# July 20, 1969.... Where Were You?



## Dix (Aug 25, 2012)

If you were.

RIP Neil Armstrong first man on the moon.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/08/25/astronaut-neil-armstrong-dies-at-82/

The Dixettes Birthday is July 20 ... always a mention around here.

I was up at my fathers in Bennington, Vermont camping outside of the house, with an extension cord and an extra antenna wire running out to a portable TV so we could watch it outside under the stars. I was 11. It was an awesome summer, to say the least !


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## Blue Vomit (Aug 25, 2012)

A twinkle in Daddy's eye.


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## velvetfoot (Aug 25, 2012)

Having a fun summer paying paddleball and basketball at Fort Hamilton Park after graduating high school.


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## PapaDave (Aug 25, 2012)

Seems to me the whole family was in the living room watching the proceedings.
I was a bit over 15.


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## DexterDay (Aug 25, 2012)

Blue Vomit said:


> A twinkle in Daddy's eye.



Me to... My Dad was 8 then... He may remember? ? Going fishing in the morning for Jumbo Perch. Gonna have to ask?


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## save$ (Aug 25, 2012)

I was in the military. I was working in a military hospital then in California. President Eisenhower and his wife had been at that facility. He passed away earlier that same year as the moon landing.


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## BrotherBart (Aug 26, 2012)

Getting 14 Chinooks ready to fly the next morning in Dong Ba Thin, Vietnam.

We had the radio on the flight line broadcasting it from AFVN radio that night. We were American proud. I was American happy when I went down there and counted 14 coming home the next evening.

RIP Neil. You made us proud. Wish somebody would again.


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## fossil (Aug 26, 2012)

I was 20, driving somewhere on the peninsula south of San Francisco in my '55 Chevy station wagon...probably out toward the coast for another beach party, having dropped out of college and just waiting my turn to go to Navy Boot Camp, which I did in September.  Listened on my AM radio as the moon landing happened.  I was always completely in awe of the Mercury Program and the Apollo Program and really pretty much everything else NASA has ever done.  But that first manned Moon landing was something very special, indeed.  Some of the most courageous Americans who've ever lived went up in those missions. To NASA's credit, dang near every one of them made it back home safely.  Amazing, mind-boggling stuff...right up through the recent Mars Rover landing.  Rick


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## Shadow&Flame (Aug 26, 2012)

Living in base housing in Georgia...I was two.  Boggles the mind what those guys did...just wish people would pay more attention to the planet we know and not worry about whats out there so much.


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## Lousyweather (Aug 26, 2012)

I was almost 7 years old.......working in the salt mines.....


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## Hogwildz (Aug 26, 2012)

I was 3-1/2. Living in Baltimore, which is where I learned to talk. Only to move back to Philly, then the burbs, and have to go to speech therapy because of my Baltimore accent. I remember Tang becoming bigtime cause the Astronauts drank it. I got a small rover toy out of a Tang container, and loved that thing.


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## MasterMech (Aug 26, 2012)

R.I.P Neil

It's unfortunate but I think we'll be seeing many Apollo-era astronauts obituaries in the coming years.  Several space program heroes are gettin' on in the years.  Jim Lovell (Gemini 7 (14 days in space), Gemini 12 (Flew with Buzz Aldrin, extended EVA and Athena docking mission), Apollo 8 (First American Moon orbit), Apollo 13 (Suffered catastrophic failure and returned to Earth using the Lunar Excursion Module as a lifeboat) is 84.


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## DAKSY (Aug 26, 2012)

I was 17. Our family was in our living room, watching a B&W 19" Montgomery Wards Signature TV. When those first pix came back, I remember my Dad, a USAF MSgt at the time, shedding tears of joy...On the same TV that we saw the Jets beat the Colts, earlier that year, in SB III...


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## begreen (Aug 26, 2012)

I'll never forget it. At the time I was in San Angelo, TX, a few days into basic training. It was 93F at 9pm and I was thinking about how surreal life had become.


