>John Young welcomed us with a few forgettable words, all delivered while he looked at his shoes. Dealing with life-and-death situations as a test pilot and astronaut hadn’t endowed Young with any public speaking skills. He seemed nervous and hesitant to make eye contact with his audience. It was a personality trait we would learn wasn’t just associated with welcoming speeches. (The thingsLife never mentioned.) His stature and voice made him even less compelling. Like all the earliest astronauts, he was short and small framed. He was a Florida boy, and he had the accent and vocabulary of one. He frequently used the expression “them boys” in reference to anybody outside the astronaut office. He wasn’t warm or approachable.Reclusive wouldn’t be far from the mark. But he did have a great understated humor. When Florida named one of Orlando’s main thoroughfares the John Young Parkway, John said, “Them boys shouldn’t have done that. I ain’t dead yet.”
>nervous and hesitant to make eye contact
>he looked at his shoes
Young was a sperg?
