Found stuff

[vilakins]

Greg braved the big storage cupboard under the eaves to find the family heirloom moon landing newspapers I mentioned to some people. I thought it was just the NZ Herald from 21 July going by the size--newspapers being so thick now with all the specialist sections--but it turned be five papers: the Herald and the now defunct Auckland Star for 21 and 22 July (landing and lift-off), and the Star for their return on the 25th.

Random things which caught my eye:

• 20 South Africans flew to London to watch the landing on TV there because SA didn't have TV back then.
  
• A Scottish woman who gave birth just after the launch called her son Neil Edwin Michael.
  
• A Tanzanian politician tried to reserve a seat on the first commercial flight to the moon with PanAm and was told that fares were not yet resolved. I wish.
  
• A photo of Andrew Aldrin (11) looking at reports of his father on the moon: "That's Dad!"
  
• A quote from Buzz's praying wife (who didn't rate a name of her own in those days, it seems): "God can rest now."

Actually the reports are pretty good, even telling how they overshot their planned landing place. I'm very impressed with how many photos and how much information the papers provided. If anyone's interested in photos, I'll take some. They're too big to fit on the scanner.

Also, I'm going to book for Apollo 13 - Mission Control, an interactive play which is on here next month. You can be press gallery (no interaction) or part of Mission Control and help launch or build the CO2 filters etc--so much more fun! :-D I'm going for that option. I want to say, "Go for launch!"

Speaking of that, anyone who has Apollo 13 on DVD should listen to the commentary track by Jim and Marilyn Lovell, as we did last night. It's fascinating, and those two know how to do a commentary. :-)

Other things found in the scary cupboard included:

• Two old traditional rugs from Bangladesh which I put away when Claudia and Tessa pulled the tassels off one; it needs proper re-edging.
  
• All my artwork from Form 3 (Year 9) which had a lot of illos I did for the novel I wrote that year (three whole exercise books), set in a boarding school strangely like mine. I see that the new teacher looks just like my science teacher, complete with perm, double chin, knitted jersey, and tartan skirt. I was not subtle.
  
• Old newspaper pages giving national exam results including mine (the highest School Certificate mark for my school up till then). Ah, how far I've fallen. :-(

Comments

[zoefruitcake]

Really interesting stuff! I love old papers, especially for big events.

I didn't know SA didn't have TV at the time, but thinking about it, it isn't that surprising. I went to a museum exhibition once showing the TV coverage available in the UK by year, and it was surprising how late it arrived in some places. It was illustrated by illuminating little lights on a map. Goodness, I'd not thought of that in years, I must have been quite young.

I wonder what your teachers would have thought of your novel...

[vilakins]

Hello there over her in DW! I didn't know you read here. :-)

I think they didn't have TV because it was apartheid at the time and they didn't want the population to know too much about other countries or things like the race riots in the US.

I suspect some would have laughed, like the Latin teacher who liked my Roman cartoons in the back of my exercise book, and some would have been annoyed that I was using school time to write, But hey, I was getting good marks so as far as I'm concerned (in work as well as school) if you get the job done, you can do what you like after that. :-)

[zoefruitcake]

if you get the job done, you can do what you like after that. :-)

Absolutely :0)

I read both, but as I've only got a couple of friends on DW, I only read every 2-3 days.

[nautile26.livejournal.com]

Oooh, an interactive play based on Apollo 13 sounds great. I watched "The Race to The Moon" last night. The part about Apollo 13 was very moving.

This is a fascinating post, except for that last sentence. I do hope that was a tongue-in-cheek comment; if not, don't go putting yourself down.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

We saw that too; it was excellent. Have you seen the film Apollo 13? It's also extremely good; one of my favourites.

It's true. I'm pretty much unemployed (except for a few hours a week doing something so crap I won't talk about it) and seemingly unemployable.

[nautile26.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I've seen the movie a few times; I really enjoyed it. Great suspense, even when you know the outcome.

And there are lots of really talented people unemployed at the moment. Times are tough employment wise for a number of my friends. Hopefully things will improve for you on the job front in the not too distant future.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I keep applying for jobs, but I there are so many applicants I often don't even get rejection e-mails. It gets me down.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

That's the fault of the stupid employers, not yours. You are one of the most talented people on my flist (and that's saying quite a lot).

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Ah, but people don't advertise for amateur writers and artists. I did go for a web copy-writing job, having actually done that, but I didn't even get a rejection email.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

You wrote a novel then too?

Mine never got finished (story of my life...)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I wrote:

• Short stories at 6 or 7 about a very naughty girl called Amelia which had no moral at all; the exercise was to see how bad she could be. Since I was way ahead of the class I was in, they'd send me to other classes to read to the kids when a teacher had to be out of the room, having no idea just how naughty Naughty Amelia was.
  
