I remember Apollo XI

This is more about getting a thread going, than elaborating on my own
experiences.
I was thirteen at the time. At the launch, if not one of the other
missions, reporters were interviewing "Charlie Brown" who was supposed
to be about 120 years old and a former slave. Watching the rocket take
off, he asked "what keeps that thing up there?" I thought, that's
actually a good question if you don't know about escape velocity.

While watching that first landing on TV, I had a common "this is really
neat!" attitude but also thinking how much it cost. It was shown around
three AM since I was in Germany. The first step being made by another
"Neil" was cool too. Even as I heard "One small step for [?] man, one
giant leap for mankind" I was thinking: it's almost a great line but
doesn't sound quite right, he needed to say "for a man, ..." Also, the
chicks seemed left out, why not say "for all humankind? Heh, will
controversy over that line ever end? The controversy over what we
should do now may never end either ... Is that Ares rocket really as
flawed as some people say? It's controversial. To think, we just
can't seem to get our act together.

BTW this is IMHO a good overview and assessment piece by Michio Kaku on
what happened then and later, and what it means now:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/16/apo...rss_popstories.