[Magdalen] re Where were you?

[Michael Bishop]

When the first moon landing took place, I was at my parents' home in 
Nottingham (England) recovering from my recently completed B.D. degree 
final exams and awaiting the results. I was sat in front of the family 
TV right through the small hours of the morning (but fortunately had no 
problem in catching up on sleep afterwards as I was a "gentleman of 
leisure".

My first recollection of space connected matters was in January 1958 
when as a 10 year old schoolboy I was in the school playground and 
witnessed a mysterious flash in the sky a few miles away. In my pupil's 
diary, I noted "I saw a flash in the sky and something falling to the 
ground over Nottingham. Was it a Sputnik crashing?"
Obviously I must have been comparatively up with space news as Sputnik 1 
was launched in October 1957. What I actually saw, though was not 
Sputnik but rather a pair of RAF De Havilland Vampire Jets having a 
head-on collision which killed four crew plus one civilian on the ground.

The moon landing was marked in UK last night by a partial eclipse of the 
moon. Unfortunately I was not able to see it as the sky was too cloudy - 
particularly annoying as the earlier part of the day had been one of 
very blue skies and strong sunlight.

-- 
God bless

.....
.....
Michael Bishop
rev at michaelbishop.name