"I can't read; I can't write, and they won't let me talk"

Title of this blog quoted from a taped conversation between Linkletter and his son.


Art Linkletter dies at 97: broadcasting pioneer created 'Kids Say the Darndest Things'
Art Linkletter, the radio and television talk-show pioneer who was best known for eliciting hilarious remarks from the mouths of babes and who late in life was a popular motivational speaker and author, challenging seniors to live as zestfully as he did, has died. He was 97…."I've been around long enough to develop some insights," Linkletter told the Orlando Sentinel in 2007, "Don't retire, become a 'seniorpreneur,' keep a positive outlook, and maintain your sense of humor."

"Retire?" he said in response to a Times reporter's question in 1988, when he paused for an interview between skiing at Vail, Colo., and scuba diving off Brisbane, Australia. "If you retire, you can't ever have a day off."
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-art-linkletter-new-20100527,0,4664663.story

This is the first guy I can remember loving. I loved my dad, but that was so complicated, not feeling secure in Dad’s estimation of me, that it left me bewildered till my late 20’s. Art Linkletter was a guy I knew would enjoy me. He seemed clearly kind, and tolerant, not a guy who could get mad at you for spilling milk or not paying attention. He'd laugh at the dumb,and sometimes outright mean things kids would say; I felt safe that he'd love me as I was. As many of the people of my early life looked at me sideways, like a confused puppy, I knew Linkletter would “get me.”

When I “met” Art he was a few years younger than I am now. There are moments when I see my life as far spent, and death is clearly a certainty. Thinking of Linkletter and all that awaited him in the last 45 years, it occurs to me, there could be much more on the forefront. It makes me a bit more excited about what the future could hold. It makes me rethink feelings of being a fool for starting a business that might make a fortune as I drop dead. Thank God I had broccoli for dinner.