1969. Looking for the Footprints on the Moon.

Me, September 1969.
Yearbook picture.

[First published July 16, 2019. Edited July 20, 2024]

I was 16 years old in 1969 when three American astronauts went to our Moon on Apollo 11 and two of them walked on the Moon. Like most 16-year-olds across time, I was focussed on my own little world which consisted of family, friends, church, and school. I didn’t have a boyfriend and see-sawed between hating boys and being obsessed with them. Learning to drive and getting a driver’s license was a major preoccupation. I was aware of world events of course. My family watched the nightly news. We had intense dinner-table conversations about politics and the Vietnam War. I was a terrible student. I really hated school. But I read a lot and I wanted to be a writer so I kept a journal. I recorded my life events on my calendar and scrapbook, and recorded my thoughts about my life in a journal. Meanwhile, I wanted to become a summer-camp counselor. I started going to summer sleepaway camps as a Camp Fire Girl when I was 10. Becoming a camp counselor was my 16 year-old dream for what I wanted to be until I could grow up and become a writer.

   In 1969 most of my friends had part-time jobs for the summer and spent hours at the beach. I spent most of my summer as a volunteer — not to get service hours for school, but just because volunteering was what I did. Some of it was related to my work with Camp Fire Girls. I volunteered at Head Start; with pre-school programs at the San Diego Zoo; as an usher at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre; and as a counselor-in-training at a YMCA camp. I had spent the Spring in a sort of pre-C.I.T. program sponsored by the YMCA and was thrilled when they selected me as part of group for a session at their Camp Marston in the Cuyamaca Mountains of Julian, California, near San Diego. My session started on July 18. Then I was asked to stay for a second session.

Camp Marston aerial view, from their web site. "Star Meadow" in foreground.

   During this 2019 Apollo 11 50th Anniversary year, the media is full of stories about the mission, many of which begin with Neil Armstrong’s famous words when they landed or when he first stepped on our Moon. But I didn’t actually witness the Apollo 11 Moon landing with the rest of the world on TV, or see Armstrong’s famous first steps; or even hear his famous words on the radio. Apollo 11 launched on July 16. I left for camp on July 18. 

  But somehow, even in the days before cell phones, the internet or even cable tv, much of the news of the world still filtered through to camp. In fact, we often played a “What is happening in the world?” game. We knew Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins were on their way to the Moon before we arrived at camp; and that they went into lunar orbit on the 19th. Somehow, we also heard that they had safely landed and “walked on the moon” on the 20th and 21st; and then safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on the 24th. 

   I returned home on August 1 and jumped right back into my summer volunteer activities at Head Start and the Old Globe, and a few beach parties with friends. And then there was an epic family cross-country road-trip from San Diego to New York City to DC to Rhode Island to Chicago to home — August 21 to September 3. But that’s another story.

My family, visiting cousins in Rhode Island, 1969. That's me in the white blouse, kneeling second from left.

Here’s my own Apollo 11 Footprints on the Moon memory:

   As C.I.T.’s we were assigned to 14 different cabins. I was with very young 1st and 2nd grade campers who were asleep in their sleeping bags fairly early every night. However as CITs we would get some free time to gather together for relaxation and planning. We decided to gather out on what we called “STAR MEADOW” — which really was a meadow turned into athletic fields — to have our own private footprints on the moon observation and celebration.

   We gathered late one night out on Star Meadow. We lay down in the grass and stared up at the sky, imagining that we could see the footprints on the Moon.

   Here’s the funny part: If you look at lunar phase charts for July 1969, you can see that there’s little chance we could even see the Moon on most of those nights at camp. We probably saw lots of stars and maybe even the full Moon on the 28th. Clearly, we had very active and vivid imaginations. And it wasn’t until years later, that I realized that there was a reason I couldn’t remember or didn’t have an answer to the “Where were you when Armstrong walked on the Moon?” question. 

   It’s because I was at camp! Here’s what I wrote in my journal.

Things I’ll remember about Camp Marston

(not necessarily in order)

Washing dishes

Overnight campouts when we never slept 

Inspiration point 

Molly Malone, scary stories 

Going to Ramona to wash clothes. 

Star Meadow 

The craft shop. The Lake. Raintree—the haunted house 

The trees swaying in the night breeze. 

The footprints on the moon. 

Saying goodbye to old campers and hello to the new ones. 

Homesick campers 

The swimming pool. 

What’s happening in the world? 

The asylum, the lodge 

Guitars — many splendid strings 

Sleeping on the ball field 

Not wanting to leave 

Saying goodbye.

     There would be five more Apollo missions where American human beings “walked” on our Moon — 12, 14, 15, 16, and finally #17 in 1972 — Apollo 13 famously was unable to complete its mission. Of course, they did more than walk around. The astronauts collected scientific data regarding soil mechanics, meteoroids, seismic activity, heat flow, lunar ranging, magnetic fields, and solar wind; and brought home almost 400 kilograms of lunar samples. After 1972, Americans have continued space explorations in many ways. We get very interested and excited every now and then about one or another exploration. I even follow “Curiosity Rover” (@MarsCuriosity) which is one of the Mars rovers, on Twitter. Earlier this year, many people mourned the end of  the mission of Opportunity Rover. A Mars dust storm in June 2018 caused some sort of damage and it stopped communicating with Earth. After a final communication attempt was made and failed in February 2019, the mission was declared complete.

   After 1969, my summers were spent in similar ways. Volunteer work. Reading books and trying to write. Going to the beach. Spending time with family and friends. Taking epic road trips with family. I did find a boyfriend. He’s now my husband. He was dating my best friend during the summer of 1969. We became good friends and began dating in 1970. I have a letter I wrote to him from Camp Marston. Eventually, I became a better student although I had many academic ups and downs before I finally graduated from the University of San Diego after nine semesters. I did work as a summer-camp counselor during the summer of 1973.

   As I’ve been remembering my experiences of the summer of 1969, I’ve realized how often I still look up at the night sky. I started pointing out our Moon to my granddaughter when she was very little. I feel like it’s something very special that we share. Just last night, as I walked to the car from a friend’s house, I paused to look up and note the Moon phase.

The Earth. From a camera on Apollo 11.

   I love my camp memories. I especially love the memory of looking up at the night sky from Star Meadow at Camp Marston. I love that we so wanted to see footprints on our Moon that we simply imagined them into our memories.

"Footprints" on the moon turn out to be BOOT prints on the moon.

Front page from my hometown paper, The San Diego Union.