My First Voice of Truth and Authority.
I looked at my son William this morning at breakfast and realized that he is the same age now that I was when I watched the first Apollo moon landing. The memories of that are tatted into my brain and I can recall it all so easily. It seems like I never left the TV and learned all about how the astronauts were doing as if my own life depended on it. The voice of that endeavor was Walter Cronkite. Largely the visual memory too. Walter Cronkite's CBS evening newscast was the news of choice for my Dad every night. My Dad was the company of my choice every evening so I watched it with him. I grew up becoming aware of the world in the late '60s and words like 'assassin', 'Apollo', 'Vietnam', 'President Johnson', 'Pnom Phen', 'civil rights', 'Cambodia', 'protest', 'Nixon', and 'riots', became new and scary household words. When I read or even hear these words anymore I hear them in Walter Cronkite's voice.
He was the human face and voice on all of those thrilling ventures to the moon that I saw on that black and white TV I remember so well.
It's disappointing to think that there are so many things that my son will not own in his memories to come that I had, simple things like one authoritative and trusted voice to tell me the truth about the world outside. An oracle with a cheesy mustache and a halting, soberly bouncy delivery with a gray map of the world behind him with arrows and strange Asian names. And ultimately, a very serious grown-up in big glasses, playing with model spaceships on TV and making that look respectable.
He was the human face and voice on all of those thrilling ventures to the moon that I saw on that black and white TV I remember so well.
It's disappointing to think that there are so many things that my son will not own in his memories to come that I had, simple things like one authoritative and trusted voice to tell me the truth about the world outside. An oracle with a cheesy mustache and a halting, soberly bouncy delivery with a gray map of the world behind him with arrows and strange Asian names. And ultimately, a very serious grown-up in big glasses, playing with model spaceships on TV and making that look respectable.