c4countdown

Sometimes, a memory is more than mere recollection. A really potent memory can enable you to relive - to re-experience - something that happened a long time ago, as if you've travelled back in time.

As I write these words, it's coming up to 1am on July 21st. At this moment, 40 years ago, I was asleep at home. Not surprising, given that I was eight years old; but, unusually, I was sleeping not in my bedroom, but on the sofa in our living room. The lunar module Eagle had touched down on the surface of the moon a little after 9pm the previous evening, and at around 4am Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were due to leave their craft and become the first men to walk on the surface of another world. Knowing how much it meant to me, my parents gave permission for me to watch this historic moment live on TV; but I needed an alarm clock to wake me at 3:30, which (had it gone off in my room) would have woken everyone else in the house too. Hence the sofa.

I've always felt privileged to have been alive in those times, to have been able to witness those events as they unfolded. Those men were heroes to me then, and that achievement is still unparalleled in human history. Watching some of the commemorative programmes on TV tonight - particularly the dramatised reconstruction Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 on ITV - has been an emotional experience. For a while, it's been like being eight years old again.

Just felt like sharing that. Over and out.

Before i go to bed, just wanted to say i liked your post. I often wish that, had the success and advancement continued, i would now be able to enjoy space travel (of a sort!) for real, instead of losing myself in Clarke, Asimov, Bradbury, et al.

I don't know about anyone else, but I'd like to hear George Jenkins' memories of that historic day. Probably including how he intervened at the last moment to fix something which otherwise would have meant the failure of the mission.

I'd just finished university. I stayed up to watch. Sometime in the long hours while we waited for American prime-time to begin, I fell asleep. When I woke Armstrong had already got down the steps, or so they said - I couldn't make head nor tail of the pictures.

I don't know why, but everyone seems to have better memories of this sort of thing than I do.

David Williams wrote:When I woke Armstrong had already got down the steps, or so they said - I couldn't make head nor tail of the pictures.

Armstrong's first steps on the lunar surface were transmitted back to Earth by a slow-scan (narrowband) camera attached to the side of the Eagle. According to Wikipedia, because this system was incompatible with commercial broadcast TV, it had to be displayed on a special monitor and reshot for the live transmissions by a conventional TV camera, reducing the already modest quality of the images considerably.

Strangely, it was the previous year's Apollo 8 which made the biggest impression on me (aged 8). Leaving the Earth to orbit the Moon was way beyond anything that had happened before, and once that was accomplished there didn't seem any doubt that the landing would happen soon.

You have all been deceived: the moon landings were faked and Richard Brittain can prove it.

David O'Donnell wrote:You have all been deceived: the moon landings were faked and Richard Brittain can prove it.

I wonder if a powerful telescope could prove the moon landings were real cos the footage is shit and NASA have conveniently lost the original footage

David O'Donnell wrote:You have all been deceived: the moon landings were faked and Richard Brittain can prove it.

Reminds me of best joke ever

Jon Corby wrote:I don't know about anyone else, but I'd like to hear George Jenkins' memories of that historic day. Probably including how he intervened at the last moment to fix something which otherwise would have meant the failure of the mission.

Sorry Jon, rocket science is a lamentable gap in the vast range of knowledge which I'm sure I use to have, if only I could remember. I'm sure that the rocket people might have called for my advice, but I can't remember if they did. Nowadays, I have to refer to the newspaper to ascertain what day of the week it is. As an example, I said only yesterday to my dear Wife, "I've got to send a cheque for the house insurance". And she replied, "You've already sent it last week, you dopy sod".

Richard Brittain wrote:

After the picture interlude, I just wanted to recommend the new film out called Moon

I thoroughly enjoyed it, easily the most original Sci-Fi movie made this year

Richard Brittain wrote:[nothing]

So much for a picture being worth a thousand words. Anyone care to hazard a guess as to what that was all about?

Phil Reynolds wrote:

Richard Brittain wrote:[nothing]

So much for a picture being worth a thousand words. Anyone care to hazard a guess as to what that was all about?

I couldn't fathom it but for some reason I kept thinking of Jews in space as a good movie title

Marc Meakin wrote:I couldn't fathom it but for some reason I kept thinking of Jews in space as a good movie title

Been done.

Phil Reynolds wrote:

Marc Meakin wrote:I couldn't fathom it but for some reason I kept thinking of Jews in space as a good movie title

Been done.

I was for some reason reminded of this, which I recently completed my long-standing ambition to see.

Richard Brittain wrote:

Is that meant to be a creepy deformed Charlie?

Marc Meakin wrote:After the picture interlude, I just wanted to recommend the new film out called Moon

I thoroughly enjoyed it, easily the most original Sci-Fi movie made this year

And it has Kaya Scodelario (Effy from Skins) in it innit.

Marc Meakin wrote:After the picture interlude, I just wanted to recommend the new film out called Moon

I thoroughly enjoyed it, easily the most original Sci-Fi movie made this year

I went to see it with The Waterboys, but they had to leave early to pick their mum up from Asda, so they missed the end.

True story. They wrote a song about it.

Jon Corby wrote:

Marc Meakin wrote:I just wanted to recommend the new film out called Moon

I went to see it with The Waterboys, but they had to leave early to pick their mum up from Asda, so they missed the end.

True story. They wrote a song about it.

Were you also with them when they missed their local amateur operatic society's production of Lerner & Loewe's classic musical Brigadoon in similar circumstances?

Phil Reynolds wrote:Were you also with them when they missed their local amateur operatic society's production of Lerner & Loewe's classic musical Brigadoon in similar circumstances?

Or Brigabloodydoon, if you're into tmesis and dislike the show as much as I do. I'd rather do a Full Monty anyday.

Brian Moore wrote:Brigabloodydoon, if you're into tmesis and dislike the show as much as I do. I'd rather do a Full Monty anyday.

Having now played leading roles in both, I concur. Brigadoon (or, as I prefer to think of it, "the Scottish play") is like its eponymous village: you think it's disappeared for good, but then it seems to re-emerge from the mists to terrorise innocent tourists about once every hundred years or so.