MICKEY ROONEY

I could wait another week, a month. or a few months, before talking about you. I'm just saying what many, many people feel about the boy, young man, old, wiser, grown up guy whom we got to know at different stages of his life.

He was so utterly present, reacting to what was happening, in every scene he was in.

We got to know him as a friend, brother, as a cousin, pal, leader, instigator, hero, villain, beau -- a man who did what he had to do.

Was he a natural -- a guy with talent for creating a real person no matter what he played?  Or was he an especially big person, who encompassed many other persons, who thought the way millions of us think, and understood what millions of us feel.

For me Mickey Rooney is a main man -- the face, the look in his eyes, the smile, frown, the concern -- a thousand images of Mickey's concern are part of me.

Hey Mickey Rooney, you are here, even though you have gone for that long, long walk.

(VIDEO) CULLUM'S LOVE AFFAIR WITH TENNIS

"Why did you pick tennis as a sport," Emily Frankel, asks, wondering why John Cullum didn't' choose baseball or basketball.

John explains that when he was just a kid, tennis was something  he could do with his dad, who played every weekend. After a game, his father would hit a few balls with him. That got young John practicing hitting balls off the steps in front of his home.

John's love of tennis got him into playing tennis as a junior, then senior, then  non-professional high level tennis in college tournaments in the United States and Europe. Today, whenever tennis is being played anywhere in the world, you can be sure -- John Cullum is watching.