AP FILE PHOTO
The moon landing was as far off as something could be from Marshalltown, Iowa but residents still remember sitting down and watching those monumental steps on TV. In this July 20, 1969 photo made available by NASA, astronaut Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot, walks on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity.

The world recently celebrated a milestone for science, the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. Not only was this event monumental and the first of its kind, but it has stuck in the minds of people across the globe to this day.

On July 20, 1969, Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on the moon. Some Marshalltown residents remember those exact moments to this day, and they still have an impact on them.

Verleen Zevenbergen said she was living in Las Vegas with her sister and her 3-year-old son in 1969 and worked at the Sahara Hotel.

“My sister and I were in our apartment and my sister yelled at me to come see what was on TV,” Zevenbergen said. “I said ‘OK I’ll be right there’ and when I saw the TV it was the landing on the moon with Neil Armstrong.”

Zevenbergen said one of the memorable moments was hearing mission control cheering through the television as the astronauts walked on the moon. She said the most exciting moment was that first step on the moon’s surface taken by Armstrong.

“When he said ‘one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’ I thought it was just awesome,” Zevenbergen said. “I’m still getting goosebumps now.”

Zevenbergen said she sat and watched the moon landing for a long time with her sister. She said it was exciting to watch the astronauts in their spacesuits and very fun to watch them walk on the moon in their large boots.

“It was really special when they placed the American flag up there, really special,” Zevenbergen said.

Zevenbergen said that she talked with her sister for a long time after the broadcast because they didn’t realize the moon landing was happening that day when they went to work. It was something really amazing to come home to. She said she later took her son out for ice cream as treat that special day.

Lora Smaha said she was working on the farm doing different chores on the day it happened.

Smaha said she watched the landing with her family on TV and she said it was definitely something exciting.

“Seeing it land was exciting, I’m glad it finally got there,” Smaha said. “It is probably something we won’t see again.”

Dorothy Wilson said she just watched it again all the way through recently and it was fascinating.

“There were a lot of cliffhangers and places where it could have gone really wrong, but they made it,” Wilson said.

Wilson said she never really watched it from start to finish until recently and that it has really stuck with her since then.

“Those men put their lives right on the line,” Wilson said when referring to the astronauts.

Joanne Claypool said she remembers just being in complete awe when it happened.

“I remember watching Walter Cronkite wiping a tear from his eye and saying ‘a man on the moon,'” Claypool said.

Claypool said that her oldest son was really into building model things at the time and he built a model of the lunar landing module.

“I had a dinner party a few nights later and I used it as the centerpiece,” Claypool said. “It caused quite a stir, people thought I had done it just for the dinner party.”