A lot of folks, both online and off, have been eulogizing Walter Cronkite over the past week, but undoubtedly one of my favorites comes from our friend Carla at Blue Oregon, whose own unique relationship to the CBS newscaster apparently dates back to her toddler years:
Every week night at 5PM, the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite would come on our television. This happened to coincide with my father getting off work and making the quick journey to our home. Dad would walk through the door each night like clockwork, just after Mr. Cronkite would begin reading the news.
Back then, which was the mid-60s, many parents plopped their kids in baby walkers, I suspect with the fine intent of helping kids get mobile without being so frustrated. My mother was no exception.
No matter where I was in our house, as soon as I heard the music and the announcer for the news, my mother says I’d come tearing through the house in the walker yelling “Con-KITE! Con-KITE!”, waiting at the door for my father.
It was my first word.
And thus the genesis of a news geek.
Personally, I associate Cronkite more with the space program and young men dying in Vietnam, but I prefer Carla’s sentimental memories over my own.
Josh Marshall at TPM says he used to pretend he was Cronkite when little Josh was only two years old. His mom would pin a map to the wall and he’d sit at a little desk and shuffle papers and talk.
It looks like Uncle Walter had at least as much influence on Americans of that generation as Captain Kangaroo had on mine.
P.S. I was born in 1950, and my father would walk through the door just as the TV asked the musical question “Who’s the leader of the club that’s made for you and me?” And we would pull Pop into the house and he’d watch Donald try and fail somehow to hit the gong.
Recently I saw a rerun of a report Cronkite did from Vietnam. He was standing in a street in some town, giving and account of the firefight that was going on there, when a mortar shell hit a building maybe 50 yards behind him. The guy didn’t skip a beat in his delivery.
No wonder his other nickname was “the ironman”.
@0, @1: Great stories.
There was a show that Cronkite created and hosted just after he left the Evening News and it lasted for maybe 1 season in 82/83. I seem to remember it being about science and technology. It hasn’t been mentioned in the bios and retrospectives, and was wondering if anyone remembered what it was called.
@3 Was it “Universe”?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122363/
You might check out Walter’s credits on his IMDB page – he was involved in many projects and the list is very, very long.
@3: I think that’s it! “Walter Cronkite’s Universe” rings a bell. The list on IMDB is so long I missed it.
This show was before cable and The Discovery Channel, so it was real science/tech and not all the ghosts of Egyptian mummies flying dinosaurs into space to avoid a comet hitting the earth.
Goldy,
Puddy realizes this is out of the thread but the West Indian Fish market is called Mutrul Fish Market. Check it out sometime. You’ll make some new friends. It’s north of Othello on Rainier in a west side strip mall.