Kids are always asked, What are you going to be when you grow up? I needed an answer. So instead of saying, a fireman, or a policeman, I said, a reporter.

It does no harm just once in a while to acknowledge that the whole country isn't in flames, that there are people in the country besides politicians, entertainers, and criminals.

I much preferred the peaceful life on the road, where I didn't have to ask embarrassing questions and do all the things real reporters have to do.

Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything.

I was on the high school track team, believe it or not, and played baseball, poorly but passionately.

I saw how many people were poor and how many kids my age went to school hungry in the morning, which I don't think most of my contemporaries in racially segregated schools in the South thought very much about at the time.

TV critics, who traditionally hate television and make their living writing about it, often didn't like what I did on the air.