John Skerchock of Nesquehoning: When Apollo 11 left for the moon I was a Tenderfoot Scout in Troop 144, Nesquehoning. I wanted to watch the landing, but our troop was scheduled to be at camp (Camp Nisatin) that week. I did my best to get out of going, but my dad, who was the troop leader, was not having it.

I went to camp and had a great time, but I wanted to know about the moon landing.

Well, on that day, the camp director had his large console TV brought to the camp and set out on the parade ground. He had a big antenna attached to it (there was no cable there and satellite TV didn’t exist then). At 10:30 that night several hundred Boy Scouts gathered in front of that television, many of us with binoculars, to watch a very grainy picture of man walking on the moon.

It was an awesome experience!

Robert J. Lees, summer resident of Jim Thorpe: Yes, I watched the moon landing on the black-and-white TV in my living room in King of Prussia. I remember that my two boys, ages 4 and 2 were asleep and my wife, pregnant with our third son was asleep as well. So I watched alone and was impressed enough to break out my 35 mm camera and take pictures of the TV. The slides that resulted were of poor quality and have since been converted to digital images, but I still keep them, because to me this was history happening before my eyes.

Betty Lou McBride of Jim Thorpe: We were living in Naples, Florida, at the time and I was glued to the TV as I was for all the space launches.

But I remember our first daughter, Peg, got her first tooth that day, and I was more excited to tell my husband about that than the moon landing. Now remember both big events with pride.

Sherry Ferguson, Towamensing Township: As school kids in the 1960s, my generation grew up watching televised coverage of each rocket launch in real time, often during classes.

As a space-obsessed 12-year old, it was an unforgettable July 20 when I was allowed to stay up well past my bedtime to watch the moon landing. My parents, brothers and I gathered in awe, our eyes glued to the black and white television in our basement to watch the fuzzy images and listen to the static audio.

As Buzz Aldrin called out the diminishing number of feet to touchdown, then announced “ … the Eagle has landed,” we all breathed sighs of relief that thus far, things were going well. We felt American pride that our astronauts were the first to the moon, and amazement that this complex endeavor could actually take place. Hours later, when Neil Armstrong descended the ladder to the surface of the moon and proclaimed his renowned “one small step” statement, we eagerly watched every bouncing step he (and later, Buzz Aldrin) took. (Weeks later, my older brother ended up shaking hands with Buzz Aldrin during a parade.) The entire moon landing seemed so surreal at the time, and it took our minds, if ever briefly, off the miseries of the Vietnam War.

Francis Yaroszeufski: I was in the U.S. Army stationed in Alaska.

July 19 1969. It was like yesterday that it happened.

Three years after the Apollo 11 landing, I ended up working at Manned Space Craft Tracking Station network on Kauai, that was part of the Apollo program support.

I arrived there as the Apollo 17 mission was ending in December of 1972

When the guys were on the moon, they left behind scientific packages, ALSEP for short. Data was downloaded from the packages.

Skylab was starting up, so for two years we supported communications for Skylab and the ALSEP packages.

Franklin Klock, Summit Hill:

In 1969, I was 6 years old. I vividly remember watching the launch, moon landing, and splashdown of Apollo 11. My father wasn’t a “science guy” but he always seemed to have his finger on the pulse of history. He knew this was a major historic event and was visibly excited about the whole thing. Wanting to be like Dad, I was excited too!

Over the years, we watched all five subsequent moon shots together on TV. My mother got involved in her own way. She brought things like Tang from the grocery store, and something called Space Food Sticks for us to eat.

To this day, when I look up to the heavens at night and see the International Space Station flying overhead, I am filled with excitement at the thought of “There are people up there!” I’m often overcome with emotion as I recall the days of watching breaking space news with my father, in front of the black and white Philco.

Now, as we observe the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s “One small step” I’m looking forward to sharing my excitement with MY son, Carter, when America again ventures to the moon with project Artemis in 2024.

Malcolm McKinsey, Effort

: In July of 1969, I was 8 about to turn 9. My father purchased the family’s first television set, a very small, black and white Zenith, so that we could watch the landing. It sat on a rickety wire television stand and depended on rabbit ears for reception, which I remember was always spotty.

Being a self-centered 8-year-old, I more or less figured the whole event was orchestrated for my birthday (July 23), and watched avidly alongside my Mom, Dad, sister and two brothers. We as a nation were launching Apollo missions all year long (Apollos 9, 10, 11, 12 all launched during 1969). I don’t think we had the television before Apollo 10; I think my practical Dad indulged because he thought the broadcast would be educational.

The television picture was not great, and some of the process (the four days to go “only” 250,000 miles, for example) simply lagged. But I still recall the thrill of knowing I was witnessing a huge moment in history: watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin step onto the moon.

That first mission, the astronauts covered less moon real estate than the infield of a major league baseball park. They were on the surface for mere hours. But it was historic. It set in motion my lifetime of interest in space and space exploration.

Howard Tokosh, Nesquehoning:

When the astronauts’ moon walk was being shown live, my wife and I were watching on the television at Long Beach Island in New Jersey. With us were my wife’s grandparents, Louis and Ida Stillman. They were born in Tsarist Russia in 1888, in a shtetl. Bubbie said it was not possible for the men to be standing on the moon, because the moon would spin around from the man’s weight and the man would go down to the bottom and fall off.

Peter Yanzsa of Cincinnati, Ohio, former Palmerton resident:

I was 12 and was fascinated by the Space Program. I followed the mission as close as any 12 year old could in 1969. No internet and no 24-hour news meant following a mission like that through the newspapers and television.

We tuned in to CBS news for the most part, following with Walter Cronkite. My newspapers were the Times News and Morning Call. I was up at all hours watching the events live, and recording them on an old reel-to-reel tape reorder. That was still 10 years before Beta and VHS recorders hit the market. The actual landing was on a Sunday, so my whole family gathered around the TV (Yes, THE TV; we only had one at the time) and watched.

Actually, we listened as there was no live TV from the moon during the actual landing. The astronauts landed late Sunday afternoon, and then left the lunar module shortly before 11 p.m. East Coast time. Even though I was only 12, I stayed up to watch the whole thing. 50 years later it is still unforgettable, but somewhat depressing that we haven’t been back since 1972. I followed all the landings as close or even closer than I did Apollo 11, though fewer and fewer folks did. I see a lot of enthusiasm for the 50th anniversary, and wish we had had some of that back during the actual landings themselves.