Uncle Walter

Indeed, the world must be a little quieter, a little more peaceful for a moment tonight. The whole world knew Walter Cronkite, and the whole world knew that he would report to us Americans, the truth, the way he saw it. And he did. He saw it. He was one of the dying breed of news reporters who went where he reported. He didin't decide a side of the news, he lived it. People talk of the Kennedy assaniation-I lived it. They talk about his reporting of Nixon...I lived it. But I remember the Prudential News Hour, when we all learned the theme song for a little piece of the rock, and what was going on. It was sort of National Geographic, sort of news, sort of history.

Though my father was an American Historian of some worth, I looked to Walter Cronkite for the truth. If he didn't repeat dad's words, well then...how could dad, who had researched religiously for primary sources for some of the same information, be right. Fortunately there were seldom differences. We were allowed to watch the "Piece of the Rock" news, and that meant something in our house. It meant that dad believed in it, and so did mother; therefore did we.

As I look back on these times, I feel old. I still feel that "Uncle Walter" is an aging confident. I look to him for truth on the evening news. I forget my own age and the tumultuous years through which I have lived. Vietnam, Nixon, Kennedy, McCarthy, the Eisenhour years; Sleep well Walter.