re: Do you remember where you were fifty years ago today?

Yes I was ten and we watched it with two other families on our RCA black and white tv with rabbit ears. It was a huge deal.

I remember JFK too even though I was only 5. We were driving across Indiana to go visit my uncle who had moved to Elkhart to work. It was a long trip for us country kids from the South.

I remember watching the Apollo 13 ordeal for two or three days at school. They rolled a TV in and we all watched all day.

One more thing about 69---Nixon took office and almost immediately started drawing down troops from Viet Nam. My uncle came home late in the year and I remember his homecoming like it was yesterday.

Was only one year old and change. But I do know that my family was watching including myself.

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On this day fifty years ago a bunch of fellow HS football players and I took our girlfriends to Black’s Bridge on Lake Murray, went to Boyd Morris’ skating rink there at the bridge and watched the girls skate while we drank beer. Back then you could buy beer easily at 16, 17 even.

All of our parents had given permission to stay out later than normal.

We had been following the landing since earlier that afternoon down at the lake below the bridge. We all had these handheld transistor radios at the time that would only pick up AM. They were the high tech gadgets of the day with these long telescopic antennas that you pulled out and they ran on a single square 9v battery for about four hours so we had bought an extra box of batteries for $2.00 at Claude Sligh’s superette on the way to the lake when we bought the beer and sandwich material.

When it turned dark we all headed for the shaking rink and Boyd piped in the WIS (Wonderful Iodine State) 560 AM broadcast instead of the normal music over the loudspeakers.

About ten o’clock we walked down to the bridge, a single lane bridge mostly traveled by up wood trucks during the day, people from all over had come to watch the moon and listen to the broadcast as it happened live. (It was a fishing lake back then and we were on the remote end of the lake, all country kids, life was good).

I’ll never forget the cheer that erupted when we heard “the Eagle has landed” earlier in the day or the dead quiet silence when, later that night Neil Armstrong uttered his famous words “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

It was an amazing time to be an American. With everything else going on. Vietnam and the Tet Counteroffensive, Chappaquiddick, riots at universities and in cities everywhere .... but for one day we were all proud Americans.

‘69 was a helluva year. Best muscle cars ever made were made that year.

I bought my first handgun that year. A Colt Python, and still own it today.

We grew our own food, raised our own livestock, you could have a shotgun in the back window of your truck at HS because everyone was either going fishing or hunting after school, after practice.

Life was good. It really was.

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I was visiting my dad in Vernon Parish where I grew up in the woods about 7 miles north of Leesville. The only TV he had was about a 17 inch b/w with an external antenna that we rotated to point at Alexandria. Only had two channels to choose from but KALB was by FAR the least worst of the two. Even the evening news was snowy.

Of course I had to be back at NASA ASAP, but I was determined to watch the entire broadcast before I left. Everyone else had gone to bed but as the descent phase approached, I got everyone up to watch. I am proud that my two children, aged 7 and 9, were excited to pay real close attention with me. I think some of the other adults went back to bed. But I paid no attention to anything but the kids and the TV.

We all danced and yelled when the "Houston, Tranquility Base here - the Eagle has landed" announcement came across the TV.

We stayed up to watch the first step onto the lunar surface and later that day left to go back home and get back to work.

Fantastic times - would be hard to duplicate today.

Your life must be miserable.

You too, old man.

I’m not a boomer. I’m also not a miserable failure, like you. So I dont hate boomers for just being older. You are a bigot.

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The day JFK was killed.

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The day RFK was killed.

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Was only two years old when JFK was killed, but remember when Bobby was whacked and watched his funeral on TV.

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The day MLK was killed.

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Playing in the back yard when we heard the news. We were certain this was the beginning of a major race war.

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The day we landed on the moon. (Chappaquiddick was also happening the same weekend)

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Didn't see the moon landing live, but watched the replay at Mrs. Green's house while my mother and grandmother were getting their hair fixed. Saw Chappaquiddick on the evening news, which everybody watched back then. I was a few months shy of eight years old and realized then the Kennedys were evil people.

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The day Saigon fell.

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Was in the 8th grade and saw it on the news that evening.

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The day (9/11) they took down the towers.

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Was at work sending a fax at the exact time the first tower was hit. Still have the confirmation page with the date and time.

Bonus: July 4, 1971, I was at the Piedmont Club on Jefferson Highway in BR when WLCS radio broke the news Jim Morrison died in Paris the day before.

My family went next door to watch the landing. They had bought one of the 6' long console tv that weighs like 600lbs. I was 3 weeks away from my 4th birthday and still remember it.

I remember every one of these incidents and what I was doing at the time.

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The day JFK was killed.

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Our principal announced it over the intercom at school. School let out early that Friday.

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The day we landed on the moon. (Chappaquiddick was also happening the same weekend)

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Watched live on TV at a friend's house.

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Bigoted? This should be cute.

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Oh did you think bigotry is limited to opinions on race? Typical low education, low information democrat. Sad.