It's been said of certain individuals that, if they didn't exist, we'd have to invent them.
To me, that's about the highest praise there is. It means they were or are THAT important to our way of life.
If Walter Cronkite doesn't fit the "...we'd have to invent them" paradigm, no one ever has. The man was the model which countless have followed. For those who didn't walk the trail of the Cronkite paradigm, they simply do not make the grade, nor will they ever. Too many likely do not know much more than the name Cronkite and precious little else about the man most of America welcomed into their homes nightly for generations.
I was a dorky kid.I was also as nosy and newsy as I am today. Do you think it's why my life went where it went?
Ours was a CBS house, therefore ours was first a Douglas Edwards house then a Walter Cronkite house. If it wasn't Cronkite, it wasn't news, it didn't matter all that much, it wasn't THAT important to our way of life. If it wasn't Cronkite, we never saw it.
Growing up, the neighbors we were closest with were a Huntley/Brinkley family. Why? I have no idea whatsoever. What I do know is that on those few times when I happened to be in their house during evening news, Huntley and Brinkley looked so foreign to me that I was fascinated by who these "other guys" were. Over at my house, I tend to doubt Chet or David ever so much as flashed across our Philco screen for a second. Let's put it this way, I was deprived.
Frankly, and this is a minor whine left over from childhood, I felt a bit left out. Once I was old enough to watch what I wanted to watch and my very own television(an old B&W clunker with rabbit ears), and one was mine at about twelve or thirteen, I defaulted without much thought to Walter Cronkite.
I never got to see and hear their signature and, let's face it, rather famous "Good night, Chet - "Good night, David." It's my understanding that the order of the exchange did alternate from night to night, but I honestly don't remember.
The very first time I heard or read the word avuncular was as applied to Cronkite. I ran for a dictionary and learned what it meant, and of course, have never forgotten what it means. We always had dictionaries nearby growing up, mom and dad always encouraged to grab one when we came across a new word. It works. If you look it up, you'll never forget it.
Other people of greatness have died within the last month. I wrote nothing, for the very simple reason that, what could I possibly add that others haven't already.
It's the same with Walter Cronkite, except the loss, while surely anticipated, is worthy of everyone stopping, thinking, and noting it.
He was literally a giant. And there really was just one Walter Cronkite.
