What were you doing 45 years ago today ?
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Making sure my one year old son was present in front of the TV to see Neil Armstrong step onto the moon. A few days later left Ballykelly for another two months in Majunga.
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What were you doing ...........
Sitting in the TV room of the Junior Mess at RAFC Cranwell watching the launch on the brand new, first colour TV I had ever seen. Drinking a pint of Double Diamond (euch).
Thinking - so the spams are going to the moon; whatever.
Nothing seemed impossible at the time, not even TSR2 or that I would graduate - which I did eventually. TSR2 is another story!
In the late 60's and early 70's we felt we were living through the white heat of technology. Try telling that to the kids today .......!!
Thinking - so the spams are going to the moon; whatever.
Nothing seemed impossible at the time, not even TSR2 or that I would graduate - which I did eventually. TSR2 is another story!
In the late 60's and early 70's we felt we were living through the white heat of technology. Try telling that to the kids today .......!!
Sitting on the ramp in Seattle waiting for US Customs to sort out the paperwork so we could export a 707 to Canada. Much whoopin and hollerin on the ground frequency.
SOSL
But do you remember that the film being shown in Whittle Hall that evening was "The Graduate"? Funny, I can remember that, but I had completely forgotten how horrible Double Diamond was. I seem to remember that we were allowed to go to work about an hour late the next morning, having sat up watching the grainy black & white images on the sparkling colour TV for most of the night. We also had the other end of the Apollo scale during our visit to the USAF Academy in 1970(?) which coincided with the epic of Apollo 13.
OB
But do you remember that the film being shown in Whittle Hall that evening was "The Graduate"? Funny, I can remember that, but I had completely forgotten how horrible Double Diamond was. I seem to remember that we were allowed to go to work about an hour late the next morning, having sat up watching the grainy black & white images on the sparkling colour TV for most of the night. We also had the other end of the Apollo scale during our visit to the USAF Academy in 1970(?) which coincided with the epic of Apollo 13.
OB
I was watching on the TV in Northern Ireland, whilst consulting the amazing charts and posters that NASA had sent to me after I wrote to them. Amazing times. No, AMAZING times.
Confession time.....
......in my hurry to get my two year old daughter and 18 month old son to prop them in front of the TV I dropped my lovely girl face first on the floor.
Cue lots of squawking and crying, then "eye-balls caged" and all floppy asking for her "cloff" the source of all comfort. Soon recovered and we all watched (well I did, lad fell asleep again).
Do either of them remember it? Not a hope in Hell. Why do we, did we, do these things? "It's history in the making, kids" "What's history Dad?"
The Ancient Mariner
Cue lots of squawking and crying, then "eye-balls caged" and all floppy asking for her "cloff" the source of all comfort. Soon recovered and we all watched (well I did, lad fell asleep again).
Do either of them remember it? Not a hope in Hell. Why do we, did we, do these things? "It's history in the making, kids" "What's history Dad?"
The Ancient Mariner
SOSL wrote:
I remember that huge colour TV - it was installed in the BBC2 room in the Junior Mess. Very, very few programmes were in colour back then as the main colour service didn't start until 15 Nov 1969, several months after Apollo 11, by which time I was in my first university term living in a cold, damp room in an utter dump of a student hotel in Bayswater. Hardly College Hall!
I was on leave on 20 Jul 1969, along with the rest of the pre-University mob, so I guess it was only the 99 Entry Flt Cdts who watched the landing on that TV?
Sitting in the TV room of the Junior Mess at RAFC Cranwell watching the launch on the brand new, first colour TV I had ever seen.
I was on leave on 20 Jul 1969, along with the rest of the pre-University mob, so I guess it was only the 99 Entry Flt Cdts who watched the landing on that TV?
I watched it in b&w. That didn't detract from the gravitas of the occasion. I could never have remembered the exact date of the introduction of colour transmissions, but I do recall that I could see colour photos of the landing - not on TV though.
But what an amazing achievement, and what brave men.
But what an amazing achievement, and what brave men.
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This one is easy.... 14 years old, Left Dallas Love Field on an Eastern Flight to Miami traveling alone to catch a connecting flight to Tocumen Panama on a Blue BRANIFF 707
As we skimmed past Cuba on the way to Panama,the pilot came on the intercom and said that we had landed on the moon
(I didn't know BRANIFF went to the moon --ok, ok its a joke)
But when I finally got to my Brothers home at Ft Gulick Canal Zone we watched all the stuff on a little B&W tv via AFRTS which wasn't much
And as a side note, in 1969, there must not have been much policy/procedure about commercial jets flying thru thunderstorms, because that Eastern flight sure as heck did. I vividly remember looking out at the dark clouds we were in and lightning everywhere and the lights on the plane going on and off....the wing flopping up and down...
Quite a sight for a 14 year old going it alone.....
As we skimmed past Cuba on the way to Panama,the pilot came on the intercom and said that we had landed on the moon
(I didn't know BRANIFF went to the moon --ok, ok its a joke)
But when I finally got to my Brothers home at Ft Gulick Canal Zone we watched all the stuff on a little B&W tv via AFRTS which wasn't much
And as a side note, in 1969, there must not have been much policy/procedure about commercial jets flying thru thunderstorms, because that Eastern flight sure as heck did. I vividly remember looking out at the dark clouds we were in and lightning everywhere and the lights on the plane going on and off....the wing flopping up and down...
Quite a sight for a 14 year old going it alone.....
by which time I was in my first university term living in a cold, damp room in an utter dump of a student hotel in Bayswater. Hardly College Hall!
I then forked out another ten bob a week on my semi-subterranean priest hole, courtesy of the Château Hillbrow in Bayswater, for the supply of an ancient two-bar electric fire.
No morning parades though
Last edited by Haraka; 7th Aug 2014 at 12:07.
I seem to remember that virtually all the TV progs in colour were US - the most popular being Star Trek and The Rowan and Martin Laugh-In. Just after New Year 1969, some of us were back at the Towers to catch up on Chipmunk flying because of bad weather, and the Junior Mess was closed, so had to use College Hall. Needless to say, the weather stayed poor and one group of flight cadets were watching the large colour TV in College Hall one morning when 2 men in brown coats came in, announced that they were taking away the TV for repair, picked it up and walked out, driving away in a van. No-one thought to query the fact that the TV seemed to be working well at the time. It was only a couple of days later when Mess Manager etc came back to work that anyone asked how long the TV would be away being repaired. Panic all round. RAF plods and the might of Sleaford CID called in. Cadets asked to describe thieves. Best they got was "They were wearing brown coats and looked like TV repair men".
Strangely, the plods did recover the TV from somewhere in North Wales - well-known hotbed of TV thievery, mainly because it was still big and rare and the system had its serial number. And people say life at Cranners was dull!
Strangely, the plods did recover the TV from somewhere in North Wales - well-known hotbed of TV thievery, mainly because it was still big and rare and the system had its serial number. And people say life at Cranners was dull!
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Skived off school with a friend of mine and watched the whole event at his Aunt's house.
Only other time I skived off education was to watch the first commercial flight of Concorde from the top of the Queen's Building at Heathrow in 1976.
Only other time I skived off education was to watch the first commercial flight of Concorde from the top of the Queen's Building at Heathrow in 1976.
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I remember that huge colour TV - it was installed in the BBC2 room in the Junior Mess. Very, very few programmes were in colour back then as the main colour service didn't start until 15 Nov 1969
