Category: America

“How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!”

Thomas Jefferson

That’s PRESIDENT Washington to you…

“The Prayer at Valley Forge”  by Arnold Friberg

…and me.

“In the pantheon of our republic’s founders, there were many outstanding individuals. And yet each of them—Franklin, Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison—acknowledged Washington to be his superior, the only indispensable figure, the one and only “His Excellency.”

So, you know about the small problem I have with our planet messing up the holidays that we had when I was a kid–right? And it’s likely that you thought I was finished since my last rant. Sadly…no.

Tomorrow is the official day that the world should celebrate President George Washington’s birthday…mainly because, the 22nd of February is his birthday. Duh. But since it doesn’t always obediently fall on a Friday or Monday so that we can have a 3-day weekend, SOMEBODY thought they’d just move it.

Who’s in charge of that anyway? I mean who has the power to just change somebody’s birthday to a more convenient time? Is it the all powerful Birthday King or something? I’d just like to know. *Who decides this stuff? It is just so weird.

Well, I’ve devised a simple way to make myself feel better. I’m just having a little celebration all by myself. I’ll read some quotes and stories about President Washington and probably, my family will be forced to participate as well. But I have a feeling that they’ll be respectful, and humor me and they’ll be fine.

Besides, this event involves lots of crumbles, and cherries…

…and pie.

That ought to do it.

Happy Birthday President Washington

~~~*~~~

*In 1971 President Richard Nixon combined Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays into a single federal holiday.  Good grief.

on President’s day.

So “Bruce” and I are having this conversation.

I say, “President’s Day?”

And he says, “Yeah, President’s Day.”

I say, “Don’t you mean Honest Abe Lincoln’s Birthday where you cut out silhouettes of his face and make log cabins with pretzels and read stories about walking 5 miles to return a book and about abolishing slavery?”

And he says, “No. President’s Day.”

And I say, “Don’t you mean His Excellency, President George Washington’s birthday where you cut out silhouettes of his face and make cherry tarts and read stories about chopping down trees and telling the truth and about crossing the Deleware with his freezing soldiers?”

And he says, “No. President’s Day.”

And I say, “Who’s birthday is that?”

And he grins and says, “Who cares? We get a day off of school.”

And my brain says….tick-tick-tick—–

KABOOM!

It’s a good thing he was kidding.

Switching a 17-year-old to home school could really put a chink in his chain.

Note: The characters in this story are real. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.