Moon Memories: Readers’ memories on the 50th anniversary of an historic event, part two of two

July 20, 1969

This spring, Hood River News asked readers to help us remember the biggest news event of 1969 and one of the biggest of the 20th century.

On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 landed, and human beings set foot on the Moon, the only celestial object visited by humans. “This is one small step for (a) man, a giant step for mankind,” astronaut Neil Armstrong said.

We asked people to recall one of mankind’s most extraordinary accomplishments, as well as their thoughts on the era of Chang’e, Ultima Thule, and Viking, Voyager, Challenger, international space stations, and more.

Here, we print the last of the Moon Memories submitted to the News in the second part of our Kaleidoscope series.

‘Lift Off’, ‘Landing’ and ‘Footprints’

By Barbara Menard

I do remember where I was the day the landing on the moon occurred. During the month of July, I had enrolled in a class through Portland State about aerospace. It sounded interesting, considering all the buzz about the moon landing.

The class was held at the military base on the south side of the Portland airport. There were two male instructors leading the class. We were sked to plan events (not real ones), taking into consideration that they were realistic. I wanted to have the Thunderbirds do a flyover, or simply come and talk to the class. One of the instructors didn’t know who they were.

We knew we were going to visit two military bases in California as part of our class. One of the bases was China Lake, and the other base was Vandenberg. We weren’t flying regular airlines and had to enroll in CAP (Civil Air Patrol) so we could use a military plane. It was the same type of plane that Gov. McCall used. I don’t remember much about the plane, other than the seats were facing backwards. We were asked not to use the restroom unless we wanted to clean it. There was no food service either. The plane had propellers and was quite noisy.

We landed at China Lake and came in very quickly. I think we were surrounded by high hills and desert below. I felt sick after we landed. China Lake Naval Weapons Station is in the Mojave Desert, about 150 miles north of Los Angeles. We stayed two days and saw some of the armaments and the research that we came to learn more about.

Next, we flew to Vandenberg Air Force Base. It’s near Lompoc. This was a missile launch facility. We learned it was a rather secretive time as a new, very large aircraft was being tested. It was a C5A. I’m remembering it was a transport plane, not in use at that point. We saw a group of people watching from a distance. We were told that no photos were to be taken, so we put away our cameras. We also went into some buildings where rockets were on display. This was something I’d never seen up close.

We had about 36 hours to be on our own before we flew back to Portland. One person in our group suggested we rent a car and go over to Las Vegas for that time. It sounded exciting at the time, so off we went. When we arrived in Las Vegas, we went to Caesar’s Palace to spend our time.

I remember sitting in front of a TV, watching the moon landing. It was exciting and scary because the blackout came just before the landing that we’ve all seen over and over, before we were able to see that the craft had landed. I knew I had seen quite an historic event. I’m so glad I enrolled in the class and that I was where I was when I saw the landing. It’s never left my memory.
On the 30th anniversary of the Apollo landing, I bought four little stuffed bears representing “Lift Off,” “Landing,” the “Foot Prints” and the “Splashdown.” I still have them.

Barbara Menard lives in Parkdale.

History on TV, and a toddler
By Linda Lorenzen

Moon memory on film in the 1969 photo album: Our 10-month-old daughter standing amidst the pots and pans in a large drawer beneath the oven, and her colorful overalls stand out. On the counter beside, a small black and white television showing the news broadcast of the moon landing.

Was I capturing this momentous moon landing, or the antics of a beloved toddler?

Linda Lorenzen lives in The Dalles.

‘The Eagle has landed’
By Pennie Burns

Sitting high above the White Cliffs of Dover, on a summer evening. Watching the moon hanging over the English Channel. It was my birthday the next day, July 20.

Pretty special memory, all on its own, but the most amazing part is we were listening to the first moon landing on our car radio, as we looked out at the view.

We’d been driving around England in our ‘69 Volkswagen, having taken delivery of it in Belgium. The things we had already seen and done in three weeks had filled many pages of my travel diary. Ten days in London, stops in Oxford and Cambridge, some days in Stratford, British Grand Prix at Silverstone that year, crossing to England from Netherlands, on the North Sea, on a car ferry.

