The Moon Landing – Exeter Residents Respond
by Barbara Rimkunas
This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, July 19, 2019.
In the week leading up to the historic moon landing in 1969, New Hampshire’s Squam Lakes Science Center announced the arrival of a “pure white woodchuck.” “It is doubtful that ‘Alby’ (as the woodchuck was quickly named), born in this spring, could have survived long in the wild without the protective coloration that would normally have been his birthright.” Albinism is so rare in woodchucks, that the center called it a “thousands-to-one long shot.” Luckily for New Hampshire folks, Alby could be seen in the small-mammal hut on the Gephart nature trail. If you were a keen reader of the Exeter News-Letter in 1969, summertime was a time to leave the paper aside. There was usually little news. The front page that week wasn’t an excited discussion of the impending moon walk, it was the usual chatter about taxes, sewers, traffic in the downtown and the upcoming “Fireman’s Week” parade and carnival. The Ioka was showing Support Your Local Sheriff, a comedy western featuring James Garner. Showtimes were “Friday and Sunday at 8, Twice Saturday at 7 and 9” and (with an asterisk), “if it rains Saturday or Sunday – there will be a matinee at 2 pm.”
Summer seems like a sleepy time, but actually it’s when people are quite busy. Peter Barlow had just graduated from Exeter High School and had started a summer semester at the Bowman Technical School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He remembers watching the moon landing in a classroom crowded with students. But as he thought it over – the moon landing had taken place on a Sunday night just before 11pm – he thinks that, perhaps, they were watching a replay on Monday afternoon. Coverage of the event lasted over 24 hours.
Betty Tufts Kreger, who was 72 years old, had just returned from a week at camp. Even though she spent most of the week playing scrabble and canoeing, she recorded in her diary that on July 16th she’d “for a second watched moon blast-off.” Back in Exeter by the 20th, she didn’t stay up late to watch the moon walk. She waited for coverage on Monday. She wrote across the top of her entry for July 21st “Man landed on moon.” Later in the day, maybe because she didn’t own a TV, she “walked to Ann’s. Watched astronauts from noon till 5:40!” Even though she spent over five hours watching coverage, she wasn’t idle, “played 3 games of scrabble, too. Beat 2” because you wouldn’t want to interrupt your summer Scrabble sessions by watching the boob tube.
Exeter resident Richard Cole wasn’t in town. He was on a midshipman’s cruise with the Navy. He heard the updates throughout the ship. Bob Schur, another Exeter townie, was working as a camp counselor at Camp Sentinel in Tuftonboro. Although he had to be up early the next morning, he watched the moon walk live on a small black and white portable TV on the porch. He would have had the perfect vantage point to glance from the TV to the moon.
Vicki Geis got to stay up late with her two brothers. She recalls she, “watched it live with my siblings all sitting on the floor in the living room in front of the TV. My parents must have been sitting behind us on the couch but I was glued to the TV – the image was pretty snowy but it was clear enough to see the astronaut bounce on to the moon.” Vicki Lukas, who, like Peter Barlow had just graduated from high school, was allowed to stay up. “My parents were both working full time, and did not stay up late before a work day. I wanted to watch the landing, and was told I could IF I kept the sound on the TV down. I remember watching in the dark – I was watching the grainy image on a black and white TV and thought the resolution was better this way. It felt like the middle of the night when the images finally came across, and I was quite excited – but had no one to share this with in the moment.”
Bette Henneberry watched from Exeter Hospital, where she was recovering from gall bladder surgery. Her children had been parceled out to friends and family.
Ron Klemarczyk, a member of Boy Scout Troop 323, left Sunday morning for Camp Carpenter in Londonderry for a week-long encampment. The troop’s photo appeared in the newspaper on July 24th and had us wondering whether the boys missed the moonwalk. This seemed unlikely since Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, was an Eagle Scout. Vicki Lukas tracked down Ron, who told us, “Yes, we got to see the moon landing while at Camp Carpenter. They announced at dinner that they would be bringing a portable TV to the Dining Hall later that evening and the entire camp (250 to 300 Boy scouts and adults) watched the landing on the portable TV which was quite small for the size for the crowd. It was surrealistic in many ways, including staying up past the blowing of Taps at 9:00pm, which usually signaled lights out and no talking; being in the dining hall at night with the lights out so we could see the TV; the utter silence for a normally boisterous crowd as the video from the moon came on; and then the wild cheering that broke out when Neil Armstrong stepped down onto the moon.”
From earth, the moon that night was just a sliver – a waxing crescent. But like the Boy Scouts at Camp Carpenter, most who watched felt something. Jim Lovell had orbited the moon the previous December. He recalled, “At one point I sighted the earth with my thumb – and my thumb from that distance fit over the entire planet. I realized how insignificant we all are if everything I’d ever known is behind my thumb.” From Exeter, back on planet earth, Vicki Geis observed, “We did go outside to look at the moon that night and several nights after still in awe.”
