You would think that big events would be easy to remember. And you would go to some lengths to be sure your memory was good if you were writing for a nationally syndicated magazine.
This week's USA Weekend Magazine has a story where various celebrities recall where they were when Apollo 11 landed. Kareem Abdul-Jabar recalls visiting Trinidad during that time and says people took out their telescopes to look at the Moon since there was no television (at least he says they did not see Apollo! Our telescopes just can't do that!)
His closing line is where the problem comes in. "I'll never forget how full and bright the moon looked that night -- how much of a sense of accomplishment you felt by looking at it."
The problem is that he obviously forgot. It doesn't take much to find out the Moon phase that day was a waning crescent, not full! The Full Moon in July of 1968 occurred on the 10th, a 10 days before the Apollo Moon landing.
This memory lapse probably seems minor in the cosmic scheme of things and, well, it is. However, it would be good to bear in mind that even big events that you can "never forget" frequently happened much differently than you might remember.
Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.
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6 comments:
Well, I remember thinking 'wow!' Thank goodness I have no idea what the alignment of stars were that day!
I should have mentioned that the movie Apollo 13 got it wrong as well. They show Lovell (Hanks) looking at a full Moon the night of the Apollo 11 landing.
We were glued to the tv. Absolutely amazing!
I think I've posted about this before. I was with some friends at one's house. We were just out of high school. We were upstairs, playing cards, drinking beer, and watching on a small TV. From then on, I rarely played cards, but often drank beer.
I'll be honest, I was 8 years old and its a vague memory, I do recall that my father was mesmerized by it.
Don't we all choose to selectively change history for a few incidents in our past? ;>
I was just a couple years older than barbara/layla, I don't really recall it with great clarity either. I do know that it was a big deal. I remember for one event, my parents woke us up to witness it first hand. There was huge pride and patriotism for our accomplishments in the space program. These were heroes and heroic events in the eyes of the public.
I think we have all become so used to technology and its wonders that we don't pay enough attention when someone or something huge takes place anymore.
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