Palm Beach County Moon-Walker Awes Caan Writer With Fashion Miscues, Dental Appointment

Flickr User: christiangeo

Palm Beach resident and moon man Edgar Mitchell

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.