Published: July 24, 2009 10:23 am      

Street Talk for July 20, 2009

Question of the week: Forty years ago today, Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in the Apollo 11 mission. What do you remember about that significant moment in history?

“I’m trying to think. It was 1969 wasn’t it? I guess it was exhilarating at the time. We were all in junior high school.

It was really exciting because it had never been achieved before.

It was kind of like science fiction was coming true. We were actually going to new worlds. Buck Rogers was the only thing we could think of that was science fiction before, and they were making Buck Rogers come true.”

— Dave Weymouth, maintenance worker, Deposit

“I know exactly where I was. I was in my family room at 31 Riverdale St., New Jersey, watching television in the wee hours of the morning. It was an exciting moment for us. I got up to make sure I was watching it.”

— Bill Eckhardt, retired, Oneonta

“I remember being in school. My teacher slapped a ruler down on the desk and looked us all in the eyes and said, “Dreams do come true.” It was amazing, and really stuck with all of us. It was at that moment I realized how real it all was.”

— Ron Nemire, maintenance worker, Mt. Upton

“We were down in the farmhouse when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. I didn’t watch it because at that time we didn’t have television, but I heard it on the radio. I was amazed. You can’t know how different it was. It was like another world. You have to have a 40-year memory to know.”

— Kathleen Martin, retired teacher, Bloomville

“I do remember that. I would imagine it was like the way my father spoke of the Titanic: it was as big as man landing on the moon in 1969.

That was phenomenal; just the thought of it. When I was growing up in the 1950s, you heard about rocketry and the early stages. Then we woke up and realized Russia was ahead of us; then Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier. We used to make our own rockets when we were kids. In those days, you could order kits. Life is truly a wonder.”

— Jim Sliney, retired, Maryland

“My husband stayed up to watch it, but I was asleep. He told me about it the next morning.”

— Barbara Eckhardt, retired, Oneonta