WAVING A SUNFLOWER AT FDR -- This childhood prank by the author is one of many lively recollections in this photo-studded account of a family history extending back to the American Revolution. Growing up during the Great Depression on Meridian Street, the book's title, he recounts an award-winning newspaper and Washington career during which he was eyewitness to important political and historic events of the past six decades, including the enactment of monumental civil rights legislation, the Vietnam War turmoil, the Watergate era and the Saturday night massacre, the Kent State killings, the chaotic Boston school desegregation, and the Wounded Knee conflict.