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## Thistle (Aug 26, 2012)

I was not quite 6,vaguely remember watching on the big Magnavox B & W console in the living room.Interesting note,my oldest brother turned 16 that day & and 23 on the Mars orbit thing in 1976.Found out years later he shares same birthday as Carlos Santana,just 6 yrs later.


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## firefighterjake (Aug 27, 2012)

359 days from being born.


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## BrotherBart (Aug 27, 2012)

firefighterjake said:


> 359 days from being born.


 
I think I am gonna go lay down for a little while.


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## PapaDave (Aug 27, 2012)

Yep, I think I need a nap.


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## Adios Pantalones (Aug 27, 2012)

Ya, that was my first trimester. I remember it vividly- it was dark, and warm- I was a fair bit more lizard-like in those days. Ahh- to have a tail again.

Ice cream was less enjoyable, but otherwise it was awesome.


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## jharkin (Aug 27, 2012)

BrotherBart said:


> firefighterjake said:
> 
> 
> > 359 days from being born.
> ...


 
I was - 2,456 days myself, But Dexter probably has that beat by a wide margin.


Godspeed Neil.


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## thewoodlands (Aug 27, 2012)

Watching it on TV with my parents.

zap


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## Jack Straw (Aug 27, 2012)

I was 4 and I don't remember it, my first real memory of world events was the end of the Vietnam war.


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## BrowningBAR (Aug 27, 2012)

Six years away from being hatched.


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## granpajohn (Aug 27, 2012)

"I am, and ever will be, a white socks, pocket protector, nerdy engineer. And I take a substantial amount of pride in the accomplishments of my profession."
    -Neil Armstrong, Feb 2000.

Might just describe a few folks around here too.


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## BrotherBart (Aug 27, 2012)

There are three kinds of people in the world. Those that understand math and those that don't.


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## Jags (Aug 27, 2012)

I think I was still potty training.


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## begreen (Aug 27, 2012)

Stunning to think that many here have always known Marilyn Monroe, Kurt Cobain, and Elvis as dead people. They've never known the joys of 8-tracks, riding in the back of pickup trucks, or black and white tv. Hopefully at least they've gone skinny dipping at least once.


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## Jags (Aug 27, 2012)

begreen said:


> Stunning to think that many here have always known Marilyn Monroe, Kurt Cobain, and Elvis as dead people. They've never known the joys of 8-tracks, riding in the back of pickup trucks, or black and white tv. Hopefully at least they've gone skinny dipping at least once.


 
Only "Marilyn Monroe" escapes me.


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## BrotherBart (Aug 27, 2012)

begreen said:


> Hopefully at least they've gone skinny dipping at least once.


 
Not since I was 28.


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## BrowningBAR (Aug 27, 2012)

begreen said:


> Stunning to think that many here have always known Marilyn Monroe, Kurt Cobain, and Elvis as dead people.


I was an angry teen when Cobain was alive. Two when Elvis died.



> They've never known the joys of 8-tracks,


I remember a long trip from south Florida to Pennsylvania in which my father played the same Elvis 8-Track over, and over, and over... and over.



> riding in the back of pickup trucks,


Hell, I did that last weekend.



> Hopefully at least they've gone skinny dipping at least once.


On acid.


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## DAKSY (Aug 27, 2012)

begreen said:


> Stunning to think that many here have always known Marilyn Monroe, Kurt Cobain, and Elvis as dead people. They've never known the joys of 8-tracks, riding in the back of pickup trucks, or black and white tv. Hopefully at least they've gone skinny dipping at least once.


 
Test patterns... Wringer washers...AM Radios (Top 40 HITS!)...Milkmen...Pushmowers...Cap Guns...
We're getting OLD (*sigh*)


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## begreen (Aug 27, 2012)

LOL I remember when a portable (am) radio weighed about 10 lbs and that was considered light. The first transistor radio I owned (am/fm) was like magic.


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## BrotherBart (Aug 27, 2012)

High speed routers.


