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Anita Mitchell - BOOK - You Don't Look Like an Astronaut's Wife · Brian Thomas

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  Speaker 1: It's 805-55-KRCD Talk Station. Brian Thomas here, wishing everyone a
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  Speaker 1: very happy, I call it, Friday Eve. And I'm really
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  Speaker 1: excited about this discussion here. I am pleased as I
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  Speaker 1: can be to welcome Anita Mitchell. She's the author of
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  Speaker 1: a book we're going to be talking about right now,
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  Speaker 1: You Don't Look Like an Astronaut's Wife, Improbability, Impossibility, and
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  Speaker 1: Still Making It All Happen. Anita Mitchell, she's born, she's
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  Speaker 1: an Ohio native, born in the Lions. She studied at
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  Speaker 1: the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. but moved
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  Speaker 1: to Florida in 1964. While she was working at Walt Disney,
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  Speaker 1: she met a man named Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man
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  Speaker 1: to walk on the moon and ultimately ended up running
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  Speaker 1: for the Florida House in 1978. A really wonderful business
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  Speaker 1: background as well and very well known. Welcome to the
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  Speaker 1: 55KRC Morning Show, Anita Mitchell. It's a distinct pleasure to
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  Speaker 1: have you on today.
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  Speaker 2: It's an honor to be here. Thank you so much
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  Speaker 2: for having me.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, my pleasure.
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  Speaker 1: And, you know, I have to reveal my age. I
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  Speaker 1: turned 61 on Monday. I remember the Apollo program. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: as a small child, you know, the moon landing, the
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  Speaker 1: grainy images from space and the awe, we were all
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  Speaker 1: overwhelmed with it. It was space, everything. And a little
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  Speaker 1: blast from the past, Anita, I don't know if you
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  Speaker 1: remember Tang, which came out because the.
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  Speaker 3: Astronauts were drinking.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, boy, do I. Yeah. John Young.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, it was a must-have just because it tasted like crap. But,
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  Speaker 1: you know, oh, my God, the astronauts had it. And,
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  Speaker 1: you know, I had the little Lunar Rover plastic toys
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  Speaker 1: that came with Tang. But everything was Apollo. You were
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  Speaker 1: right there in the middle of all that excitement. What
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  Speaker 1: was it like at that moment in time being the
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  Speaker 1: wife of one of the guys that ended up landing
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  Speaker 1: on the moon?
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  Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I wasn't married yet when he flew,
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  Speaker 2: although I moved to Cocoa Beach when I was 21
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  Speaker 2: and went to work for a small radio station at first.
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  Speaker 2: So I was from Medina. I was born and raised
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  Speaker 2: in the Alliance, but I spent my later high school
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  Speaker 2: years and everything in the diner, which, you know, I'm
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  Speaker 2: so blessed to have been from the Midwest. I think
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  Speaker 2: it's what kept me somewhat grounded.
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  Speaker 3: Amen.
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  Speaker 2: And paying, living in Florida when all that happened, our
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  Speaker 2: governor had to call big press conferences because John Young
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  Speaker 2: had called it orange juice. And the Citrus Commission went crazy.
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  Speaker 2: Poor governor. And John was a character. Anyway, he's the
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  Speaker 2: one on one of the flights. He took a corned
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  Speaker 2: beef sandwich unbeknownst to NASA. Of course, about the crones,
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  Speaker 2: there's no gravity, so crones are floating everywhere into the
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  Speaker 2: boards and into the racks and corners. He was great.
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  Speaker 2: And then he was commander on Shuttle 1, and I
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  Speaker 2: was so honored to have Bob Crippen, who was the
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  Speaker 2: co-pilot on Shuttle 1. He did a little blurb on
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  Speaker 2: my book. And he lives here in Florida, actually, in
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  Speaker 2: Palm Beach County. And so he was nice enough to
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  Speaker 2: say a couple words on the book.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I was going to ask you about the Modern
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  Speaker 1: Space Program. I mean, I think it's amazing what we're doing.
