I read, collected, cut out magazines and newspapers, asked adults, listened to radio and TV news. Then it was the time of movies in the cinema, on the VCR, on the DVD. Occasionally I attended some rare talk on the subject. All to know more about space. This passion, having its seed planted in my mind, today is an adult tree, firm and strong. Believe it or not, in the mid-1960s I even signed up for the first expected commercial flights to the moon, including my name on the list that PanAm had opened to the public.
In these six decades, alongside space issues, my days were filled with a great deal of rush, exhaustion, and intense tension. The studies and the choice of the second profession, which I was forced to do, since the first option was to be an astronaut, something impossible at the time for a Brazilian kid, still without higher education, without graduate, without being military, not being North American neither Russian nor pilot with many hours of flight.
One tiny point in favor: As a self-taught student, I became interested in learning English, which was important to my ambitious dream. I had excellent teachers and private teachers! Here’s a partial list: Paul Anka, Neil Sedaka, Johnny Mathis, and even one Elvis Presley. Ah! and the unforgettable teacher Brenda Lee! I even fell in love with her.
And so I also studied and learned Italian very well, with Rita Pavone (ah !, another great passion…), Mina, Bobby Solo, Pepino di Capri, Nico Fidenco. Domenico Modugno and so many others. But my favorite language, the one I devoted the most time to learning, was undoubtedly French, taught by the most beautiful teacher in the world: Françoise Hardy, my greatest passion, I confess, to this day. Merci Beaucoup, Françoise. To be fair, she had excellent assistants, such as Adamo, Gilbert Becaud, Edith Piaf, Mireille Mathieu, Charles Aznavour.
Other factors also contributed to the aforementioned rush and exhaustion in these six decades. In addition to this interest in languages, my “free time” was filled with a bachelor’s degree in economics, an incomplete master’s degree in computer science, a postgraduate degree in higher education didactics, a working life (morning and afternoon) in countless companies. as a programmer and systems analyst, and another professional life as a university professor at night and on Saturdays.