Laughing with Di – February 2021

When I was a kid, we celebrated two Presidents in February on two different days – Washington and Lincoln. That worked really well for me because we had no school.
Let’s try a smile…
Why the Presidents between Washington and Eisenhower (the first one I was aware of) were not honored was always a mystery to me. Did no one else never tell a lie or become a General? Acknowledging all of them has evolved into Presidents’ Day; way more meaningful.
I decided it’s time to memorize our presidents. Anyone who can name all 46, I bow to you. The first five are easy if we look on them as the “Founding Fathers”: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe. After them, it’s a real challenge. If you try to include the Vice Presidents, it’s futile. Anybody know who Hannibal Hamlin served with?
There’s this “middle group”, until you get to Ike, that are just a muddle. We can remember descriptions or nicknames such as, “Old Hickory” Andrew Jackson; “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” the slogan sticks in our brain but we have no idea what it means or who John Tyler was. Using first names works for a while. Zachary Taylor gave us a new sound to roll off the tongue, then came Millard and Ulysses. The most popular is “James” with six: adding Polk, Buchanan, Garfield and Carter. Or, a mnemonic could be used to connect, say, Grover Cleveland with a Sesame Street character, but it’s kind of hard to find one for Rutherford.
Eventually, we had a bunch who were recognizable by just initials: FDR, HST, DDE, JFK, LBJ and RMN. We’ve had some Georges, Gerald, a Ron and a Bill and our most exotically named, Obama. Whatever the memorizing method, it’s fun to try.
Now, we have Joe and Kamala. We congratulate them and wish them a prosperous first four years!