CBS News

After I left Channel 9 in Washington, D.C., I accepted a position on the production staff of the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite at the Washington Bureau. It was the CBS News heyday. Dan Rather was at the White House, Roger Mudd on Capitol Hill, Bob Schieffer at the Pentagon. Connie Chung was there, as was Bernard Shaw. In fact, Bernie Shaw read a poem he wrote for me at my going away party. In those days, everything was on film. Film crews were sent out on assignment and while the film was being edited, the reporters and correspondents would write their scripts. The final pieces couldn't be put together until the film was developed and cut. Many times I found myself running through the studio much like the character in Broadcast News. At that time, Bob Schieffer was the number two man at the Pentagon. He would call in every day, and usually had a new joke to tell me. He also always typed his own scripts, even when he became number one.
During the Holidays, I'm often reminded of how excited I was to be included in the invitation to the White House Christmas party for the press. I took my mother as my guest and still remember the thrill of standing in the Red Room, and sipping tea and munching cookies in two chairs by the fire in the Green Room. I had a long chat with David Eisenhower, President Eisenhower's grandson, and was amazed that he was excited to be talking with someone who knew Walter Cronkite.
At CBS, it was a tradition to show the President's Christmas card on the news broadcast. Each year, they used my hand to hold the card and open it to the verse inside. How great was that! My hand was famous!


"Leaving for Christmas" update. I'm on chapter 23. It's difficult to end the book. I'll miss my characters.