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One Small Question — Where Were You?

To those of you who were around on June 20, 1969, here’s the question: where were you when Neil Armstrong stepped on the lunar surface at almost 11 o’clock (EDT) that night? Monday marks the 40th anniversary of that event, and the “where were you question” is an obvious one. We have one answer already. Marc James Small, a member of the Class of 1972 from Chester, Va., was spending the summer of ’69 in Lexington. He wrote to the Alumni Magazine recently with his moon landing story. It seems that Marc’s TV set went dead on the morning of the 20th, which was going to mean he’d miss out on the live telecast of the big event. He happened to mention that to a lab assistant — fellow named Ted DeLaney, now head of the history department at W&L. As Marc wrote: “He and I have generally disagreed on a lot of issues but, in the end, Prof. DeLaney is a true W&L gentleman, and I do appreciate his kindness that night in a magic summer.” Any other memories out there of the moon landing? For instance, was anybody else watching in a tent while serving as a counselor for an Ohio Boy Scout camp? And for those of you with no memory of the event, here’s the link to the restored NASA video on YouTube.