"We have lift-off" - Mim memory

Neither of us had been to a rocket launch before, so Mim & I had no idea that what we experienced seeing Apollo 12 take off to the moon was unusual.  It would take watching Apollo 14's launch, over a year later, to appreciate what we'd heard & felt.

There's no describing the experience of hearing "We have ignition... and lift off" AS it happened, as the flames came rushing out from the base of the slim, white rocket, and the ship seemed to almost pause before starting its ascent.  The sight of that rocket - three men in the space capsule at its apex...  there are no words.

We saw the flames as the rocket soared up into the sky, felt the earth trembled, hear the roar.  That roar - because so much of the Cape & Titusville were overcast with cloud cover, the sound just reverberated between ground & cloud, a richer deeper roar than we'd ever hear again.

The rocket soared upwards, toward the clouds, entered the dark gray;  we watched it disappear, the sight of the flame entering & closed over by gray, turned into a ball of diffused orange arching down range. We heard two large bangs, which we assumed was part of the launch.  The rocket broke out of then slipped back into the cloud cover.  

We were awed.  It still leaves me in awe.  

A hushed crowd filed back to cars, headed back to the main road, back to home.  We headed south, back to Harkins.

The first words Jim said when he saw us later were, "Gosh, I'm so sorry you came so far for such a disappointing launch."  We both looked at him like he was nuts.  How could what we'd experienced be called disappointing?

"Heck," he explained, "You normally see a real launch - you just saw a big orange ball.  And you never saw the first stage rocket separate."

Jim couldn't get it through his head that we were both drop-jawed with awe by what we'd seen.  It never dawned on either of us to feel anything but utter wonder.  

"Well," his wife chimed in, "Seems to me that you gals have got to come down to see what Jim's talking about!"

Mim looked at me, I looked at Mim & we both knew.  Another road trip was in our future.

But nothing - not seeing Apollo 14 take off without a hitch, watching Apollo 15 with Mom & Brooke, experiencing Apollo 17's night launch - diminished what we saw heard felt on that cloud-covered morning.  Awe & wonder, as three Americans sped on their way to the moon.