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  Apollo 11: What did you save (and keep)

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Author Topic:   Apollo 11: What did you save (and keep)
Gilbert
Member

Posts: 1427
From: Carrollton, GA USA
Registered: Jan 2003

posted 07-21-2009 02:35 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Gilbert   Click Here to Email Gilbert     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
In July 1969, everyone thought that items related to Apollo 11 would be "valuable some day." Well "some day" is here.

Most of what I saved is not valuable. The following items have been jealously hoarded-guarded by me for 40 years and an appraisal for the combined lot might be $150. (Because most are in excellent condition)

  1. Life Magazine special issue
  2. Look Magazine special issue
  3. Time Magazine issues
  4. TV Guide
  5. Shell Oil giveaway "We Came in Peace"
  6. Various pinback buttons
  7. View-Master set
  8. Instant paperback "We Reach the Moon"
  9. Time-Life album and book slipcased set
  10. Replica mission patches (vintage)
  11. Bronze Apollo 11 coin
I realize that I chose items that were in abundant supply and still are. However, I would not part with any of them. I was wondering what other people who were old enough to remember the event actually saved.

SBIV-B
Member

Posts: 50
From: Dacula, GA USA
Registered: Aug 2008

posted 07-21-2009 03:01 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for SBIV-B     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I do still have the Life Magazine Special on the flight — right here in my office.

Considering the detail we crave as space enthusiasts, it is a little short in that area, but I liked the pages showing the manned launches of both U.S. and Russian flights up to Apollo 11. Very informative for a 9 year old at the time!

spaceman1953
Member

Posts: 953
From: South Bend, IN
Registered: Apr 2002

posted 07-21-2009 04:04 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for spaceman1953   Click Here to Email spaceman1953     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I was a newspaper boy, so I always had cash from my efforts. Those were the days!

I bought a Revell Saturn V model as a Christmas present to myself in 1968, and even though my model putting-together skills were surely lacking, I bought it anyway. The store did free gift-wrapping and free being my favorite price, I had them wrap it!

I ordered the Time-Life set and played the first album to pieces. That music so entranced me.

I kept the local South Bend Tribune newspapers. They had huge red ink headlines for the moon landing and the splashdown. They are even shown in the book "All We Did Was Fly to the Moon."

My family made a trip to Wapakoneta that very fall. Got stuff there including copies of the local newspaper where they printed "Nail (sic) steps on the Moon" in the lead article. We drove by 912 Neil Armstrong Drive and saw his dad taking out the trash. My parents wouldn't let me out of the car!

My uncle took me and a cousin to Chicago for the huge ceremony on August 13. That was a thrill I will never forget (he just had an 80th birthday and wonders how that happened!), and I did, several years ago, tell him how much I appreciated that and that I kept up with the space program even more so after that. But we did not get one souvenir from that event other than taking pictures.

Thanks for the memories!

Mike Dixon
Member

Posts: 1605
From: Kew, Victoria, Australia
Registered: May 2003

posted 07-21-2009 06:32 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Mike Dixon   Click Here to Email Mike Dixon     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
That special edition of LIFE together with the wonderful book "We Reach the Moon," taught a young 15 year old kid in Australia just about everything he wanted to know.

Still got 'em too.

Blackarrow
Member

Posts: 3419
From: Belfast, United Kingdom
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 07-21-2009 09:02 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Blackarrow     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Gilbert:
Most of what I saved is not valuable.
On the contrary, the items you have listed (and similar items I also kept) are priceless. I hope they will outlive us and survive to delight others.

I am particularly happy to have a collection of American and British (original) newspapers covering Apollo 11. The yellowing colour, the texture and the slightly musty smell of the London "Times" and the "New York Times" have a real power to transport you back in time (40 years now).

Fra Mauro
Member

Posts: 1739
From: Bethpage, N.Y.
Registered: Jul 2002

posted 07-21-2009 11:43 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Fra Mauro   Click Here to Email Fra Mauro     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I kept many items, the entire New York Times newspaper plus the headlines of the local New York dailies. Life, Look and TV Guide as well.

I was at the ticker tape parade and have a pennant, an Apollo 11 button and a piece of ticker tape.

Jay Chladek
Member

Posts: 2272
From: Bellevue, NE, USA
Registered: Aug 2007

posted 07-22-2009 12:23 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jay Chladek   Click Here to Email Jay Chladek     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Even though I wasn't around in 1969, I do have two Apollo 11 items from that period that I treasure. One is an Apollo 11 themed candy dish my mom got for me at a garage sale for practically nothing, it is in great shape.

The second is an unbuilt first edition Monogram Saturn V model kit. It was shrink wrapped, but I took that off so I could drink in the details internally. The parts are still bagged though.

MadSci
Member

Posts: 243
From: Maryland, USA
Registered: Oct 2008

posted 07-26-2009 08:02 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for MadSci     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I have a yellowing copy of the Toronto Star with the moon landing being the big headline.

I also spent much of the day of the landing drawing the lunar module, a priceless work of art which I have also kept to remind me of how much an act like that can bring a child into an adult experience or event.

Now I have watched my kids doing the same thing for other major events in the grownup world, and I smile knowingly.