The next day, my birthday (not going to tell which one, because you can add), we were crossing by another car ferry to France. (No Channel back then.) So there were many, many peak experiences left in our three months on the Europe side of the Atlantic.

Looking back on all of it now 50 years later, I’d have to say that the most exciting thing on that wonderful trip was not the Eiffel Tower, the treasures of the Louvre, the Swiss Alps, Venice, Rome, etc., but the voice coming over the radio ... “The Eagle has landed.”

Pride in our country mixed with amazement that this could actually be done, with a little apprehension (will they be able to get back home to Earth?) welled up inside me and overflowed as tears. The next morning, at our bed and breakfast, the lady had her TV on, which of course was broadcasting and rebroadcasting the first step, lest we should miss out on that spectacle.

My moon memory will be with me, as clear as if it were yesterday, for as long as I live.

Pennie Burns lives in Hood River.

‘Roger, Neil’
By Alan Winans

My pregnant wife, Shirley, was about to deliver.

As Neil Armstrong communicated with Houston, Houston would reply, “Roger, Neil”.

“That’s it!” I said.

“What’s it?” she asked.

”Our new baby’s name, Roger Neil Winans!”

She agreed.

But since God is the Creator and had the upper hand, He gave us a Debra May in lieu of a Roger Neil on July 22,1969.

Roger Neil came a year later, on Sept. 22, 1970.

Alan Winans lives in Hood River

Witnessed at Disneyland
By Roxann Cease Cochran

My moon meory:

It was July 20, 1969. I was 8 years old, and I didn’t care about space travel; astronauts traveling to the moon seemed a million miles away (238,900 miles, actually). And other then watching “Lost in Space” on the TV, I didn’t have much interest in any of it.

Sure, there had been times over the past few years of my grade school days at Frankton Elementary where we got to skip a little school and walk to a neighboring home to watch her black and white TV, as either the Gemini or the Apollo landed in the ocean. (It was fun getting to leave school, but I really do not remember the actual event, just my teacher telling us to be polite and respectful, as some of the boys were not, and were sent back to school).

I digress. Back to July 20, 1969: My family and I were walking around Disneyland, for gosh sakes, DISNEYLAND, the greatest place on Earth! Then there was an announcement, and the landing was being shown on a large screen. Everyone stopped to watch. It was quiet and there was a sense of wonder among the crowd (yeah, right, my wonder was, “Wouldn’t the lines be shorter if we went on the rides now?”)

But in all honesty, I’m glad I was where I was, and shared this amazing moment with so many people that day.

Little did I know, that day, that future space travel would be right in my back yard.

While I was living in Orlando Fla., in the ‘80s, I was able to visit the Kennedy Space Center, located near Coco Beach, Fla., a few times in the early ‘80s. It was fascinating. You get to see space stuff up close and personal. This gave me more respect, and somewhat more insight and understanding, for the whole space mission.

Then one cold day (for Florida cold anyway), Jan. 28, 1986, while watching the morning news, I saw that a space craft was about to launch from the Kennedy Space Center. It was a beautiful, blue-sky morning. I grabbed up my 3-year-old daughter and, with about 30 seconds left on the countdown, we ran outside to watch.

Just 73 seconds after liftoff, the space shuttle Challenger exploded. The crew of seven were killed, including Christa McAuliffe, a teacher from New Hampshire who would have been the first civilian in space. Everyone who was home at the time, in my neighborhood, had been standing outside with me. Everyone started talking at once saying things like, “Oh my gosh,” and “Somethings not right.”

We all ran back into our respective homes to see what the TV news was saying. It was a very sad time, for the nation, of course, but I couldn’t walk into a grocery store or hair salon, (which I did that day) without people crying. Even though the nation was mourning this loss, it really struck home for those so closely effected by it. Most everyone in the area where I lived knew someone who worked at the Kennedy Space Center, or knew someone who knew someone. It was such a tragedy for that tight-knit community. I will never forget it.

What do I think of space exploration? I think it’s very expensive, but also very important, and, let’s face it, it’s exciting!

Roxann Cease Cochran lives in Hood River.