Presidents Are Cool ...

Are United States Presidents weird or what? I have the utmost respect for the office of president and I am not a politician nor do I aspire to be one. But since this is a presidential election year, presidents are on my mind.

Presidents have to be just a little bit different than the average person. What I mean is that not just anyone can put up with all the stress of that office. Join with me in a look at some of our nation’s Commanders-in-Chief. Most of these items are adapted from Don Hite’s web site, which is http://myitforum.com.

• Benjamin Harrison had the first electric lights in the White House, but was scared to turn them on or off for fear of electrocution. Instead, he made the servants do it.
• President Calvin Coolidge enjoyed riding on a mechanical horse and whooping like a cowboy. He also thought it was great fun to hit the buzzer for the servants and then hide.
• Chester A. Arthur had over 80 pairs of pants and insisted on changing several times a day.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt had a collection of 25,000 stamps. He added to it by simply having the Postmaster General and State Department mail him every new issue.
• George Bush was the first sitting president to acquire an iPod. You know I’ve always wondered why they use the term, “sitting president.” Most of the pictures I have seen of George Bush show him standing. Why isn’t he the “standing president?” But I digress.
• Harry S. Truman once wrote a threatening letter to the music critic of the Washington Post in response to a negative review of his daughter’s voice recital stating, “I never met you, but if I do, you’ll need a new nose …”
• James A. Garfield who was assassinated while in office was a former classics teacher. He could simultaneously write Greek with one hand and Latin with the other.
• “Hail to the Chief” was written specifically for James Madison, because he was so short that no one ever noticed when he entered the room. By the way, the words to that song are based on Sir Walter Scott’s poem, "The Lady of the Lake.” The melody was written by James Sanderson who was conductor of London’s Surrey Theater orchestra.
• John F. Kennedy only watched the first halves of movies. Then he’d get bored.
• Lyndon B. Johnson proposed to his wife, Lady Bird, on their first date, which was a breakfast, then he bought her a wedding ring for $2.50.
• Richard M. Nixon loved football. Occasionally he called up NFL coaches to chat and offer strategic advice.
• William Howard Taft weighed 326 pounds and got stuck in the White House bathtub. He had a bigger one installed.
• Woodrow Wilson was a gifted mimic fond of telling jokes in Irish dialect. Also he enjoyed imitating drunks.
• President Franklin Pierce was arrested while in office for running over an old woman who was riding a horse. The case was dropped when it was discovered the woman was drunk and shouldn’t have been riding the horse in the first place.
• John Adams expressed a desire to live until July 4, 1926, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. On that day he slipped into unconsciousness. That afternoon he momentarily revived and moments before his death uttered the words: “Jefferson survives.” In this he was mistaken because Thomas Jefferson had died earlier that same day.

So I’ll ask again. Are U. S. Presidents weird or what? No, presidents are not weird. They are just plain old human beings like you and me.

Winston Hamby
WinHamby@comcast.net