Operation Megalithic Lift - The Stones and the Stars: Building Scotland's Newest Megalith - page 207

he interrupted work on the Astronomy Project his faith would be put
to the test by ejection from our third floor window.
That worked until the morning of helicopter day, when the
urge to preach became too much for him. As he entered the office
after we and the ASTRA volunteers had spent 2-3 h folding leaflets
for the schoolchildren, he blocked my first wife's exit with the cry,
“I trust there is nothing mystical about this operation…”
“It's far too cold up there to be mystical,” she said, “get out
of my way!” We were in a serious hurry to get to the press confer-
ence at the school nearest to the site, and things were starting to
go awry. He was left protesting to empty air, “That's not what I
meant…,” and was not the only person to be left in that situation
as the day continued.
The press conference at the school was for the signing by the
Thoms and Mackie of copies of their topics to be placed in a time
capsule beside the central stone, along with press coverage of the
event and a message from the Lord Provost David Hodge. In the
end the plastic capsule was not ready and a surrogate had to be
used. Mackie was unable to attend the signing ceremony, and the
torch to seal the capsule was broken. The message from the Lord
Provost did not arrive until later, so the placing of a lunch box to
represent the capsule for the benefit of the press was purely sym-
bolic, though like President Nixon's speech to the astronauts on
the Moon, it used up a lot of very valuable time.
John had already been on site with the Sportsworks JCB team
and the naval ground crew, getting the stones into the RAF nets
ready for the helicopter before coming over to the school (Fig. 7.13 ) .
The rest of us arrived at the same time as the Thoms, as hundreds
of schoolchildren began to gather at the rallying point. Getting out
of their Range Rover, at first the professor didn't recognize me, and
Archie Thom had to reintroduce us. “I'm still against all of this,”
he reminded me. There were strict instructions that nothing was to
happen until the Lord Provost's message arrived, and as we waited
helplessly, the Sea King appeared overhead precisely on schedule.
John left with the naval ground crew and I followed as soon as I
could, with the helicopter already spiraling in. It was agreed that my
wife would go with the Thoms in the Range Rover, to watch from
the path around the base of the hill, surrounded by cheering children.
Initially Gavin was with John (Fig. 7.14a ) , alternating again between