When I was young, Walter Cronkite was on every night just before dinner. I remember hearing a joke that I couldn't wait to tell my family over the dinner table. It went something like this: Mama tater and Daddy tater were sitting in their living room watching the news when their teenage tater daughter came in so excited about her day. She had come to a momentous decision, she had decided who to marry and couldn't wait to share the great news. She sat her tater parents down and said, "Mama and papa I know who I am going to marry and you'll never guess his name so I 'll just tell you. I'm going to Marry Walter Cronkite." Horrified, her parents exclaimed that he just wouldn't do! Their sweet daughter just could not marry a "common" tater.
I remember thinking this was the best joke I'd ever heard. It had to be because i heard it over 40 years ago and still smile at the punch line.
One newscaster said Cronkite's passing marked the end of an incredible era. Maybe his life was that amazing. I am uncertain about this. I read his biography. It didn't impress me as much as I thought it would. He was a man in the right place at the right time but he was also a man who like to push the envelope. He opened arenas in news that perhaps didn't need to be explored. Still he had the courage to go after what he thought was important. A good man. A well liked man. An icon in the news media industry. What must it have been like to actually live the histories and experience the news as he did?