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  Speaker 1: You know, in private, business is building spaceships now. It
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  Speaker 1: was all NASA previously.
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  Speaker 3: But I.
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  Speaker 1: I think it's neat. I think it's amazing. But it
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  Speaker 1: just doesn't seem to carry the level of excitement because
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  Speaker 1: it's not as new. The newness of the space program
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  Speaker 1: in the 60s was really, I think, what made it
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  Speaker 1: so thrilling. I mean, we had success after success. Now,
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  Speaker 1: there were failures from time to time, but it was
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  Speaker 1: also fresh and new as a topic. And I think
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  Speaker 1: that's really what captured America's attention.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think now NASA has done a much better job,
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  Speaker 2: if the media... I don't think they pick up as much,
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  Speaker 2: but there's so many benefits that came out of Mercury
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  Speaker 2: and Apollo and Gemini that never got told, and people
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  Speaker 2: were wondering why we were spending the money. I think
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  Speaker 2: one of the biggest things that came out of it
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  Speaker 2: is all of us as young people and adults would
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  Speaker 2: look up and wonder what was up there and what
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  Speaker 2: it was all about. And for the first time in
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  Speaker 2: our history, man went up and looked up at Earth
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  Speaker 2: and saw how beautiful and significant we are in the
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  Speaker 2: scheme of things. I also think it's nice to hear
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  Speaker 2: you reflect. But I find today the textbooks aren't talking
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  Speaker 2: about Apollo. You'll get stories about Neil and Buzz and
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  Speaker 2: Mike Collins on the first moon landing. After that, there's nothing.
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  Speaker 2: And it's very sad for me to see the thousands
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  Speaker 2: of people that worked on that program. No foreign, not
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  Speaker 2: one foreign part from all over the United States and
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  Speaker 2: the men and women involved. that were so dedicated. And
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  Speaker 2: our kids are learning that part of the space program.
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  Speaker 2: So thank you for your excitement and your enthusiasm and
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  Speaker 2: for remembering. And I'm hoping more people start to tell
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  Speaker 2: the story because with Artemis coming up. And I remember
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  Speaker 2: Ed saying to me, we have, you know, human nature,
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  Speaker 2: just by design, are explorers in one form or another.
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  Speaker 2: So that's kind of in our DNA in America, at least.
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  Speaker 2: And he always said we need to go further because
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  Speaker 2: He looked at planet Earth and equated it to a star,
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  Speaker 2: a big star. It's a planet, but it can burn
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  Speaker 2: up at some point. And he always felt that we
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  Speaker 2: should go further and explore and be able to live
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  Speaker 2: on another planet. I heard the other day somebody on
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  Speaker 2: one of the stupid things that you pick up on yourself.
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  Speaker 2: on your cell phone, said, oh, yeah, but our taxes
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  Speaker 2: couldn't afford it. I just had to laugh.
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  Speaker 3: Really?
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  Speaker 1: I suppose it's a question of priority, Anita Mitchell. Anita Mitchell,
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  Speaker 1: I've got to ask you, at what point in Ed Mitchell,
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  Speaker 1: of course, the Ed you're referring to is Edgar Mitchell,
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  Speaker 1: your husband, the guy that did end up walking on
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  Speaker 1: the moon. When did you meet Edgar? The circumstances, how
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  Speaker 1: you met him, and at what point in his career
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  Speaker 1: was it when you met and got married?
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  Speaker 2: I met him after he flew, and I had gone
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  Speaker 2: to work. I was one of the first people hired
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  Speaker 2: that lived in Brevard County, which is where NASA is,
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  Speaker 2: to be recruited by Disney. But I had two children.
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  Speaker 2: I'd been married before, and I wanted to stay in
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  Speaker 2: that area because the community was so close-knitted. You could
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  Speaker 2: go to a party and see your hairdresser. Neil Armstrong,
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  Speaker 2: the guy that fixes your car. Everybody was new. Wonderful
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  Speaker 2: time to be in history and raise little ones because
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  Speaker 2: the schools were so outstanding. So I commuted in the
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  Speaker 2: Chamber of Commerce I had been kind of a volunteer
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  Speaker 2: for in the community at Cocoa Beach. And when they
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  Speaker 2: heard I'd been hired by Disney, they asked if I
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  Speaker 2: could get the mouse to come to our– we always
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  Speaker 2: had a moonwalk festival parade the day before– every Apollo flight.
