posted 09-09-2004 11:39 PM               

I believe that General Stafford was also in much pain, as they had a long conversation about the on going problems that he was having. He was in obvious discomfort and the gentleman told the General that he should get an X-ray on the problem that they were discussing.

At this time TS handler wasn�t there. As he came back to the table the gentleman pulled out a NASA beta patch that he would like to have signed. It looked like the General was going to sign it for free�when GL said $100.00. TS looked very embarrassed to charge this fine young man that spent at least 10 minutes examining his hands.

I was next up and asked the General to sign a Gemini 6 photo which he did very fast. The signature is less than acceptable�but that doesn�t matter to me after much thought.

I should of walked away and come back at a later time. General Stafford was upset I believe by having to charge this fellow and his discomfort after signing all weekend. Lets give him credit as who knows what thoughts are going through his mind.

This is just my take on one small event that I witnessed.

posted 09-10-2004 07:56 AM               

What an amazing amount of work that goes into putting one of these shows on. The first 3 days I was out there, I think I got about 4 hours of sleep. Steve and Nolan did a great job, and I think their sigh of relief could be heard for miles around when the show was over.

For me, the highlight was having dinner Sunday night after the show with Steve, Nolan and his family, Victoria Campbell and her husband, Scott, Leonov, Kubasov, and Garry and Dave from Autographica. What a night to remember.

I'm already looking forward to next year's show. Thanks guys for a wonderful weekend.

James

posted 09-10-2004 11:43 AM               

I was the one that started the thread back in January "Which event should I attend?" (http://collectspace.com/ubb/Forum23/HTML/000904.html). Many of you were kind enough to offer your thoughts, and most recommended this show. Thanks to each and every one of you who did; you were bang on.

I went to the show with my 14-year old son Mark, who most fortunately for me shares this interest in the space program (especially seeing that there were very few teenagers at the show which is rather unfortunate). It was unbelievable. I know a lot of this has been covered, but I have a few stories to share.

Dee O'Hara: Coming back from the JPL tour on Friday afternoon, with only about 30 minutes to get over to Warner Brothers Studios for our scheduled tour there, we were on our way up to our room to drop off a few things when we got on the elevator with a couple of ladies. They were talking about the dinner being sold out. When one got off I asked the other if she was here to attend the show, never thinking, with my bent male mind that she could be one of the guests. The lady replies "yes" so I introduce myself and my son, then she says "Nice to meet you, I'm Dee O'Hara. Well the two of our faces lit up and I said "Wow. Dee O'Hara! It is great to meet you." And we talked briefly about seeing her character on "From the Earth to the Moon". She was kind of taken aback that we knew so much about her then she said she wasn't sure what she was doing at the show (in kind of a humble way) as she had never been to one before. I told her lots of people would want to meet her, which she doubted. It turned out that Dee was in the room next door so we escorted her, introducing her to Don (dss65) when we bumped into him (actually meeting for the first time as we had been corresponding by email). We had to run but Don ended up getting invited to lunch with Dee and Cece Bibby, and was there when Wally and Guenther arrived so he got to see them greeting each other and hearing some great stories. Mark and I spent a lot of time with Dee, she was absolutely a delight and really down to earth. She told us some great stories and was very humble about her contributions. It was evident all weekend long that she shared a tremendous warmth and respect with virtually all of the astros and they came by to greet her and there were hugs everywhere. Coincidentally, when I told her that Mark had to be operated on the day after his birth for TEF, she said that her very first case as a nurse was TEF! She even TOOK A PICTURE OF US, and was gracious enough to pose with Wally for a photo as well. If anyone knows her email address please contact me off-list as I would like to send her some photos. But what a treat it was meeting this classy lady!

Scott Carpenter: Several months ago, I had emailed Kris Stoever, Scott's daughter and co-author of the wonderful book "For Spacious Skies" asking if she would have a scan of the great letter that her grandfather had written to her father just prior to his historic mission. I don't know how many of you have read this letter, but it was very special and was chosen as one of the 100 letters of the 20th century by the New York Times and ended up in a book called "Letters of the Century" (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385315902/104-5551656-2583926?v=glance). Anyway, I thought it would be great to have such a scan signed by Scott at the show for my son and me. Kris thought it was a great idea and went to work to see what she could do. She asked me to email her in July which I did but got no response. I didn't want to bug her so I let it be, thinking that she had been unable to find a suitable copy. So when we went to say hello to Scott and have a photo taken, I asked about it and to my surprise, he says "Yes, Kris told me about it and I have a copy for you in my room. I'll bring it down tomorrow." Sure enough, he had it the next day and signed it for us. A very special effort by a very special man. I had heard he was great to talk to and very gracious, and he was. Thank you Scott and Kris!

