Moon landing 50th anniversary: Lehigh Valley residents recall being in awe

Saturday will mark the 50th anniversary of when Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon in what was perhaps the most astonishing news event of the 20th century.

It happened on July 20, 1969, a Sunday, and for many readers of The Express-Times, the daily newspaper affiliated with lehighvalleylive.com, their memories of that moment are so vivid that it might as well have happened yesterday.

We asked readers to share those memories and the response was overwhelming. Here they are:

“I had just started a new job a few months before for a Somerville husband and wife law firm. I was their only employee at the time. I was late to work because I was mesmerized by the once-in-a-lifetime event. I couldn’t tear myself away from the TV. So I took my chances and stayed to watch one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.' My employers were wonderful and I didn’t lose my job.”

Rosalyn A. Metzger, Bethlehem

“On July 20, 1969, my father, Chris Amato, and I were at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia watching a Phillies game. At the start of the seventh inning, the public address announcer came on saying, ‘Ladies and gentleman, may I have your attention please … the United States has just landed on the moon!’ There was thunderous applause and the announcer again came on to say, ‘Please stand and join in the singing of our natural anthem!’ Just looking around at the capacity crowd, there were smiles, high fives and tears … all of us truly sharing a very emotional moment in our country’s history!”

Pete Amato, Bethlehem Township

“July 20, 1969, found me in the midst of what was laughingly referred to as ‘ROTC Summer Camp’ at Indiantown Gap Military Reservation. It was, in fact, basic training for Army officers. Oh, the joy of having a college diploma in one hand and orders for Vietnam in the other. That night, I was on guard duty over a parking lot. Viet Cong infiltrators were everywhere in those days, even in rural Pennsylvania. It was a beautiful clear night. The moon was full. The fact that two Americans were walking on the moon at that very moment with no guarantee that they could return made my problems seem minuscule by comparison.”

— Ed Dufton, Easton

"I was on a trip to Germany with other students from Northampton and Bangor high schools, organized by our German teachers. We were in a hotel in Hanover, I believe, watching the landing on their only TV in the hotel lobby. The crowd erupted in a spontaneous standing ovation. I felt a very unique sense of pride, not only in the U.S., but also in humanity and our potential for greatness.

— Angyne Schock-Smith, originally from Northampton (Class of 1969), now living in Harmony Township

"I was a recent Lafayette College graduate working a summer engineering job at Pfizer, Inc. in Easton, prior to starting graduate school. Because the landing was expected to be in the middle of the night, Pfizer announced all employees would have July 21 off with pay. Even though the landing was much earlier on July 20, everyone still got the day off with pay. My wife and I watched, transfixed, along with hundreds of millions of others. We were mostly speechless, trying to comprehend what we were seeing. Until his death in 1990, my father-in-law insisted the whole thing was staged in a television studio.

— Terry Lee, Williams Township

“The summer of 1969, I was an exchange student living in a small coastal village in Finland called Viasvesi. I was gathered with my host family around a small black-and-white television watching the astronauts place the American flag on the moon with the commentator announcing Apollo “Yksitoista,” or eleven in Finnish. We all cheered together. I haven’t retained much Finnish but this number, yksitoista, has been embedded in my brain!”

— Sue Kell, Phillipsburg

When man first stepped on the moon, I was in the United States Air Force stationed at Kadena, Air Base, Okinawa. I believe it was a Saturday. I was with my friends Wash (short for Washington) and Al. We were in a barracks room watching it on television. All I could say was ‘wow.’ I don’t think we did any special celebrating. To me, it was a good feeling to be part of an establishment that could do practically anything if it had a mind to really do it."

— H. Michael Swint, Easton

“On July 20, 1969, myself and two brothers and one of my sisters sat on the living room floor in front of the TV. It was my 11th birthday. We were all eating ice cream with my mom and dad. I remember my dad saying watch carefully, because history is being made.”

— Patricia Ann Van Syckle, Franklin Township, Warren County

“I was 18 years old in 1969 at my parents’ house in Woodbridge, New Jersey. I took pictures with my dad’s camera off the television of Armstrong and Aldrin on the moon. After 50 years they’ve faded but they’re still interesting to look at.”

— Bruce Eppensteiner, Wind Gap

“My wife and I were on our first honeymoon after 1½ years of marriage. To paraphrase Johnny Cash, ‘It was Gatlinburg in mid July,’ — July 20, 1969. We were walking down a street past a TV store when my wife heard the moon landing on a black-and-white TV. We joined a gathering of people and watched as ‘That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind’ occurred. JFK dreamed we would be on the moon by the end of the decade. His dream had come true. I was a Vietnam War vet who dreamed of doing his duty for my country. Here was man’s reach for the stars, surely a dream as old as man. Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech sought a better future for all of mankind. My wife and I were dreaming of a better life and working toward it by going to college. Dreams really are what they are made up to be. The moon landing was just another example of what happens when you believe in the future, not the hate of the past. Fifty years later, we still feel this way.”

