John Sweeney

Happy Labor Day!This is the national holiday set aside to recognize the efforts and contributions of America’s Workforce.

So I want to revisit my interview almost a quarter-century ago with the man who was America’s top labor leader for 14 years.

John Sweeney was president of the AFL-CIO. I met him in 1996, about a year after he assumed the presidency of the Union.

I met him about a year after he became the president of the AFL-CIO.

So here now, from 1996, John Sweeney.

John Sweeney remained at the top of the AFL-CIO until 2009.

He’s 86 now, and he and his wife live just outside Washington, DC.

Cal Ripken

In 21 seasons with his hometown Baltimore Orioles, Cal Ripken racked up some very enivable numbers:

3,184 hits. 431 home runs. 1,695 runs batted in. A 19-time All-Star, and two-time American League Most Valuable Plater.

But perhaps his greatest number was 2,632. That’s how many consecutive games Ripken played in,shattering the Lou Gehrig record of 2,130, 25 years ago this weekend.

I met him 11 years after he broke the record. He had just written a book called “Parenting Youth Athletes the Ripken Way.”

So here now, from 2006, Cal Ripken:

Cal Ripken retired from baseball in 2001. A year after our interview, he was electyed to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He’s 60 now and still lives in Maryland.

Melissa Anderson

It was 46 years ago this week that NBC TV viewers first heard that theme music introducing a series called “Littel House on the Prairie.”

For the next eight years, it was a perennial viewer favorite.

One of the stars of the series was Melissa Anderson — known in those years as “Melissa Sue Anderson”; she’ll explain why, in this interview. Anderson played “Mary,” one member of the Ingalls family.

I met her in 2010, when she wrote a memoir about her years on “Little House.”

So here now, from 2010, Melissa Anderson:

Melissa Anderson will be 58 later this month. She became a naturalized citizen oif Canada in 2007.

And reruns of “Little House on the Prairie” can still be found on TV almost every day.