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## begreen (Aug 27, 2012)

I hate to say it but I remember when we got our first dial telephone and this was not in rural Kansas, but just a few miles north of NYC.


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## thewoodlands (Aug 27, 2012)

The information highway of the 60's, the party lines. Your neighbor knew everything that was going on in your house or family!

zap


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## fossil (Aug 27, 2012)

Few years ago I brought in a considerable amount of money cleaning out all my toys & things from the 50's & 60's and selling them on Ebay to nostalgic old farts.  Example: Something like $275.00 for my Mattel Fanner 50 cap pistol.


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## Adios Pantalones (Aug 27, 2012)

BrotherBart said:


> There are three kinds of people in the world. Those that understand math and those that don't.


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## BrotherBart (Aug 27, 2012)

Mom sold all of my stuff in a garage sale while I was overseas.  Including this. Box and all.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1958-HUBLEY...636?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a785cb884


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## firefighterjake (Aug 27, 2012)

Jags said:


> Only "Marilyn Monroe" escapes me.


 
Ditto.


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## firefighterjake (Aug 27, 2012)

zap said:


> The information highway of the 60's, the party lines. Your neighbor knew everything that was going on in your house or family!
> 
> zap


 
To heck with the '60s . . . we were still using party lines into the '80s where I grew up in Maine. Fortunately, the two other parties on the line were my grandparents and my uncle/aunt.

And . . . while I am too young to remember it . . . as a toddler my parents said they still used the old-fashioned crank phone in their brand new 1970 vintage split level Ranch.


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## firefighterjake (Aug 27, 2012)

DAKSY said:


> Test patterns... Wringer washers...AM Radios (Top 40 HITS!)...Milkmen...Pushmowers...Cap Guns...
> We're getting OLD (*sigh*)


 
It's not that old Daksy . . . I remember getting up early on Saturday morning and having to wait for the test pattern to change -- on one of two or three stations we got the morning always started with a very odd-looking cartoon rendition of "American Pie" with a local TV personality's head flying off . . . and then it was time for Looney Tunes.

Wringer washers . . . my grandmother was using them well into the 1980s.

AM radios . . . FM was still in its infancy when I was growing up. Most folks were still tuning into AM stations.

Milkmen . . . I was too young to remember, but my Mother said they got their milk from one when I was a toddler.

Push mowers . . . Got me there . . . then again Dad was always tinkering and building equipment to make life easier . . . such as the time he built a riding mower . . . but forgot to add brakes . . . he discovered that when he went downhill . . . with me on it. Fortunately, I was a toddler so I don't remember much about that experience . . . well, actually I don't remember anything.

Cap guns . . . kids with their Air Soft guns would laugh at how much we enjoyed buying caps and shooting them off.


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## firefighterjake (Aug 27, 2012)

BrotherBart said:


> Not since I was 28.


 
Not since two weeks ago . . . maybe I'll do so tonight for "old times sake." 

P.S. No one come by between the hours of 5:15 and 5:30 p.m. . . . you have been warned . . . if you stop by and your eyes start bleeding you have no one to fault but yourself.


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## Jags (Aug 27, 2012)

firefighterjake said:


> Cap guns . . . kids with their Air Soft guns would laugh at how much we enjoyed buying caps and shooting them off.


 
Or taking the entire roll of caps and placing it on cement and then smacking it with a hammer.


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## Adios Pantalones (Aug 27, 2012)

Jags said:


> Or taking the entire roll of caps and placing it on cement and then smacking it with a hammer.


I used to wrap it in electrical tape first.


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## BrotherBart (Aug 27, 2012)

firefighterjake said:


> Milkmen . . . I was too young to remember, but my Mother said they got their milk from one when I was a toddler.


 
Dad was our Borden milkman. Loved riding with him because lunch was a pack of cheese crackers and a bottle, yep little bottle, of chocolate milk eaten in the truck.


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## granpajohn (Aug 27, 2012)

BrotherBart said:


> Dad was our Borden milkman. Loved riding with him because lunch was a pack of cheese crackers and a bottle, yep little bottle, of chocolate milk eaten in the truck.


