h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Reminder/refresher-

What have you done or been part of or 'been there' for?

RtB

"Been part of"...I think in English you call it town twinning. In the sixties, when it started, it was pretty much improvisation and no money.

But being 15, visiting our hereditary arch enemies, ie France, and being welcomed like the proverbial lost son, in a city where people had more than ample reason to hate everything German...some of my warmest memories.

Thanks Pit.

Another one's just come to mind while starting 2nd pass sort...

First man on the moon: Telling young son "Remember this, it's living history". Next day buying every newspaper I could find (only one of each!) and Miz Stress taking the front pages into work and photographing them (the price of no discipline was copies for her bosses) and bringing the negatives home. We still have them... somewhere.

Ten years later, working (well, 'consulting') at the cape - Canaveral, that is - the local newspaper didn't reply to my offer of free copies...

Rod, maybe worth looking for...A well known Swiss firm relied on NASA getting the job done, and in time. Morning after the landing, European newspapers had whole page ads about the first wristwatch on the moon. A Speedmaster cost too much for me back then - had I bought one, a serial number from that batch would buy me a nice small appartment nowadays but I wouldn´t sell.

>> ...working (well, 'consulting') at the cape - Canaveral, that is...<<

You do seem to have gotten around. You're full of surprises.
So I'd like to reserve a copy of your full biography - either
auto or standard. Let me know when it's coming out.


~jwf~

Pit, that's a good one. Well known Swiss firm? I'm guessing Breitling but anyway, could it be mentioned?

Squigs, Yes, I did get around.
In my youth (E Africa) it was just plain (father's) luck. Later it was due to being in the RN.
Later again it was perhaps 'The Man For The Job' or 'The Job For The Man' (undecided) but either way it was luck; parentage (nature), upbringing (nurture) and by then expectation, so no credit due (except perhaps... ) though for quite a while I did think it was all credits on my balance sheet ).

Full biography? Nay sir, nay. Thrice nay - even expurgated .

Omega. Even the Russian cosmonauts were issued the Speedmaster, only they didn´t want it mentioned.

And as to that, but it only got laughs in insider magazines - Sweden was the first European country to have a satellite in orbit. An American astronaut lost his Hasselblad.

Quite a decent showing we have. Except, surprisingly, nothing on the Berlin Wall coming down (1989 Nov 9 (a pity it wasn't 11:00 on 11th?).
- -

Questions - can you please try to put a date/year/decade on:

~jwf~: your post 22 (Montreal-Halifax disastrous journey):

lanzababy: your post 11 ( the potteries bottle oven) and, maybe a little expansion? From here it seems unreal, still red-hot ware, on their heads, from a red-hot kiln.

Pit, not sure I can put the first euro satellite in - unless, that is, you can claim to have seen it (on TV?). No satisfaction on a quick search.

I don't know the date - I was a toddler. It would be sometime in mid 1950s, its a very sketchy memory as first memories are, so there are no further details. Maybe you shouldn't use it after all.

March 1960.
I had just turned 15.
It was the last leg of an expected 36 hour return journey from Trinidad/Tobago via DC7 from Port of Spain to Toronto with a change to a North Star for the Halifax trip. It took 3 North Stars and a taxi to get home.

~jwf~

PS: And I still say your memoirs need to be recorded and shared.
Childhood memories of WW2, experience in the Royal Navy including the Suez operations, Cape Canaveral... (those are just the highlights) It sounds like a unique life experience that has a resonance on what the 20th century was all about for England's best, the children that WW2 was fought for.

lanzababy: >>Maybe you shouldn't use it after all<<

Oh no, you ain't getting away with that one, oh No. It's a damn' fine story.
Mid 50s is , there're a lot of mid XXs.
- -
Perhaps we should have something on the Berlin Wall? I'll put a weak one in, pro tem:
1989 Nov 9: Telling both children "Remember this, it's living history"
(this time no camera, no newspapers)


Q:

TRiG: your post 15, can you date or year or decade - working the bog? (guessing at late 90s )

RtB

~jwf~ >>And I still say...<<. Thank you for your comments. They have put a different slant on things even though I suspect it's an artificial one.
I've not trekked to a pole (or anywhere else) nor sailed around the world, (nor further than the sight of land) nor easter, nor wester, norway.

