Oct 1972

[Alastair Rae]

When you were getting first light on that Wednesday evening, I was probably on parade at the air cadets.

[JamesF]

My parents had just turned 9

Now that makes me feel old

I'd have been five and a half, having not long moved (all four of us) into one room of a house my parents were resurrecting from a wreck in Glangrwyney, South Wales, and already on my third school...

James

[euphony]

i was 11 months old so probably deficating in my pants and crying alot, give it another 40 years i may well be back to that stage.

I was minus 5 years and 3 months

[Siriusmeg]

mmm feeling old too - I was 3 then. Don't remember having noticed the stars at this point - that must have come a bit later

[Si W]

I had just been posted to West Berlin and the barracks was just across the road from Spandau Prison, a two year posting in a fantastic city. I was living in private accommodation just off the Kurfürstendamm and enjoyed life to the full. The only intrusion in that life was work and plenty of it, train guard on the British Military Train from Berlin to Helmstedt, guarding Rudolf Hess in Spandau Prison and all the other duties associated with a posting there. Sport was sailing on the Harvel and swimming in the Olympic Stadium and orienteering around the Grunewald Forest. Visits to East Berlin was a must and a Sunday stroll along the 17th of June Street, to the Siegessäule, past the Soviet War Memorial to the Brandenburg Gate and a look over the wall into the East, all in all a nice time

Jim

My Old fella was posted to Bünde at the time, I was 5 years old, in total we lived out there for 9 years, they were cold winters, one winter it was that cold and the river rhine froze over they could drive chieftain tanks over it, I recall at the time I could speak fluent German, still cant get my head round when my mum sent me for a bag of potato's (Kartoffeln) and I can back with a box of matches (Streicholzer) .

[The Sailor]

one winter it was that cold and the river rhine froze over they could drive chieftain tanks over it

Ha ha, sorry but that is so funny, I have seen the Rhine freeze over but a Chieftain crossing it, noooo, if you ever lived near an armoured regiment you would realise that a lot of them had to be towed out of camp on a crash out, and of those that did make it out of camp they just about made it to their leaguer area. All tanks were in the forward areas towards the Inner German Border and if any were to make it to the Rhine that would be one miracle . Like the story though .

Jim

[Helicon]

I was just 2 years old then !

[rowan46]

I had literally just been concieved.

That's too much information

[Mr Spock]

That was probably the month I got my Prinz 550 60mm. Stupidly I sold it three years later to pay for driving lessons.

[perrin6]

Look forward to hearing your second 'first light' on the reconstructed 4". I think you will enjoy it.

[Mark at Beaufort]

Its great to look back and I can always remember the Charles Frank telescopes. To make me feel old here is a photo taken in my back garden of my 6" Wooden OTA on a Charles Frank eq mount. The date August 1972. On the top is a Charles Frank Junior Astro telescope.