Audio By Carbonatix
It’s adorable how our Canadian visitors are always gobsmacked by what they find in South Florida. This columnist found an astronaut. Or, to adopt his reverent tone: He found a human who has traversed an un-earthly celestial body but whose feet now obey the terrestrial pull of this planet. The article begins:
The old man climbs out of a Nissan Versa, home from the most mundane
of appointments: He’s been to the dentist. His housekeeping aide is
with him and they walk together from the garage to the house, which is
tucked down a side road of middle-class homes, vacant lots and palmetto
scrub in Palm Beach County, Florida, about 12 kilometres inland from
the rolling sea.He’s wearing brown shoes, brown socks and short
pants with suspenders, the home-team uniform for Floridians of a
certain age, and I mention this only to reinforce my awe at meeting, so
late in his life, and so late in mine, the sixth man to step on the
moon.
So, Mr. Mitchell: You wore lederhosen to the interview? That’s awesome. But I’m just teasing about the article, which is a worthwhile way to commemorate the anniversary of the first lunar landing. And Mitchell gives a terrific interview, displaying both his wonder of space travel and the humility he learned from it.
