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Moon landings: One small step for Man. . . one giant whinge from Buzz
Andrew Pierce lost a childhood hero on the day he met Buzz Aldrin.
By Andrew Pierce
Published: 6:26PM BST 16 Jul 2009
Comments 43 (#comments) | Comment on this article (#postComment)
I can still remember crowding around the solitary, battered black and white television in my primary school to catch a
glimpse of the first astronauts on the Moon. It was just days after Dad had taken me into the garden to point out a bright
light moving silently across the night sky, which he insisted was Apollo 11. I believed him, of course. Why wouldn't I? This
was the stuff of schoolboy dreams.
A quarter of a century later, I was in the same room as Buzz Aldrin, who followed Neil Armstrong out of the spacecraft and
on to the surface of the Moon. I was in Marrakesh, covering one of Sir Richard Branson's attempts to circumnavigate the
globe in a hot-air balloon. Aldrin had come to lend his support.
Buzz Aldrin, second man on the moon Photo:
Reuters
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Everyone in the crowded hotel bar was craning their necks, standing on tip toes, jostling, in an attempt to catch a glimpse of this giant among men, a hero who
had been part of the single greatest technological achievement of all time.
What a disappointment, then, when I eventually fought my way to his side. He was miserable, and whinged about the fuss generated by the Moon landing. "It's
overrated," he said. "There was nothing for us on the Moon. We should have gone to Mars." I pressed on, desperate to hear from the horse's mouth what it was
like to walk on a lunar surface, but to no avail. I'm sure he must have been bored recounting it all again – regardless, though, the idol had fallen.
In fact, he only became animated when I raised the endless debate about what Neil Armstrong had said, or should have said, or meant to say, when he made that
first crucial step for mankind. I suspect it would have been different for Aldrin if he had been the first, rather than the second, man on the Moon. The interviews to
mark the 40th anniversary of the Moon landing must be hell for him.
I did not have many childhood heroes. After the Aldrin experience, I guess I should be grateful that my other one will never disappoint. He was Gandalf, the
wizard from Lord of the Rings. Now, when I bumped into that nice Sir Ian McKellen…
* Jonathan Lennie, the classical music editor of Time Out magazine, has a point when he says that audiences need educating about when to clap at the Proms.
Six years ago, I was in a box as the guest of a BBC suit at my first Prom concert. When the music stopped, during an Elgar concerto, I slapped my hands
together loudly in a passable impersonation of a sea lion performing for fish in a zoo. Silence all around me: I was the only one in the Albert Hall who clapped.
Chris Smith, then culture secretary, who was in the box next door, glanced over with a look that somehow managed to combine sympathy and contempt. My face
was crimson. But I'm glad to say that I no longer need the kind of lessons suggested by Mr Lennie. These days I sit on my hands until the whole place has
erupted.
* At school in Swindon, proud home of the railway industry, we all knew that the nearby little town of Wootton Bassett had only one, measly claim to fame – that
Catherine Parr, who survived Henry VIII, spent her last days there. Yet today it has become the centre of a remarkable tribute by the locals to our soldiers who fall
in Afghanistan. There is now a campaign to rename the B3102 through the town, which I know so well, as the "Highway of Heroes", to honour those who have
given their lives in the service of their country. It's a nice idea. I saw that the Earl of Wessex represented the Royal Family at Tuesday's deeply moving procession
of eight coffins. It was shameful that no Government minister was to be seen among the friends, relatives and good burghers of Wootton Bassett.
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