I was working in Stamford, Connecticut and living in Greenwich at the time. July 20th fell on a Sunday and I was entombed in my apartment due to the usual July thunder storms, but I had the TV on very early that the morning. The Sony reel-to-reel was set up to record audio (there was no video back then) of the live coverage by Walter Cronkite and others on CBS.I remember cooking breakfast quickly so as not to introduce background noise during recording, and made a big pot of coffee. I remember making a couple of sandwiches for lunch in case the coverage ran long, or (G*d forbid) something horrible happened. But deep down I knew things would go well. I just knew it.
There was wine and a bottle of champagne chilling in the refrigerator.
I settled in and when the old CBS "eye" followed by the "Special Report - Man on the Moon" slide came up, I hit record and lost my self in tomorowland. The only fear was that we might lose power due to the storms as the heavy rains beat on the windows (which I had covered with blankets to muffle the sounds) but that didn't happen.
When "The Eagle has landed" was aired from Mission Control, the champagne was popped and I heaved a sigh of relief as I am sure everyone on the planet did at that time.
All in all, I think I recorded about 8 hours of coverage before I ran out of blank tapes. I still had those tapes up until the breakup 3 years ago. Don't know where they are now. Probably in some landfill. Still, the memories are vivid and intact.
And I miss Uncle Walter, too.
More later.
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Thanks for sharing. I remember watching the moon landing in my parent's living room. What an incredible eerie feeling watching Neil Armstrong as he took that first step. That memory is as fresh today as it was 40 years ago.
ReplyDeleteI was in rural central PA among people who refused to believe it was not staged, and who still refuse.
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