A Traveller's Tale #11
Telstar and Touring
[Parallels are fascinating. This time last year I'd just returned to New Zealand after two weeks in Brisbane. Little did I know how the world would change in eight weeks.
In 1962 the cold war and nuclear threats were real. The "free world" was under threat from a perceived insidious enemy. Human rights and status quos were being questioned. Communication technologies were being advanced and science on all sides of political divides was reaching for the stars.
In April 1962, in spring, the Cape family had reached England on board the MS Oranje, a passenger liner operated by the Royal Dutch Mail Netherland line. My father, Peter Cape, was to train with the BBC in London in television production techniques and return to the NZBC, where he would become senior television producer with WNTV1.
Our passage had brought us halfway around the world, through Florida and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The international space race was in full swing. Russia had its Sputnik and Vostok programs and America its Mercury missions. Now headlines are being made by SpaceX and the Dragon capsule delivering astronauts to the international space station with the first privately constructed spacecraft. The latest red scare has been pandemic Covid-19. Russia has launched its latest vaccine Sputnik V. The Americans have Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in the offing. Is this déjà vu?
In the beginning, in 1962, transatlantic broadcasting was just beginning with the TELSTAR satellite.
I pick up Dad's diary entries as we move to Stoke Newington.]
July 7th 1962 Saturday
Spent morning agonising over motorcars – all ramshackle, all too dear. Came home. Went for walk to Stamford Hill and bought 1948 Anglia in magnificent mechanical condition (careful owner) for £30. I suspect the 14,000 miles on the clock is its first, and not its second 14,000.
July 8th 1962 Sunday
Took MPJ for its first drive. Behaves extremely well. Went to Waltham Abbey (founded by Harold in 1060) then to Epping Forest (getting lost by going south to Chagford). Lunch in forest with numbers of other cars and people, then on to Epping. Back through the forest to Waltham where we explored the church. Met Darby, the Vicar, who showed us the stairways in the walls which once led to the chapel of Waltham Holy Cross – took us up the tower and then to the vicarage for tea.
July 9th 1962 Monday
Shopped at Stanford Hill and Stoke Newington by car - most unEnglish. Kit has cold and spends day in bed.
July 10th 1962 Tuesday
Lunch at English Speaking Union with Mies Jackson, a Canadian newsman, and Hugh Burnet (when to ring at time home sometime). Burnet produced Freeman in Face to Face. Burgundy heavy after lunch. Look at Harrods sale. (English sales like ours: nothing you want there). Spent exhausting evening waiting for first satellite TV relay from States via TELSTAR. Sixty very mediocre seconds at 1am. Someone boobed, as the aerial failed to lock on to the satellite.
July 11th 1962 Wednesday
A better day. Went shopping in High Holborn. Thermos burst in my satchel and flooded exposure meter. Visited Russian shop (memo, buy a balalaika). Home to cook risotto for Lex and Gabs, together with Arijon Rosé (a pleasant wine). Watch Telstar again. Transmission perfect but French steal the day by showing programme and bouncing it back to US. BBC very angry!
Flung into bit of a panic at being told that we start training on Wednesday next.
July 12th 1962 Thursday
Lex and Gabs stayed the night. After they'd gone we decided to risk trying to get seats at the Royal Tournament – Lex had recommended it. Quite magnificent, bands motorbikes, field guns, the lot. They even tossed the Queen and the Dukebarva in for good measure. Had excellent seats along from royal box, and took field glasses, so we saw everything. Drove there in MPJ, who went very well. Navigated to Earls Court magnificently, but got bushed between Ladbroke Grove and Harrow Rd coming back. Traffic very heavy and we got stuck in several traffic jams.
Surprised to find that Stoopid – Stephanie's mouse – had escaped. We now have to travel with only 9 – however, the possibility of another family on route is eliminated.
July 13th 1962 Friday
To town for more shopping – the sales are nearly over. Hard to locate sheet plastic, but managed to find a non-electric travelling one. Barbara bought a leather coat for £14. 14 – priced down from 24 guineas. I bought shoes at 30 shillings - suede Chelsea boots. Beer at the ESU before coming home.
July 14th 1962 Saturday
Left in rain at 9.30. Drove around N. Circular Road (A406) to Shepherds Bush – bought cage for mice – then to Staines. Pleasant spot, much cheaper than London: bought plastic coat for 4/11. Had lunch at Runnymede, then on to Windsor. Walked around castle (the English have a genius for asking for money: even St Georges chapel costs two bob-a-rob – and there's sixpence here and a shilling there all over the place. B------ nation of shopkeepers: not a compliment, an insult: they'd sell their own grandmothers. Returned by way of Eton and Harrow.
July 15th 1962 Sunday
Took six hours to plot our Lands End – John O'Groats itinerary on the map. We'll be tired when it's over.
July 16th 1962 Wednesday
Shopping expedition for non-electric travelling iron, milk flasks, canvas & all bits and pieces for travelling.
July 17th 1962 Wednesday
More shopping - bought seatbelts, file, drill, bits, spanner. Drill packed up after six holes, file broke, and I put in evening mounting for the seatbelts the wrong way round. Never been so dirty. Back to town to get car's tax certificate DA itinerary – 3600 miles as planned! Get to bed at one.
Kit has German measles, just to cap everything. Spots came out when he had a bath.
July 18th 1962 Wednesday
14843 at Stoke Newington
Off with small boy with measles, 9 white mice, and an overloaded car at 10.30.
Saw Berkhampstead castle (had lunch by roadside there), then on to Aylesbury – market town on market day (town square). Magnificent medieval pub – wattle and daub – where Cromwell slept. First call Speen Weavers, well off track. Boxed up by fact that White Spirit (for alpine primus) unavailable - W.S. to English a form of mutating turpentine.
Found Angela Pruden and husband at Piggotts, High Wycombe: young, grubby, but successful woodcarvers! Silversmiths & metal workers. Piggotts where Eric Gill spent last years. Lovely converted dairy – into – chapel, with Gill lettering & carving. Rained, stayed to coffee then dinner: camped in field nearby and spent evening singing folksongs, and talking.
[So our tour of the British Isles began. My father photographed me on a traction engine emblazoned with a logo "ON TOUR" on a merry go round at the Alexandra Palace fair. More than a holiday, this would be an expedition of discovery. It would cover nearly 9000km. We would be freedom campers perching in any available nook or cranny, self-sufficient and opportunistic. My father would report to The Imperial Relations Trust and I would shun Correspondence School assignments in favour of the tapestry of life that unfolded around me.]