Some bits will be submitted here, others in "Things We Remember". With luck they'll reach an audience, in good company.

>>...a resonance on what the 20th century was all about for England's best, the children that WW2 was fought for.<<
The first bit I like. Thanks, that was my hope. Resonance eh?
The last bit, the children - aye, indeed so.
The bit in the mi - you ignore the dissonnance methinks.

Things I remember - April 1993, essay pile up so lots of time at the puter surrounded by books with the radio on in the backround. Srebrenica on the brink of falling. It was sickening, felt utterly helpless and enraged at the international community and the UN impotence. Any mention of sea cucumbers or evolution of circulatory systems takes me back to those nights. That hideous phrase ethnic cleansing bites to the core of me. I know as an individual there was nothing I could do other than plead with those in power to do more but I do feel ashamed at our collective failure then and subsequently.

12th May 1994, doing a computer course in Norwich. My partner met me for break and told me that John Smith the leader of the Labour party had died, burst into tears. He had broght me a 'long cigerette' instead of a so we wandered off and sat on a hillock where the little dip made me think of a valley when a couple of jets flew overhead and my thoughts went back to Srebrenica. I often wonder how differently things might have turned out if he had lived.

Final one (promise) a happy memory this time, 1st of May 1997 Twigg beating Portillo, that was the icing on the cake and the cherry on top. Despite the hour, can't remember the exact time but think pushing 4am the phone rang of the hook, we were gleeful,excited and so optimistic. Overall a tarnished victory now but that particular result still shiney

Peanut

In January 1972, I was living in Hong Kong. We saw a big plume of smoke coming up over the horizon. We were too far away to see what was causing it, but later in the day, my dad drove us closer to Kowloon, and we were able to see the RMS Queen Elizabeth on fire. The wreck was always visible above the waterline every time we drove into Kowloon after that. The wreck was later used as a set for the James Bond film, The Man With The Golden Gun, which was set partly in Hong Kong.

RF

When The Wall crumbled down...just a stillshot. Eldery couple from Over There when money exchange rates were still piratical. On a bench in Hannover, sharing a 1,50 Deutschmark walkaway pizza that probably had cost them a week´s pension income. I have hardly ever felt so ashamed in my life for always having been rich.

I was living somewhere near the top of the universally loved & adored Northern Line in 1987, and had arranged to meet a friend at Kings Cross. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go & not being able to contact him on the phone, another friend went to meet him for a drink instead. I was in bed watching the TV (Nov 18th), when the first reports of the fire at Kings Cross came on, & realised my two friends were supposed to have met at roughly that time.

I broke out in a cold sweat of panic & guilt, & later, when the male friend phoned to say that my other friend hadn't turned up, I was frantic. Luckily, this was a 'joke', & both were fine. They had met at the top of the escalator just as the smoke started too get bad. Their 'joke' didn't go down well at my end to say the least, but I was just grateful that they were safe. Unfortunately 31 other people weren't so lucky

Thanks - added.

In Living memory: 2nd pass .
Preparing for PR.

Things We Remember: 1st pass sortout .

Not everything has gone in - I hope you're not too disappointed

Still slow, but we'll get there

Rod

I missed this thread or it disappeared from my list.

Listening to the bombing of Baghdad in 1991. I was in my final year of university and doing my usual ritual of news, shipping forecast, sleep ... not that night.

That was of course also the night we were introduced to the concept of a 'rolling news' service, as normal radio 4 was shifted either to FM only or LW only, can't remember which, and the other frequency had non stop news. Or, as it rapidly became, 'rolling speculation'

The only 'there' that I was there for was Diana's funeral (tenuously) in 1997. Althorp is just down the road and the royal family travelled to my local railway station on the day. So several local roads were closed and somewhere in the house I have the road closure order that was pinned up on the lamppost nearest our house.

Chunk of oak tree fell on our house in the hurricaine of 1987.

Mol

Welcome, Mol and thanks.