Letters from New Jersey
by Bob Button
JS: My old friend Bob Button, of Jersey City, NJ, is a retired journalist and former public affairs officer for such outfits as NASA, TRW and Grumman. Bob keeps in frequent touch by email and some of his 'memories and musings' about days he and I shared are so interesting that I thought they deserved to be read by others. As you will see, Bob usually had a real good time getting the job done. That's why I hope we'll see a lot of his memoirs in this these.."Letters from New Jersey."
Wernher and Me
Bob Button:Howdy, Jim:
Lookin' back at my letter about the '62 World's Fair in Seattle I can't help droppin' another name from that occasion. Hey, I'm shameless... what can I say? Sometimes one story leads to another. You may recall I was NASA's public affairs officer at the Seattle World's Fair- my very first assignment.
Anyhow, the local news people had been real nice to NASA so when they asked if I could get Wernher von Braun to give a press conference I couldn't very well say no. We knew he was comin' to Seattle for a meeting at Boeing so I called his office in Alabama and got him to agree to sit with my news guys (I know that sounds sexist, but they were all guys). As I told you earlier, I sorta lied to Wernher and told him that his boss, D. Brainerd Holmes, was comin' from Washington. Then I made the lie come true by calling Dr. Holmes and getting him to come also - told him Wernher was gonna be there. Von Braun was in charge of building the Saturn rocket that would one day shove the Apollo spacecraft to the moon, but Holmes was in charge of the entire Apollo Lunar Landing Program, rockets and all.
Picture above: W von Braun and BButton..
Apparently, Wernher and Dr. Holmes got to comparing notes 'cause they decided to meet in St. Louis where they both changed planes, then fly the second leg to Seattle together. Wonderful idea! Only one problem...
I got a frantic phone call from von Braun sayin' he's gonna be on the same plane with Dr. Holmes and just learned that Holmes was flyin' first class - von Braun wasn't authorized to fly first class in those days. They'd be seated in separate cabins. Mein Gott! What to do?
Well, since I was on TDY in Seattle NASA gave me a book of chits so I could jump on an airplane whenever necessary. So I called the airline and used one of my chits to upgrade von Braun. I made a friend for life, but I'm not sure the paperwork ever got cleared up even now, 43 years later.
Then I got the president of Boeing (headquartered in Seattle in those days) to pick me up in his big stretched limo so we could go meet the plane carrying my two luminaries. Had it planned real tight - straight to the fairgrounds, then to the press conference before they even unpacked their bags.
On the drive from the airport, von Braun and Holmes wanted to know what kinds of questions to expect. I told them this was not a sophisticated press corps where space was concerned, probably get that jewel: "How do the astronauts go to the bathroom up in space?" Stuff like that.
My biggest worry was that von Braun, the more famous of the two, would get all the questions. Holmes was his boss and I was afraid nobody would ask him anything. So I cornered a few of the news folks and begged them to aim a few at Holmes so he wouldn't feel ignored. But, of course, the very first question went to von Braun:
"Tell me, Dr. von Braun, when they're up there in space how do the astronauts go to the bathroom?"
That I kept from laughing out loud is a minor miracle... and I had to wonder how Wernher was gonna handle this- he wanted to laugh too, you could tell. Well, he was fantastic:
"That's an extremely important question," von Braun replied with a straight face. "In fact, we were discussing that very problem on the way over here from the airport."
My stomach hurt from stemming my laughter... I had no idea von Braun had such a great sense of humor.
Holmes could be funny too. That night we had dinner in the Space Needle with the top brass of Boeing. When the check came, the president of the firm that would build major parts of the Saturn rocket, wondered if by picking up the check there'd be a problem, would it be proper, he asked?
"Oh, go ahead, pick it up," said Holmes. "There's no way anybody's gonna get a multi-billion contract out of NASA for that mediocre dinner."
It was after 10 p.m. when the Boeing brass left. Holmes and von Braun asked me to take them on a tour of the fairgrounds, even though every exhibit was closed for the night. They just wanted to tell their families they had a good time and had seen the Seattle World's Fair.
-0-
By the way: got this forwarded from a friend in California...
Mt. St. Helens.
Picture by Brent and Jan LeBaron.
What forms the "smoke rings" is air flowing over the mountain getting pushed up higher as it goes up and over the top. The moisture content and air temperature are just right so that the moisture condenses from a vapor to small particles at the higher altitude. When the moving air passes the peak and comes down again, particles evaporate back to an invisible vapor. The two "pancakes" indicate there are two layers of air passing over the cone, thus making this terrific picture possible.
See y' next time.
bb
Editor: How about them apples? He writes science, too!
For another story by Bob Button, Click Here.
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