Guenther Wendt: Much has been written here about Guenther's wonderful passion for the program and animated storytelling. I was usually with a group of cSer friends gathered around Guenther hanging on his every word. He told us about "From the Earth to the Moon" (which he consulted on) and the great attention to detail that Tom Hanks had. He still has that zeal for the program and went to great lengths discussion the state of NASA today and why things have to change. It sounds like we haven�t heard the last of Guenther. Glad to hear the homestead beck in Florida made it through okay.

The guests: I agree with all of you who state that almost without exception, all of the guests were gracious and friendly, beyond what we could reasonably expect. Let's face it, many of them are no longer young and they had to be getting tired, but they each answered our questions (which they've heard thousand of times no doubt) as if it was the first time. Most of them took the time to ask about us, where we were from. Some were surprised and even flattered that so many people had travelled from so far away for this (eastern Canada, which I thought was impressive until I heard about people coming from England, Germany, Australia and New Zealand). I especially enjoyed Bruce McCandless (who I am kicking myself that I didn't get a photo signed by), Rusty, Jack Lousma (what great shape this guy is in), Charlie Duke and Rick Searfoss. It's almost unfair to name names because they were all great.

Fellow cSers: I had been in email contact with several of you prior to going. It was great to put faces to names and to spend time together. Don from Idaho, Jay and Wolfie from Minneapolis (a riot to hang out with), Andy (LunarRover - Cowabunga dude! And thanks for the photo and hospitality) and Ray (SpacePsycho) from California, Paul from England, Gerhard from Germany, fellow Canadians David (Poolman... who has been so helpful to me as a newbie), Ed, and Pierre-Yves (Moonwalker1954) and of course Steve Smith and his fiancé Kathy from Kansas, who are now Mark's honorary grandparents. Steve and I had traded books via the mail, and at the show we were together a lot. Steve and Kathy were not only gracious enough to share their knowledge of space, politics, science and chemistry, but also they spoiled Mark with a Leonov-signed photo of a replica of his spacecraft at the Cosmosphere, as well as a postcard of the Liberty Bell 7 signed by Guenther. To Steve and Kathy, Mark and I will forever cherish these items. To all of the above and others we met at the show we will always remember the camaraderie, and we hope to be able to do it again someday. It was also great to meet Robert Pearlman, Rob Joiner, Kim Poor, Doug (AztecDoug), Jim Brown, Francis French, Richard, Liz, and so many others. All of the attendees were great as they waited patiently in line-ups (which were a great time for interesting discussion) and offered to snap photos for others. Thanks all.

Ray and his Lunar Orbiter: It was just funny watching Ray go around the room and the looks he would get with that thing! Then he whips out a Soyuz window and a heat shield tile from the cart! This is one fun and amazing guy. Ray was kind enough to send me load of info on LA traffic which really helped. Then he managed to slip us in for a photo while some paperwork was being done Saturday at 3:20 when word was going around that Buzz was leaving at 3:30 and not coming back Sunday (which turned out to be untrue). The thought of going all that way and not getting a photo with Buzz was terrifying! Thanks Ray, you�re the best!

Dick Gordon and Al Bean: When we first watched the Apollo12 episode of "From the Earth to the Moon" we loved it, but I always wondered how much of it was Hollywood. Nobody gets along that well in such trying circumstances. Well think again. From the outset, it was obvious that these guys truly do. They joked around, Dick proudly introduced Al to his granddaughter at the dinner, and told the "SCE to Aux" during the lightning strike story about Al ("It's all yours, Al"). Very genuine. We sat with Al during dinner and it went by way too fast. The dinner seemed a little rushed and because Al was such a popular fellow, he was interrupted twice; we did not get as much conversation as I would have liked. Not one word that I can remember about the actual missions, and worse than that not one Pete Conrad story. Nobody's fault, it just worked out that way. We really enjoyed Bill Dana and Wally, as well as the stories by Dick and Charlie. A suggestion to Steve and Nolan: I don't think anyone would complain about having more of the celebrities come up and tell stories. But all in all, it was a truly magical evening.

The Gemini Simulator: Most of you didn�t notice this but there was a Gemini simulator out in the parking lot. Actually it was the back seat of a Chevy Cavalier, my rental. On Sunday, I offered Poolman and Ed a drive to the airport as we were on the same flight to Toronto. Our flight was at 10:30 so after the show was over we had some time to kill so we decided to take them for a tour of Hollywood and Beverly Hills. There wasn't enough room in the trunk for the two large suitcases, so one of them had to be jammed between/on Dave and Ed. Also, it was very hot, and Mark has a thing about air conditioning, so we only had the windows to keep us cool. We twisted and turned through the Hollywood Hills and we even went into a couple of controlled rolls (well, I thought they were controlled) on particularly steep inclines. The guys commented after that they now know what the Gemini astros went through. Hey guys, at least you had windows to roll down! We shared a few drinks and a laughs about this at LAX that evening. And we talked space one last time, probably the last time I will have such conversations in person for awhile.

