1969 European Holiday: 'MEN ON MOON'
Jul. 20th, 2019 01:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ashetlandpony20 July 1969
The whole time we were visiting the Ring of Kerry, Apollo 11 was on its way to land men on the moon, but because the area was so remote, I hadn't been able to see a thing about it yet on television. That would have to wait until we got to Limerick on the 19th.
Our reservation was at the Shannon Shamrock Hotel, in Bunratty, west of Limerick proper. We'd enjoyed our stay there in 1967, and looked forward to our return. Despite being an American-style hotel with all modern conveniences, though, the Shannon Shamrock did not have a TV in every room, at least not in 1969. Instead– like almost every hotel in the British Isles at the time– they had a public lounge where guests could go to watch television.
Florence and Mother outside the Shannon Shamrock Hotel, snapped on 21 July 1969 with my brand new camera: the absolute worst I have ever owned.
The Shannon Shamrock's TV lounge was very small, though– less than half the size of a guest room– and on the night of 20 July 1969, people were packed in there like sardines, with even more spilling out into the hallway.
When I told this story here before, I did say we were watching the reports of Apollo 11 on the BBC, but more likely it was Irish Television, RTÉ. Whichever, it was vastly inferior to any space mission coverage I'd ever seen in the US. The was no video feed, nor even any audio feed, just a commentator sitting in a giant transparent inflatable chair, uttering banalities whilst pressing his finger to an earpiece and relaying reports to us on-air.
From time to time, he'd pause and say things like, "Stand by!", or "Any moment now, any moment now!", but when he finally issued forth with the announcement that the lunar module had landed, all that happened was one of those early chyron-type things popped up at the bottom of the screen with big white capital letters reading, "MEN ON MOON."
Cheers and clapping ensued from those assembled, but once the landing had been announced, I couldn't get out of that crowded, cigarette-smoke-filled room fast enough. I went outside into the fresh air, and looked out at the moon setting in the west and thought to myself, there are men actually there right now. There would be more moon missions to come, of course, but none would ever send tingles up my spine like that first time, 50 years ago tonight, in Bunratty, Ireland.
The whole time we were visiting the Ring of Kerry, Apollo 11 was on its way to land men on the moon, but because the area was so remote, I hadn't been able to see a thing about it yet on television. That would have to wait until we got to Limerick on the 19th.
Our reservation was at the Shannon Shamrock Hotel, in Bunratty, west of Limerick proper. We'd enjoyed our stay there in 1967, and looked forward to our return. Despite being an American-style hotel with all modern conveniences, though, the Shannon Shamrock did not have a TV in every room, at least not in 1969. Instead– like almost every hotel in the British Isles at the time– they had a public lounge where guests could go to watch television.
Florence and Mother outside the Shannon Shamrock Hotel, snapped on 21 July 1969 with my brand new camera: the absolute worst I have ever owned.
The Shannon Shamrock's TV lounge was very small, though– less than half the size of a guest room– and on the night of 20 July 1969, people were packed in there like sardines, with even more spilling out into the hallway.
When I told this story here before, I did say we were watching the reports of Apollo 11 on the BBC, but more likely it was Irish Television, RTÉ. Whichever, it was vastly inferior to any space mission coverage I'd ever seen in the US. The was no video feed, nor even any audio feed, just a commentator sitting in a giant transparent inflatable chair, uttering banalities whilst pressing his finger to an earpiece and relaying reports to us on-air.
From time to time, he'd pause and say things like, "Stand by!", or "Any moment now, any moment now!", but when he finally issued forth with the announcement that the lunar module had landed, all that happened was one of those early chyron-type things popped up at the bottom of the screen with big white capital letters reading, "MEN ON MOON."
Cheers and clapping ensued from those assembled, but once the landing had been announced, I couldn't get out of that crowded, cigarette-smoke-filled room fast enough. I went outside into the fresh air, and looked out at the moon setting in the west and thought to myself, there are men actually there right now. There would be more moon missions to come, of course, but none would ever send tingles up my spine like that first time, 50 years ago tonight, in Bunratty, Ireland.
