If everything goes as planned (I’m writing this an hour before it’s scheduled to start, in order to meet a deadline), I’ll be speaking to a group of local high school students this week about a major event in my long life: 20th century American history.
The teacher who invited me said he would introduce me as a “2,000-year-old man,” but he might have been joking.
These kids want to know my reactions to the world events that I experienced: the Civil Rights Movement, the various assassinations, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, Watergate, etc.
This got me thinking about what my students have experienced in their young lives: a mass murder in a school, the first Black president, the first female vice president, the first female (and Jewish) president of Mexico, a former president who is now a felon, a space rocket to the dark side of the moon, the widespread availability of physician-assisted suicide, COVID-19, same-sex marriage, the end of Roe v. Wade, the list goes on and on.
In truth, I don’t know much about many of the major events that happened in my life other than what I read (or wrote) in the newspapers. I never went to Vietnam. I remember a professor in college telling me that everyone in his class was getting A’s because he had just been drafted.
My most vivid memory of the Kennedy assassination is when I was in a college classroom and a girl ran down the hallway yelling, “The president has been shot!” Classes had ended for the day.
I have seen whites-only public restrooms and drinking fountains in the South, but I don’t know much personally about the civil rights movement.
Speaking of the Cold War, we were taught in grade school that if we saw a bright light in the distance, we should crawl under a desk and put a heavy book to the back of our necks. That never worked. Remember bomb shelters?
My teacher told me that anecdotes are okay. They are part of history.
Saturday Sermon
“The State of Israel will be judged not by its wealth, its army or its technology, but by its moral character and human values.”
David Ben-Gurion
Book Review
I just finished reading Brooklyn by Colm Toibin (B-) and am now reading Dead-End Memories, a short story by Banana Yoshimoto.
You are very clever…
Last week, no one could have guessed which former Vice President had a middle name of Rabbinette. This was a tricky question on two counts. My answer was President Joe Biden, but I spelled his middle name wrong: Robinette. Thanks to Doug W., Steve M., Donna G., Carol W., Scott D., Ron K., and everyone at BookHappy for correcting me. (And I’m waiting for a call from Mr. Nasty.) Others who got it right were PMM, Ellen C., and Elaine Y.
Among those who guessed incorrectly was Dan Quayle, who said, “I should have known this, but I never could have guessed it, and I had to look it up. I was actually going to guess someone from the 1800s, like Millard Fillmore.”
And this comment: “No one knows the name of the Vice President unless he or she is President or still alive. I’m going to guess Andrew Ravinet Johnson, but I only know who he is because he became the second worst President this country has had. The first worst President is a convicted felon.”
Oh, and in case you were wondering, Robinette is Biden’s paternal grandmother’s maiden name.
Now, without researching how many men and women were imprisoned in Germany for anti-war activities between 1933 and 1945, you probably can’t answer: A. 8,000 B. 80,000 C. 800,000 D. None. Deadline is Monday at noon.
Children’s column
Donations in May totaled $50, bringing the total so far this year to $995.Here’s how it works: If you donate an average of $150 per month to the Children’s Council through this column, I will continue to contribute this column to the newspaper.
Meanwhile, the bid for “Dinner with Rusty” on June 12th is $500. Thank you!
Donations can be sent to The Greater Attleboro Area Council for Children, PO Box 424, North Attleboro, MA 02761. The website is www.councilforchildren.org. Please be sure to specify that your donation is for Columns for Kids. See you next week!