CEKebalo
Member

Posts: 18
From: Winnipeg, MB, CA
Registered: Jun 2021

posted 03-07-2022 04:26 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for CEKebalo   Click Here to Email CEKebalo     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I spent some time during a slow afternoon at the office, going through many of the older posts in this forum, and wanted to share a response on this topic.

My Dad recently showed me a few old newspaper articles that he has kept (not in pristine condition by any means) throughout the years. In the batch were these from The Winnipeg Free Press, where he was also working at the time. I framed them to try and salvage what what was left of them! They do look wonderful on my wall and have a great story behind them coming from my Dad after all these years.

Blackarrow
Member

Posts: 3419
From: Belfast, United Kingdom
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 03-07-2022 05:08 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Blackarrow     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I see I was one of the contributors to this thread almost 13 years ago (how time flies!)

In addition to the items I previously mentioned, I should add that I still treasure a Penguin paperback I bought shortly after Apollo 11, "The Invasion of the Moon 1969" by Peter Ryan. It's still a useful chronology of the mission time-line.

I also have a set of scribbled notes which I made (mostly without taking my eyes off the TV screen) to record the lunar landing and Armstrong's descent to the surface of the Moon. I correctly noted "Tranquillity Base here, the Eagle has landed" and "One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for Mankind."

I bitterly regret that I didn't set up my cassette tape-recorder to record the landing live, and the first steps. I knew the recordings would inevitably be interrupted by members of my family reacting to the events, and I thought that would ruin it! I was a little too young to understand that there would come a time when the excited interjections of since-deceased parents would actually be the important thing about the recording. Like the BBC (which later wiped its Apollo 11 tapes) I felt that "NASA has it all on tape" and would have a record of the mission uninterrupted by family chatter.

Mike Dixon
Member

Posts: 1605
From: Kew, Victoria, Australia
Registered: May 2003

posted 03-07-2022 06:25 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Mike Dixon   Click Here to Email Mike Dixon     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Yep, two versions of "Invasion" — one covering Apollo 11, the second updated to include pics from Apollo 12.

randy
Member

Posts: 2553
From: West Jordan, Utah USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 03-07-2022 08:53 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for randy   Click Here to Email randy     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote

Here is a list of some of the things I've kept from Apollo 11:
  • Apollo 11 lunar plaque replica
  • Commemorative record of Apollo 11 flight
  • Launch cover cancelled on July 16, 1969 at KSC
  • Recovery cover cancelled July 24, 1969 at KSC
  • Neil Armstrong autographed picture of Buzz Aldrin
  • Log of Apollo 11
  • Wood medallion from Wapakoneta, Ohio
  • "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." containing a transcript of the conversation between Pres. Nixon and Neil and Buzz and a philatelic memento containing a first day of issue of the First Man on the Moon cancelled on July 20, 1969 and Sept. 9, 1969 in Washington, D.C.
  • A set of five Apollo 11 slides
  • Columbia Pictures 8mm home movie of Apollo 11
  • Some Man on the Moon postcards
  • A folder of eight color 8x10s of the flight
  • Moonlighter 33 1/3 rpm record
  • Apollo 11 Mission Report
  • A reprint of the New York Times from July 20, 1969
  • The Life Magazine Special Edition "To the Moon and Back"
  • Life Commemorative Neil Armstrong
  • "Touchdown on the Moon" Apollo 11 Special
  • U.S. Navy Recovery Force stamped envelope cancelled on the Hornet on July 24, 1969 when Columbia was recovered that says Apollo 11-
    AS506-Manned Lunar Landing
  • A commemorative medallion that has a picture on the front of Buzz Aldrin facing the flag and it says "The Eagle has landed - July 20, 1969" and on the back it says "This medallion contains metal from spacecrafts Columbia and Eagle that took Astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins on their historic Apollo 11 mission that resulted in the fist landing of man on the Moon."
  • "The Return" signed by Buzz and a Michael Collins cut signature

Spacecraft Films Apollo 11 boxed set.

Kite
Member

Posts: 1016
From: Northampton UK
Registered: Nov 2009

posted 03-08-2022 05:45 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Kite     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I too had "The Invasion of the Moon 1969" by Peter Ryan which explains it all so simply and well with great diagrammes and scripts, plus a short history. It is a bit dilapidated now after being lent out a few times but still keep it as a souvenir of that momentous event.

CEKebalo
Member

Posts: 18
From: Winnipeg, MB, CA
Registered: Jun 2021

posted 03-08-2022 08:45 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for CEKebalo   Click Here to Email CEKebalo     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Blackarrow:
I was a little too young to understand that there would come a time when the excited interjections of since-deceased parents would actually be the important thing about the recording.
I especially appreciated this part of your response.

Grounded!
Member

Posts: 486
From: Bennington, Vermont, USA
Registered: Feb 2011

posted 03-08-2022 01:47 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Grounded!   Click Here to Email Grounded!     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I have the Time Life boxed record set, the copy of National Geographic for Apollo 11 (with the record inside), some drink tumblers and probably a few other items.

The best thing I have from the mission is the memory of sitting with my grandfather in his living room and watching Neil descend the ladder... along with the national pride we both felt on that day.

All times are CT (US)

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