Sorry if any of this was a repetition, but I am thoroughly enjoying all of the posts on this subject so I thought I would join in. One final thanks to Steve and Nolan who did a great job with this whole event not to mention the JPL tour, and to all of the helpers including many cSers who gave their time to this event, as well as other individuals who helped make this happen.

Final thoughts are that, in my opinion, this was worth a year of education for my son. Getting to meet and dialogue with these historic figures who all contributed to "Man's Greatest Adventure" was priceless. And being around our cS gang was half the fun. If you didn't attend this one, don't miss the next.

John Farine
New Brunswick, Canada

posted 09-10-2004 11:46 AM               

I agree 100% with what you said. Considering their ages, those guys are still very alert and VERY PATIENT! It's not always fun for them to meet their fans or the public in general but they did it in a very gracious way.

posted 09-10-2004 07:52 PM               

As for the show - what can I say that hasn't already been said? A few summary comments:
I've now met all surviving moonwalkers except Schmitt - something I could never have dreamt of as a kid. The Mercury guys were typically charming - Wally must be one of the most good humoured guys on the planet. Between them they completed one M7 cover and one Apollo 1/M7 cover for only $40 a piece. For me that put some of the other (arguably unreasonable) high fees into perpective. I sat next to Gordo at the dinner and while he appears frail and has difficulty expressing himself his faculties are sharp as a pin and he hasn't lost that dry sense of humour. I wish him well.
Paul and I had fun sharing Gene's french fries while he had his working lunch and I look forward to Paul's photo!
Rusty was a real bonus and seemed one of the astros who was really enjoying himself.
Alexei Leonov was as warm as the other early cosmonauts I've met - Nikolayev, Popovich. His speech at the dinner was great and he clearly relished the opportunity to meet other astronauts.
I noticed the same issues with TS's minder and was amazed at how cool he stayed when a guy with a handful of covers went ballistic with him at the signing fees. Threats of reporting to some autograph magazine or other were issued by the disgruntled autograph dealer but it was like water off a duck's back.
Nobody seems to have commented about Buzz, who seemed disinterested in engaging with the public and was the only unsmiling astro in my photos. Maybe he was just having a hard time of it - or maybe he had just completed a pile of items for one of the dealers who clogged up the lines ;-).

Finally I had a great chat with Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood. Gary told me all about flying in a glider with Steve McQueen and it turns out that Keir used to live close to where I now reside (and has also been up in a glider!).

It was great to meet cS members Larry, John Wardell, Steffen, John from Canada and Robert, or course - amongst others. I just wish we could have arranged a get together of all attending cS members. Also enjoyed meeting Steve and Nolan for the first time, Kim, Sally and team, Victoria and others too many to mention.
It was well worth the flight over and the jetlag.

Paul Bramley

posted 09-11-2004 09:51 AM               

Nolan and Steve are to be commended on their excellent show. I thought they could never top the DC show, but they did - and I'm looking forward to going to the next one, wherever it is. Kudos and accolades all around.

It was great to see the usual bunch of cS folks along with some new faces. Everyone seemed to be having a "blast".

posted 09-11-2004 05:29 PM               

A small correction in John's account of my lunch with Dee O'Hara: it was Lola Morrow, "The Astronaut's Den Mother," that had lunch with Dee and me, not Cece Bibby. This was a reunion of two friends who had not seen each other in a long time. I did have the pleasure of meeting Cece shortly after the lunch. It was such a kick, because Dee had been talking about Cece and her "playmate-pink" Mustang ("I thought she was hot ****!," Dee had said), and I told her I hoped I would get to hear the story from Cece. I did! As I have posted elsewhere, this early experience truly set the tone for me for the rest of the weekend. They not only remembered me on a first-name basis for the rest of the event, they went out of their way to introduce me personally to several astronauts. Watching the obvious respect and affection that the astronauts showed for these ladies made me feel that, in some small way, I had made a personal connection in the whole scene. That may sound hokey, but it was very special to me.

I could go on and on, but (for now) I won't.

posted 09-17-2004 09:00 AM              

Da, Comrade, Natasha and I anxioulsy await this and the other stories.

Seriously, it was a great pleasure to meet you and we look forward to doing it again.

Kawabunga dude.

posted 09-18-2004 09:14 AM               

Came back to a mess of wine fermentations ending, and related work...but did manage to get my pictures downloaded from the digital camera late Thursday, 9/16. Progress!

Regarding the Alan Bean matter, it's really not something I am comfortable posting about. At the time it seemed like Mr. Bean sort of sized the situation up before proceeding. That you were there, and so know of special treasures entrusted me is super, but I'm guessing it's just not something Mr. Bean would like broadcast. No unreasonable expectations or requests need to be created for such a cool fellow....if you get my drift. It was a one-off.

As to the rest, in due time will catch up with the Secret Coded Message for Natasha, Steve, LOL! I presume she has the necessary documents and tools to carry out the mission?

Cowabunga that!