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  Speaker 2: And this happened to be right before Apollo 15. And
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  Speaker 2: I flew on 14. And they said the grand marshal
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  Speaker 2: was Jim Lovell, who ultimately flew 13, and Ed Mitchell.
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  Speaker 2: I had been a little kind of a reporter, not
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  Speaker 2: in the scheme of things, like a 5,000-watt station. And
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  Speaker 2: every now and then, they'd let me go cover something.
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  Speaker 2: So I got to know most of the guys because
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  Speaker 2: it was a small town. But I'd never met Ed.
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  Speaker 2: And so... I went to the PR person at Disney
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  Speaker 2: and asked if I could take the mouse. And he said, well,
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  Speaker 2: we normally don't let him go to hometown things, but
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  Speaker 2: since it's a launch, and there's been a lot of press,
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  Speaker 2: they said, yeah, try 3,000. So he said, well, take him,
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  Speaker 2: but don't let him talk in his little uniform. And
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  Speaker 2: so I picked him up. It was a 50-mile drive.
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  Speaker 2: I drove him to a place called Georgia Steakhouse, which
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  Speaker 2: is a little diner where the mayor... And a couple
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  Speaker 2: of city officials were, and on the way over, the
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  Speaker 2: mouse said to me, you know, Ed Mitchell's single. And
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  Speaker 2: I just kind of gave him a look and said, yeah, great,
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  Speaker 2: no thanks. And we got to the place, and he
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  Speaker 2: had his little uniform on, and it was my birthday.
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  Speaker 2: And he pulled the chair out next to Ed and
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  Speaker 2: did this little dance and sat me next to him.
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  Speaker 2: That's how I met Ed Mitchell.
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  Speaker 3: And the rest is history.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, later on that evening, we had what we
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  Speaker 2: would call STEM today, but it was a little event,
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  Speaker 2: not black tie. We didn't know black tie in Cocoa Beach,
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  Speaker 2: but a big event. And all the astronauts came, and
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  Speaker 2: the money went to kids' scholarships for kids that wanted
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  Speaker 2: to be engineers. And Ed came in, and a friend
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  Speaker 2: of mine was running the thing and had everybody sing
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  Speaker 2: happy birthday. He came over and asked me to dance.
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  Speaker 2: And at the end of the dance, he said, well,
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  Speaker 2: if I wanted to call you, how would I find you?
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  Speaker 2: And I said, oh, brother. I said, you can just
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  Speaker 2: call the mouse. And he did.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, that's great.
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  Speaker 2: Wow.
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  Speaker 3: So he had to work on it. He had to
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  Speaker 3: win you over. I love that. That's outstanding.
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  Speaker 1: Well, it's like my wife with me. My wife said
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  Speaker 1: no when I asked her out, I think, two or
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  Speaker 1: three times in a row before. She finally ended up
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  Speaker 1: saying okay. So I like a challenge. It sounds like
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  Speaker 1: Ed did too.
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  Speaker 3: I just have to know. Because when I think.
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  Speaker 1: About space travel, it's like when your spouse is deployed
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  Speaker 1: to a war, staying at home has got to be really,
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  Speaker 1: really worrying. You don't know what's going on at any
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  Speaker 1: moment in time. So the stress has got to be overwhelming.
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  Speaker 1: I want to know, did you ever talk to Ed
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  Speaker 1: about what it's like being inside the tin can, if
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  Speaker 1: I can refer to it, the David Bowie way of
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  Speaker 1: referring to it? Because you are beholden to technology. You
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  Speaker 1: are hell and gone from anywhere. And the likelihood of
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  Speaker 1: death seems to be pretty overwhelming because anything that goes
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  Speaker 1: wrong is going to end in that result. What's it
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  Speaker 1: like from a stress standpoint for an astronaut being out
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  Speaker 1: in space?
