Maclary's 1st grade class.

54. I bet you are remembering the liftoff.

149. In 1st Grade class in July? ?

18. 17-year-old salesclerk at a W.T. Grants store in Pompton Lakes, NJ

19. (personal aside) My uncle was a mathematician / physicist who worked with a Lincoln Lab team.

20. Watching with my family & granddad who remembered hearing about the Wright brothers flight

21. my mother in law's house

22. in family room with hubby - woke up three week old son

23. Chattanooga, TN. I was six years old. I will never forget it. RIP Mr. Armstrong. nt.

24. At home watching it on TV like everyone else.

25. Sitting in a school room auditorium

132. It was a SUNDAY.

151. A Sunday in July. Never forget what?

209. you sure that wasn't for Apollo 13?

26. We were having a family picnic. I told my niece this was something she could tell her grandchildren.

27. sitting on the living room floor, glued to the tv, and wishing I were there

28. 2:56 UTC July 21, 1969. How were so many kids in school in the middle of the night?

42. Thought I remembered it being daylight.

52. I just looked it up -- they landed at 4 - something EDT, that must be what

59. They landed in the afternoon but it was hours before they got out.

76. Yeah, and now I'm thinking my memory is of the landing, not Armstrong's

53. Yeah, I recall it being at night

57. I believe they are remembering the liftoff on Wed.

66. people's memories are funny, aren't they?

214. That was first step.

215. Yeah, all I remember about it was being allowed to get up in what seemed to be the middle of the

29. Sitting in the living room with my dad . . .

30. I and all the school were in the library glued to the tv.

134. It was a SUNDAY.

138. You're right!

176. My brother worked for GE/NASA at the time and on all the Apollo missions. He was in quality control.

207. Thanks for that. I was sure I was at school

212. If you remember being at school, it was probably the Apollo 13 mission

213. Armstong hopping off the ladder onto the ground has been played a million times

31. Hate to be a Debbie Downer, but I was in the dorm for a group of

32. Watching the TV...

33. Probably just a simple cell somewhere....

34. on the back poor with my girlfriend and her dad watching it on teevee

35. I was in my parents car outside of Aztec New Mexico driving to Colorado