Tom Carper: “today and this week, as we pause to reflect on the life of Ronald Reagan and his role in leading our Nation and the…”

“today and this week, as we pause to reflect on the life of Ronald Reagan and his role in leading our Nation and the State in which I lived when I was in the Navy, I was thinking back and talking with my children this week about my first recollection of Ronald Reagan. My first recollection was when I was about their age, early in my teenage years, seeing him on television. I may have seen him earlier than that as a kid in the movies, but I do not remember. I remember fully--and the Presiding Officer is probably too young to remember this--a television show called ``Death Valley Days'' and watched later, I remember, a television show called ``GE Theater.'' He was the host and introduced each week's segment. My family would watch those shows, not religiously, but regularly. I enjoyed them as a kid growing up in Danville, VA. At the time, Ronald Reagan, who, I guess, was maybe in his fifties at that time, or maybe forties, had a reasonably successful career in motion pictures, certainly a lot more successful than any of us, except for former Senator Fred Thompson. But he had a reasonably successful career. We were in this in-between place where television was coming of age and playing a role with respect to ``Death Valley Days'' and ``GE Theater.'' I remember my first thoughts of him were that he was a nice-looking guy, a handsome kind of rugged fellow. He seemed to be amiable.”