 What?    I demand you change your "good ol days" quote. This is new information. You must admit; it is "good".


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## DexterDay (Aug 27, 2012)

jharkin said:


> I was - 2,456 days myself, But Dexter probably has that beat by a wide margin.
> 
> 
> Godspeed Neil.



Counting Leap Years? Or not? 

Around 4,334 days. Cobain was one of my Idols back then...  As for Elvis, he was near Clarion Pa a couple weeks ago


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## begreen (Aug 27, 2012)

Jags said:


> Or taking the entire roll of caps and placing it on cement and then smacking it with a hammer.


 
BTDT


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## begreen (Aug 27, 2012)

Our first tv set was like this Philco, with a whopping 8" screen. It eventually ended up in our bedroom. We watched many a late night monster flick and Twilight Zones on that set.


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## jharkin (Aug 27, 2012)

DexterDay said:


> Counting Leap Years? Or not?
> 
> Around 4,334 days. Cobain was one of my Idols back then... As for Elvis, he was near Clarion Pa a couple weeks ago


 
I still remember the day Cobain died, listening to it on the radio in my parents car on the way home from some after school activity.   Elvis, well, I was still in diapers then.

Its amazing how fast things change... I'm certainly  one of the younger folks here but I look at my toddlers and think of all the things even I can remember as a kid in the 80s that would just be stories to them... Black and white TV, having to set the choke to start the family car, hand crank windows, vinyl (well, kids will know that one because Im holding on to mine), cassette tapes, VHS, laserdiscs, floppy disks..... Looking up books in a paper card catalog at the library, turning the big antenna on the roof whenever you change the channel on the TV, etc.

I bet even CDs and paper phone books will be a relic by the time they are in high school.


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## jharkin (Aug 27, 2012)

firefighterjake said:


> AM radios . . . FM was still in its infancy when I was growing up. Most folks were still tuning into AM stations.
> .


 

That one got me thinking... because I know FM mono was invented before WWII and stereo in the 50s... and Ive got some 50s and 60s vintage stereo gear with FM dials.

I went and looked it up on Wikipedia and it seems that FM stations didnt outnumber AM until 1978.. wow would have though it a lot earlier.


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## Backwoods Savage (Aug 27, 2012)

BrotherBart said:


> Dad was our Borden milkman. Loved riding with him because lunch was a pack of cheese crackers and a bottle, yep little bottle, of *chocolate milk eaten in the truck.*


 
Now that was some thick chocolate milk!


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## Backwoods Savage (Aug 27, 2012)

Doing The Dixie Eyed Hustle said:


> If you were.
> 
> RIP Neil Armstrong first man on the moon.
> 
> ...


 

So sorry I missed your birthday. So, Happy birthday a little late.


I remember the day very well and watched it on our black & white tv set. Kids were young then (5 & 6). Work was steady and had just received a promotion. Life was good. Still is.


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## f3cbboy (Aug 27, 2012)

i was 11 days from coming on to this planet.


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## begreen (Aug 27, 2012)

I was in Bothel, WA the day Elvis died, installing instant heating system in new suburban boxes and hating it. I walked off the job that day and never went back. Got a speeding ticket on the way back home too.


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## Dix (Aug 27, 2012)

Such an unassuming man, for what he did.

I also remember it was the summer of Charles Manson.


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## velvetfoot (Aug 27, 2012)

Woodstock


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## MasterMech (Aug 28, 2012)

firefighterjake said:


> Cap guns . . . kids with their Air Soft guns would laugh at how much we enjoyed buying caps and shooting them off.


 
Go ahead and bring your cap guns to an AirSoft fight.  Dare ya....


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## Jags (Aug 28, 2012)

MasterMech said:


> Go ahead and bring your cap guns to an AirSoft fight. Dare ya....


 
I had a cap gun that would shoot a #8 shot.  Might wanna rethink that. (little bastage would sting, but not break skin).


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