I took remember the moon landings and had charts on my bedroom walls to follow progress. Wind forward 60 years and I am more entranced by the moon as part of me, us and Earth; and what it tells us about ourselves and our connections; and not some pointless billionaire orgasm. 😖
I remember the moon landing vividly. My feelings about it at five were very different from yours! I was allowed to stay up and watch the footage and I was expecting it to be like Star Trek, so my first reaction was to think it very dull and slow and hard to see! The following morning on the way to school, I looked up at the moon in the sky and asked Mum why I couldn't see the men walking about on it (albeit as dots). The boys in particular at school were obsessed with making rockets from yoghurt cartons, yoghurt being a comparatively new product to us (we didn't have it for years). I was brought up from a very early age with perhaps too much awareness of world affairs (as in, they caused anxiety but I didn't always know the context or how it actually related to me), and from what I recall, the moon landing coincided with famines (looking it up now, possibly Biafra and Rajasthan but then I just knew somewhere people didn't have enough food), and I wondered even then if the money wouldn't be better spent on earth. Why were we so obsessed with another conquest? (I doubt I could have expressed that obviously, but I definitely thought it seemed wrong to spend money on something we didn't need while people were starving.) As a teenager I started a novel about those left behind after the majority of people 'flew' to other planets because they'd pretty much destroyed this one (given my generation - my fear was more nuclear war than ecological disaster). It never got further than a concept and a paragraph or two, but I think I was still thinking 'shouldn't we sort out what we have rather than treat it as disposable and move on to the next thing?' I have never really had the urge to go to space. I'm marginally claustrophobic and at the same time, daunted by massive open spaces of nothing and no one (the sea, artic wastelands, deserts). The thought of being trapped inside a vessel so far from other people - apart from those with me - and (frankly) places to hide really really unnerves me and the thought of suffocating from lack of oxygen... too much like drowning which also frightens me. (I was exposed to a lot of 60s and 70s science fiction films very young too, which probably doesn't help. Reading this through, am hoping there are no psychiatrists reading it! Bottom line is: I like looking at space but have no urge to visit!
Thanks for reading and sharing your experience, Paula. I absolutely remember the grainy black and white pictures. I don’t know why, but it always surprised me when I saw men without women for some reason. My parents weren’t exactly feminists somI have no idea where that came from!
America and Russia were obsessed with competing I think conquest was perhaps secondary, but you’re entirely right. My fears were definitely about nuclear war when I was a kid and I joined CND at 14 (think Impossibly lied about my age?) and remember marching when I was 16! I still have my CND badge!
Like you I would in reality have been a hopeless astronaut as I get claustrophobia and hate being in small spaces with other people anyway, but the idea was so seductive and the moon; the moon I could see.
I still look at Cosmos by Carl Sagan from time to time and am still mesmerised.
I recall sitting in the hall of Burlington infants school and watching images on a small screen, it looked incredible. I remember my nan buying me a book for the following Christmas and it was all about the landing. It totally fascinated me, but I had no desire to go to the moon, just look and learn.
I do often think what are we doing looking outside of earth to set up a community when we have not looked after what we have here.
Thanks for the reminder of that 1st moon landing and, now I think about it, I think I was almost as amazed by the fact they could get back too!
It was an amazing thing wasn’t it. I think we forget that. I too had a book and a special issue of Pictorial Knowledge, which I kept until quite recently!
You’re right though, the getting back is a really big deal.
I can understand wanting to find life elsewhere in the universe, but we should be prohibited from looking for other places to colonise, given the mess we’ve made of our home planet - and the only one that’s inhabitable, as far as we know.
I took remember the moon landings and had charts on my bedroom walls to follow progress. Wind forward 60 years and I am more entranced by the moon as part of me, us and Earth; and what it tells us about ourselves and our connections; and not some pointless billionaire orgasm. 😖
I would have loved a chart, Glenn!
Totally agree about the moon - and the billionaires!
I remember the moon landing vividly. My feelings about it at five were very different from yours! I was allowed to stay up and watch the footage and I was expecting it to be like Star Trek, so my first reaction was to think it very dull and slow and hard to see! The following morning on the way to school, I looked up at the moon in the sky and asked Mum why I couldn't see the men walking about on it (albeit as dots). The boys in particular at school were obsessed with making rockets from yoghurt cartons, yoghurt being a comparatively new product to us (we didn't have it for years). I was brought up from a very early age with perhaps too much awareness of world affairs (as in, they caused anxiety but I didn't always know the context or how it actually related to me), and from what I recall, the moon landing coincided with famines (looking it up now, possibly Biafra and Rajasthan but then I just knew somewhere people didn't have enough food), and I wondered even then if the money wouldn't be better spent on earth. Why were we so obsessed with another conquest? (I doubt I could have expressed that obviously, but I definitely thought it seemed wrong to spend money on something we didn't need while people were starving.) As a teenager I started a novel about those left behind after the majority of people 'flew' to other planets because they'd pretty much destroyed this one (given my generation - my fear was more nuclear war than ecological disaster). It never got further than a concept and a paragraph or two, but I think I was still thinking 'shouldn't we sort out what we have rather than treat it as disposable and move on to the next thing?' I have never really had the urge to go to space. I'm marginally claustrophobic and at the same time, daunted by massive open spaces of nothing and no one (the sea, artic wastelands, deserts). The thought of being trapped inside a vessel so far from other people - apart from those with me - and (frankly) places to hide really really unnerves me and the thought of suffocating from lack of oxygen... too much like drowning which also frightens me. (I was exposed to a lot of 60s and 70s science fiction films very young too, which probably doesn't help. Reading this through, am hoping there are no psychiatrists reading it! Bottom line is: I like looking at space but have no urge to visit!
Thanks for reading and sharing your experience, Paula. I absolutely remember the grainy black and white pictures. I don’t know why, but it always surprised me when I saw men without women for some reason. My parents weren’t exactly feminists somI have no idea where that came from!
America and Russia were obsessed with competing I think conquest was perhaps secondary, but you’re entirely right. My fears were definitely about nuclear war when I was a kid and I joined CND at 14 (think Impossibly lied about my age?) and remember marching when I was 16! I still have my CND badge!
Like you I would in reality have been a hopeless astronaut as I get claustrophobia and hate being in small spaces with other people anyway, but the idea was so seductive and the moon; the moon I could see.
I still look at Cosmos by Carl Sagan from time to time and am still mesmerised.
I recall sitting in the hall of Burlington infants school and watching images on a small screen, it looked incredible. I remember my nan buying me a book for the following Christmas and it was all about the landing. It totally fascinated me, but I had no desire to go to the moon, just look and learn.
I do often think what are we doing looking outside of earth to set up a community when we have not looked after what we have here.
Thanks for the reminder of that 1st moon landing and, now I think about it, I think I was almost as amazed by the fact they could get back too!
It was an amazing thing wasn’t it. I think we forget that. I too had a book and a special issue of Pictorial Knowledge, which I kept until quite recently!
You’re right though, the getting back is a really big deal.
I can understand wanting to find life elsewhere in the universe, but we should be prohibited from looking for other places to colonise, given the mess we’ve made of our home planet - and the only one that’s inhabitable, as far as we know.
Thanks for reading and engaging, Kimberley.