I DON'T NEED NO STEENKING BADGES!

Well, yes you do.

Especially if you're one of those Running Dogs of the Media.

(We used to be called "the Press" but somewhere along the way "Media" became the way to describe us.  At least in polite company.)

I spent a few decades in the Broadcast Journalism trade and, like all of my brethren, collected a lot of badges.

My first, though the fourth station I worked for, was a neat little doohickey that hooked over the pocket on the front of your suit coat.

That was in Bismarck, North Dakota.

The station sent me to the two national political conventions in Chicago and Miami Beach in 1968 but I strangely don't have any badges from either one.

Had a good time, though.

I also attended the first inauguration of this guy in Washington, D.C. in 1969

Soon after I moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, for a job at WIBC Radio.

I'm pretty sure this was Spiro Agnew.

Then I moved on again, to Phoenix, Arizona, to a television job at KTAR-TV and don't you know, this guy seemed to be following me.

I remember the night he went on television a few years later to announce that he would resign the Presidency the next day.

I hosted a party after work that went until 6 a.m.

I went to a mini-convention of Democrats in Kansas City in 1976 shortly after Mo Udall had announced he was running for the top job.

I don't seem to have any badges from that affair either.

But I did meet Sally Quinn and had a nice chat.

Before I knew it the calendar had turned to 1980 and The Big Apple.

The television station had changed ownership and call letters by this time . . becoming KPNX-TV.

I went to the Republican convention in Detroit, Michigan that year too but my father died back in Arizona and I came home after only the first couple of days.

1984 was my last "event" year and it was a big one.

First was the Democratic Convention in San Francisco, California.

Then the Republican Convention in Dallas, Texas.

But sandwiched in between them was the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

I attended those games too.

I never worked directly for Gannet News Service in Washington but I had to deal with them on a daily basis getting stories and live feeds for our Phoenix newscasts.

And now (no, I'm not done yet) here are a variety of my changing looks on press badges through the years.

They're all from Phoenix.

I'm thinking I need a badge now with my picture on it that says "RETIRED".

Next stop - Europe.