  
• The school novel, about non-identical twins at a boarding school. Some incidents, notably the science lab practical jokes, were based on RL, but most were, well, homages to a selection of overseas school stories, so the girls had a Mam'selle for French instead of a local teacher.
  
  
• In the same year (year 9), an unfinished story about three English girls trapped in France, conveniently without their parents, when the Germans invaded, based on extravagant RP games I played with other kids armed with hockey sticks for rifles. Both of these got passed around the class as each chapter was finished.
  
  
• An attempt in Form 6 (year 12) to write an AF AU in which the Germans won the war and a young girl of 15 is trying to solve a mystery about the hidden past. Not exactly Fatherland; I had no idea where I was going with that.

I have no idea where these are. My mother threw all my stuff out when she moved while I was overseas, so I suspect they're long gone.

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

You can be press gallery (no interaction) or part of Mission Control and help launch or build the CO2 filters etc--so much more fun! :-D

Oooh, that sounds like the coolest thing ever!

And I second the rec for the Apollo 13 commentary. Very much worth a listen.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I know! I've been waiting for it to come here. I must ring up and book, ensuring that we both get a Mission Control position. It's only on for two weeks.

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

My brother nearly ended up with Neil too he was born within a week of the moon landing. However having seen how many other Neils there were on the maternity ward, mum named him Eric, the name of Neil Armstrong's son.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Good call! You wouldn't want to be numbered off in class like Johns, or like Jacks now. :-P

Greg was born the day Gagarin went up, so he was lucky not to get Yuri considering the mix of Bulgarian and English names the kids got.

[san-valentine.livejournal.com]

At the house I lived up to the age of 10, the boy next door was called Matthew Armstrong Jordinson, and was given his middle name as he was born around the time of the moon landing.
I was only 2 1/2 then, so don't remember it at all.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

That's a fairly sensible solution; no one knows about middle names anyway.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

What treasures you found! A real archives!
You wrote such a big novel then? and illustrations!
No such things could be found if I had such a cupboard :-)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I'm amazed my mother kept those few things as she threw must of my stuff out when I was overseas. I haven't seen the novels though, so maybe she thought they were just school work, being in exercise books. The art folder was probably saved because I painted the outside of it.

That's probably all I have from the past. Most of that cupboard is full of suitcases, cartons in case we have to pack up anything, two old heaters, a spare stretcher bed, that sort of thing.

[san-valentine.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, my parents have followed the principal that only their children have the right to decide what should happen to their things. So stuff belonging to myself and my brothers was up in the attic for years - along with Mum and Dad's own clutter.

I've brought some things to Sheffield over the years, and got the last when they were clearing out (sort of) before moving a couple of years ago.

I have a selection of my old boardgames, including the monopoly set that lost its houses and hotels, so I subsituted small lego bricks. I have the huge Disney jigsaw I won for having a letter published in Disney magazine c.1979. Assorted small ornaments - including two vintage plastic wombles. My nine large toy horses, their action figures plus assorted kit and clothes. Britains toys: horses, farm animals and zoo animals. A variety of books from childhood.

I also have a lot of drawings done from about the age of 12 (I don't think I'd kept any earlier ones). Plus exercise books with novels written about the age of 14-16, some short stories (Revenge of the Stair Carpet is on my website), and my very first fanfic - some Blakes 7 stories written c 1979 when I was 12.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Wow, 12 was young to start! I made up what amounts to fanfic to make up for the devastating ending, but that was all in my head.

I'm not sure why my mother did it. She says that my stuff got wet in a garage leak so she had to throw it out, but I suspect she was angry at me not being there after my father died.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Still, isn´t it amazing - you open a box or a cupboard and find a piece of your youth or childhood. We have got my son´s old bed stored in our empty upper room. It is small but it can be open to put the bedding inside. I thought it was nothing there and opened it just out of curiosity. I found it full of soft toys - teddy bears, kittens, dogs, fantastic animals and lots of toy cars. My son Jirka (George) is 26 now but we spent happy moments with all that. He wanted to save the toys and hid them in the bed - and forgot about it. We discovered a blue fantastic animal with huuuuge ears which was his favourite, he used to sleep with it, he brought it everywhere with him, even to our very first journey to the seaside to Greece and then to Spain. We still call him by a nickname "Ušák" ---like "Eary" ...oh this is difficult, just accorsing those big ears, not his but that toy...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

How wonderful!

I also found a NZ army hat an old boyfriend gave me, a fur hat (like a Russian one) my mother used to wear and gave to me, and a charcoal portrait of me drawn by a street artist in Rome. I had long wavy hair then (I straighten it now) and it looked more like Jenna than me!