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  Speaker 3: Do you recall that?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, sure. I'll tell you a funny story. In typical Ed,
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  Speaker 2: first of all, back up a little bit. Ed started
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  Speaker 2: washing cup dusters from his hometown in Texas when he
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  Speaker 2: was like 11. for flying time. So he learned to
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  Speaker 2: fly early. And then he got a scholarship to Caltech
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  Speaker 2: or Carnegie Mellon. He chose Carnegie Mellon. He went to
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  Speaker 2: go east. And from there, Stutnick, in that period of time,
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  Speaker 2: he knew men were going to go to the moon.
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  Speaker 2: So he went to MIT. picked up two PhDs, became
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  Speaker 2: a test pilot, fighter pilot in Korea, graduated number one
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  Speaker 2: from the Navy post-grad school, joined the Navy, and was
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  Speaker 2: the third group of astronauts that came in. And he
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  Speaker 2: told me, as far as the flight, and this is
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  Speaker 2: so typical of his temperament, there was a weather hold
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  Speaker 2: at his launch. And I went to every launch anyway
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  Speaker 2: because it was a small town and I had a
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  Speaker 2: little radio thing going. People kind of felt sorry for
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  Speaker 2: me and the kids and always included us, which was
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  Speaker 2: beyond lovely. And so I said, what did you do
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  Speaker 2: during the 45-minute weather launch? And I remember we were
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  Speaker 2: with Al Shepard and his wife, Louise. And Al said,
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  Speaker 2: you tell her. He said, well, I took a little nap.
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  Speaker 2: I said, you what? He said, I fell asleep. I
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  Speaker 2: wasn't falling asleep if I got to go to New York,
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  Speaker 2: of course. I was from a diner, so anything was
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  Speaker 2: a big deal after that. And Ed, he said, well,
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  Speaker 2: what else are you going to do? And then people
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  Speaker 2: would ask him what the ride was like, and he
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  Speaker 2: said it was like being kind of in a roller coaster,
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  Speaker 2: only vertical, and it was shake, rattle, and roll through
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  Speaker 2: all the three, four stages. And on the moon, of course,
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  Speaker 2: there's no gravity, so you hop. And people probably remember that.
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  Speaker 2: Remember the Apollo 14 flight, Al Shepard hit a golf ball.
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  Speaker 2: I remember.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, of course.
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  Speaker 2: And Ed was so annoyed. He said to me, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I threw a javelin and nobody noticed. And I looked
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  Speaker 2: at him and said, probably four javelin throwers in the
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  Speaker 2: entire world.
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  Speaker 4: There's a few more golfers, Ed. You know, and Alan
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  Speaker 4: used to say that, ask him how far it went.
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  Speaker 4: He'd say around, around the, the moon three times, and
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  Speaker 4: then he didn't know how much further. So that was
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  Speaker 4: always a fun kind of story for me.
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  Speaker 2: And, of course, Ed did the ESP experiments on the
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  Speaker 2: moon that was supposed to be private, but somebody leaked it.
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  Speaker 2: And that was a device that he became so very
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  Speaker 2: famous for.
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  Speaker 1: ESP as an extrasensory perception?
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  Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, real quick, you're going to have to enlighten me
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  Speaker 3: on that one.
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  Speaker 2: He was very interested, along with Werner von Braun, Von
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  Speaker 2: Braun was very interested in dreams and what made dreams,
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  Speaker 2: the mind, and became interested before his flight, actually. He
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  Speaker 2: was working with some physicists about does extrasensory perception, is
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  Speaker 2: it capable at long distances? And so when you get outside,
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  Speaker 2: I don't, believe me, I flunk physics, but I'm a
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  Speaker 2: good parent. When you get outside the Earth's gravity, you
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  Speaker 2: leave the magnetic field. So it would be interesting to
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  Speaker 2: find out if they did an experiment of telepathy, did
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  Speaker 2: it exist at that long distance?
