Walt Bodine: My Times, My Town

by Walt Bodine

It takes a lifetime to know a city and its people, and a special talent to paint their portrait. As the city's best-known and best-loved storyteller for decades, Walt Bodine has painted that picture in words with My Times, My Town. Hundreds of thousands of Kansas Citians have heard his stories in his nearly six decades of local radio and television broadcasts. Now, Walt Bodine has collected those slices of life in this rich anthology of experience. My Times, My Town taps Walt's schollboy years in the 1920s and 1930s, and evokes the busy streets of his colorful neighborhood. It draws from his earliest years on commercial radio and momentous events he covered as a newsman, and it tells of the memorable people he's interviewed in his long career as a talk-show host. My Times, My Town collects the memories of Kansas City's premier raconteur. It belongs in the library of anyone who loves Kansas City - or simply loves life!

239 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2003

Reviews

[Jan]

While reading this memoir, many in Greater Kansas City and its surrounding communities will recognize Walt Bodine's unique voice as a radio reporter, a television news personality, and again a commentator on our public radio channel. I couldn't help but hear his voice come through with each chapter and interlude, at times with inflections revealing his subtle humor (even mischief) and other times reflecting sadder memories realistically without any hint of maudlin sentimentality. For example, when he writes about interviewing the presidents from Truman through Nixon, he provides humorous reflections at times (Nixon playing the Missouri Waltz) and thoughtful observations of the presidents' respective qualities other times (various times interviewing Kennedy, the last only a few weeks before his assassination). The same is true for the local people whom he describes from his many neighborhoods from childhood through the end of his life. These descriptions of places intrigued me, for he described key major sites from our red-lined city, always providing individual examples of people and "mom and pop" establishments. He wove his own story throughout, usually laughing at himself yet also dealing reflectively (but never gloomily) when describing his early-onset blindness. From his family to his work as a UMKC professor to his reviews as a food critic towards this end of his life, he tells stories that reflected our community.