Andy Rooney Saves Everything

As many of you know who have watched me over the years, I save things. When a drawer fills up with stuff I've saved, I take an empty box and put it in that - to save. I always need an empty box for stuff.

Yesterday, I decided I had to make room for some important papers and I came across a file of letters that Susie had saved.

A lot of them were from people you'd know. There were notes from Tom Brokaw, Brian Williams, Barbara Walters. They were all about something I had done on "60 Minutes."

I get letters from politicians - Ted Kennedy, Orrin Hatch, Bill Clinton and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, they all wrote me.

But of all the letters I've received from politicians, the one I liked best was years ago from Senator Barry Goldwater. I didn't agree with Goldwater about much of anything politically but I admired him a lot personally and after I wrote a piece about him for "60 Minutes" that Harry Reasoner did, we became good friends. As much as I disliked Barry's politics, I couldn't help liking him a lot personally.

Robert Schuller, the pastor of The Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif., wrote me a couple of good letters even though he and I don't agree much about religion.

I get Christmas cards from the comedienne Phyllis Diller; even the beautiful Loretta Young sent me a nice note years ago.

Of all the letters I've saved, the ones I like best are from friends I worked with: Arthur Godfrey, Charles Kuralt, Walter Cronkite, Garry Moore and Harry Reasoner.

Don't wait for me to throw out the letters I got from any of them.

Written by Andy Rooney