Barbara Rimkunas, who watched the moon landing in Ridgewood, NY at Grandma Hahn’s house, is curator of the Exeter Historical Society. She missed out on seeing Alby the Albino Woodchuck. Support the Exeter Historical Society by becoming a member! Join online at: www.exeterhistory.org
Image: Boy Scout Troop 323 pauses for a photo on the morning of July 20, 1969. They watched fellow Scout, Neil Armstrong, take the first steps on the moon from Camp Carpenter in Londonderry. L – R in front, are: Rene Valiquet, Michael Blenk and David Chenerert. Second row: Kevin Conklin, Bradley Sullivan, William Duhamel, William Gallant, Caroll Carbonneau, Stephen Klemarczyk and Richard Brown. Back row: James Simmons, Gary Morel, Stephen Brown, James Klemarczyk, Scoutmaster William Smith, Richard Page, Marc Lavigne and Ronald Klemarczyk
This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, July 19, 2019.
In the week leading up to the historic moon landing in 1969, New Hampshire’s Squam Lakes Science Center announced the arrival of a “pure white woodchuck.” “It is doubtful that ‘Alby’ (as the woodchuck was quickly named), born in this spring, could have survived long in the wild without the protective coloration that would normally have been his birthright.” Albinism is so rare in woodchucks, that the center called it a “thousands-to-one long shot.” Luckily for New Hampshire folks, Alby could be seen in the small-mammal hut on the Gephart nature trail. If you were a keen reader of the Exeter News-Letter in 1969, summertime was a time to leave the paper aside. There was usually little news. The front page that week wasn’t an excited discussion of the impending moon walk, it was the usual chatter about taxes, sewers, traffic in the downtown and the upcoming “Fireman’s Week” parade and carnival. The Ioka was showing Support Your Local Sheriff, a comedy western featuring James Garner. Showtimes were “Friday and Sunday at 8, Twice Saturday at 7 and 9” and (with an asterisk), “if it rains Saturday or Sunday – there will be a matinee at 2 pm.”
Summer seems like a sleepy time, but actually it’s when people are quite busy. Peter Barlow had just graduated from Exeter High School and had started a summer semester at the Bowman Technical School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He remembers watching the moon landing in a classroom crowded with students. But as he thought it over – the moon landing had taken place on a Sunday night just before 11pm – he thinks that, perhaps, they were watching a replay on Monday afternoon. Coverage of the event lasted over 24 hours.
Betty Tufts Kreger, who was 72 years old, had just returned from a week at camp. Even though she spent most of the week playing scrabble and canoeing, she recorded in her diary that on July 16th she’d “for a second watched moon blast-off.” Back in Exeter by the 20th, she didn’t stay up late to watch the moon walk. She waited for coverage on Monday. She wrote across the top of her entry for July 21st “Man landed on moon.” Later in the day, maybe because she didn’t own a TV, she “walked to Ann’s. Watched astronauts from noon till 5:40!” Even though she spent over five hours watching coverage, she wasn’t idle, “played 3 games of scrabble, too. Beat 2” because you wouldn’t want to interrupt your summer Scrabble sessions by watching the boob tube.
Exeter resident Richard Cole wasn’t in town. He was on a midshipman’s cruise with the Navy. He heard the updates throughout the ship. Bob Schur, another Exeter townie, was working as a camp counselor at Camp Sentinel in Tuftonboro. Although he had to be up early the next morning, he watched the moon walk live on a small black and white portable TV on the porch. He would have had the perfect vantage point to glance from the TV to the moon.
Vicki Geis got to stay up late with her two brothers. She recalls she, “watched it live with my siblings all sitting on the floor in the living room in front of the TV. My parents must have been sitting behind us on the couch but I was glued to the TV – the image was pretty snowy but it was clear enough to see the astronaut bounce on to the moon.” Vicki Lukas, who, like Peter Barlow had just graduated from high school, was allowed to stay up. “My parents were both working full time, and did not stay up late before a work day. I wanted to watch the landing, and was told I could IF I kept the sound on the TV down. I remember watching in the dark – I was watching the grainy image on a black and white TV and thought the resolution was better this way. It felt like the middle of the night when the images finally came across, and I was quite excited – but had no one to share this with in the moment.”
From earth, the moon that night was just a sliver – a waxing crescent. But like the Boy Scouts at Camp Carpenter, most who watched felt something. Jim Lovell had orbited the moon the previous December. He recalled, “At one point I sighted the earth with my thumb – and my thumb from that distance fit over the entire planet. I realized how insignificant we all are if everything I’d ever known is behind my thumb.” From Exeter, back on planet earth, Vicki Geis observed, “We did go outside to look at the moon that night and several nights after still in awe.”
Barbara Rimkunas, who watched the moon landing in Ridgewood, NY at Grandma Hahn’s house, is curator of the Exeter Historical Society. She missed out on seeing Alby the Albino Woodchuck. Support the Exeter Historical Society by becoming a member! Join online at: www.exeterhistory.org
Image: Boy Scout Troop 323 pauses for a photo on the morning of July 20, 1969. They watched fellow Scout, Neil Armstrong, take the first steps on the moon from Camp Carpenter in Londonderry. L – R in front, are: Rene Valiquet, Michael Blenk and David Chenerert. Second row: Kevin Conklin, Bradley Sullivan, William Duhamel, William Gallant, Caroll Carbonneau, Stephen Klemarczyk and Richard Brown. Back row: James Simmons, Gary Morel, Stephen Brown, James Klemarczyk, Scoutmaster William Smith, Richard Page, Marc Lavigne and Ronald Klemarczyk
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