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  Speaker 1: That's the connection. Okay, I was waiting to see. Wait
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  Speaker 1: a minute, why would it be any different on the
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  Speaker 1: moon than on Earth in terms of ESP? Well, there
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  Speaker 1: you go, the magnetic field component. At least it's a theory.
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  Speaker 1: Can I ask you, the name of the book, You
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  Speaker 1: Don't Look Like an Astronaut's Wife, Improbability, a Possibility of
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  Speaker 1: Still Making It All Happen, what's the connection with that one?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I remembered it because I thought it was funny,
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  Speaker 2: but about 30% of the time, no matter where we were,
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  Speaker 2: we could be on Knob Hill Society or in Palm
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  Speaker 2: Beach in a black tie or the Fourth of July
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  Speaker 2: Parade in Kansas. And the receiving line, and they would
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  Speaker 2: give Ed's full credentials, Navy captain, and they'd get to
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  Speaker 2: me and they'd say, and this is the nice wife
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  Speaker 2: of the astronaut. And so I would say, how do
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  Speaker 2: you do? And about 30% of the time, women particularly,
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  Speaker 2: and they never meant it mean at all, but they'd say, really,
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  Speaker 2: you don't look like an astronaut's wife. And the press
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  Speaker 2: a couple of times caught it and asked me, what
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  Speaker 2: are you supposed to look like?
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 2: They mean it nicely. I think they don't know quite
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  Speaker 2: what to say because I didn't go to the moon.
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  Speaker 2: And after Ed's credentials, I just leave it to the
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  Speaker 2: eyes of the beholder that I thought was very funny.
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  Speaker 2: And so I thought it'd be a good name for
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  Speaker 2: the book.
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  Speaker 3: That's great.
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  Speaker 1: Anita Mitchell, she's the author of the book we're talking about,
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  Speaker 1: You Don't Look Like an Astronaut's Wife and Probability and
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  Speaker 1: Possibility and Still Making It All Happen. If you could
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  Speaker 1: just boil it down to one thing, what is the
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  Speaker 1: most prominent thing about being the wife of an astronaut,
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  Speaker 1: that particular period of time and all the excitement with
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  Speaker 1: the the various programs, Gemini and Apollo et al. If
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  Speaker 1: you could take away one thing, what would be the pinnacle?
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  Speaker 1: What is the fondest recollection you could have of that period?
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  Speaker 2: I think what I learned, the perspective that it isn't
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  Speaker 2: seeing is believing. It's believing is seeing. Opening my mind
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  Speaker 2: is so many things. Being married to my dad because
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  Speaker 2: he was very involved in the future of from the
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: eyeball in and studied the mind and preventive medicine and
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: all those things. And then raising three children in that
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  Speaker 2: environment and keeping my Ohio values and my feet on
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  Speaker 2: the ground probably was the biggest challenge for me.
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  Speaker 1: And as we part company today, my listeners will enjoy
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: the fact that I can tell them that you were
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  Speaker 1: elected chairman of the Republican Party of Palm Beach County.
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  Speaker 1: They love your politics on top of you. Anita Mitchell,
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  Speaker 1: this has been a real pleasure. I am so pleased
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  Speaker 1: you wrote the book and I'm glad to share my
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: excitement for the program. You brought back a whole lot
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  Speaker 1: of memories in talking with you about the book. What
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  Speaker 1: we've done is made it really easy to get your book.
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  Speaker 1: It's a link on my blog page at 55KRC. com, Anita.
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  Speaker 1: So people click on it, buy a book, and I
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: know they will. It's going to be a great read.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you for your time today, and thank you for
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: your service overall to our country.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, and thank you for your patriotism and your love
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: for what we did. We can thank President Trump for
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: the program continuing because it was done starting with Obama
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: and Biden killed the budget. So that's not a political statement.
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  Speaker 2: That's an American statement.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's also a factual statement. Anita Mitchell, it's been great.
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  Speaker 3: You stay.