— Rick and Dorcey Winant, Easton

“On July 20, 1969, I was working as charge nurse (RN) at St. Clare’s Emergency Room in Denville, New Jersey. I was fortunate enough to be able to get a portable TV to bring to the ER for my 3-11 p.m. shift. This was back in the time when TVs had antennas built into them. My recollection is that the landing came on TV about 9 p.m. Everyone went into the waiting room and watched the landing with great awe. It was then that I decided I wanted to be the first RN in space … I did change my mind after the lost Challenger incident.”

— Laura Rothkopf, Easton

"Big City Music Band often played at Mountain Lake House in New Jersey. We were fortunate to be playing there at this time. The blind organ player, Clair Fox, usually played on the ‘off’ nights, but he was with us and we described the landing for him. It was more crowded than normal due to the Moon landing. The band huddled around the small TV at the bar. After the moon landing we were so excited, we all jumped into the lake. ‘One small step for man, one giant step for mankind.’

— Rudy Blomstrom, Hellertown

The Amsterdam restaurant’s television was turned to face the storefront window. I interrupted my evening’s search for another night’s hostel bed to join the growing sidewalk audience. It must have been my faded blue jeans and shoulder-length hair that gave away my nationality because I was welcomed into their company with approving nods and warm smiles of acknowledgment. Together we watched in shared silence as the picture’s grainy gray and white image carried us onto the moon’s surface. The moment Neil Armstrong’s boot settled into the lunar sandy soil, a collective cheer of celebration and relief rang out. Then something special happened. I was suddenly surrounded with hugs, hand-claps, backslaps and kisses. I had become Neil Armstrong for my fellow international travelers. We landed our sidewalk spaceship together. I walked on the moon for them. I never before felt so proud to be an American."

— Robert Wise, Lebanon

“My then-husband and I were huddled awestruck in front of a tiny black-and-white TV, watching the moon landing in an apartment rented for the month a few miles north of Palmerton, Pennsylvania. I was a PhD student at Rutgers University, investigating the effects of pollution from the New Jersey Zinc smelters in Palmerton on the forests of Blue Mountain. I spent the summer gathering data on the densities of trees, saplings and seedlings, and abundance of shrubs and wildflowers, at a half-dozen sites along the Blue Mountain ridge top from Fox Gap to Dan’s Pulpit. The moon landing was the most memorable field day of my four years of research.”

— Marilyn Jordan, Bethlehem

“When man first walked on the moon I was with family as it was a Sunday. It was customary to go to Grandpop John Sipos’ house at 637 Warren St., Phillipsburg, to keep him company as he was recently widowed. He was 92 then and spoke his native Hungarian more than English. So all the family — my parents, myself, aunts, uncles and cousins — gathered to watch this event on his old black-and-white TV in the dining room. Everyone was amazed and excited about what we were witnessing except Grandpop Sipos. He never believed it was real then and never changed his mind. He died in 1972 at age 95. I celebrated by purchasing a Snoopy Astronaut doll, along with many special issue magazines of ‘Look,’ ‘Life,’ ‘Newsweek’ — all of which I still have today. The next day I met my Moravian College 1968 classmates at Moravian College and all were abuzz about it. It was a thrilling time to be alive and witness the event!”

— Maryann Ignat, Phillipsburg

“My bride-to-be and I were at Johnson’s farm just outside Belvidere at the annual Phillipsburg Post Office picnic. We had the radio on and listened to the local news broadcast on the imminent landing on the moon. When it happened, we all cheered and toasted the event. It added much excitement to our picnic.”

— Jim and Carol Mineo, Palmer Township

I was behind the wheel of a 1969 Dodge Dart Swinger in Lavallette, New Jersey, with my old friend, Joe. We were driving up and down Route 35 hoping to find his girlfriend, who was on vacation with her parents. He was determined to find her, so I soldiered on, trying to see the road and traffic through the windshield as the wipers did their rhythmic sashay, pushing the rainwater out of my field of vision. But the real reason that I remember that night so well was because of what was on the radio. It was play-by-play live coverage of the moon landing. The static on the radio due to the poor weather of that night made the faint dialog between NASA and the astronauts even more difficult to understand, but I did hear the voices of those astronauts and technicians as they were making history. We didn’t find Joe’s girlfriend that night, but that doesn’t matter. Either two or three years later, they were married. In fact, they are still married, and they have eight grandchildren. That’s one small step for man, eight giant leaps for Joe."

— Jonathan Womelsdorf, Lopatcong Township

“My parents made me and my four siblings, aged 10 (twins), 8, 7 and 6, stay awake the night Neil Armstrong walked on the moon to ‘watch history,’ as they told us. We could barely keep our eyes open as it was past our bedtime. Our mom and dad kept waking us if we started to fall asleep. They told us we would never forget what we were seeing, but we did not appreciate the moon landing at that time. We were just tired and cranky. As soon it was over, we went to bed! To this day I appreciate that our parents made us witness this historic event in our nation’s history.”

— Jill Reuter, Nazareth

"Fifty years ago, when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, I was working at Ideal Fashions, a blouse factory in Pen Argyl. My employer, John Cesare, announced, that anyone who would like to watch the landing could go home and return back to work after viewing the event. Most employees left and returned. What a great gesture on my employer’s part! I always remember that my employer felt this was important for history and future generations.

— Faith Getz, Nazareth

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