I miss George Washington

[primsong]

I broke down and got a box of cherry turnovers from the day-old rack at the supermarket bakery and as my son and I were sharing this loot I commented how I always love cherry turnovers and cherry pie.  He asked why and I realized it's partly because I miss George Washington.

When I was a kid George Washington's Birthday was still its own holiday, not this "Presidents Day" thing we have now.  It came in February and the classes in school learned about him and the apocryphal tale of his chopping down the cherry tree and not telling a lie when his father asked him about it  - probably because much of the theme of this holiday was about teaching children about being honest as much as it was about history.  We had cherry pie and cherry turnovers and cookies shaped like little hatchets, made fake "powdered wigs" out of curled white construction paper and decorated with red, white and blue crepe paper.  He was the Father of Our Country and we were happy and proud about it.

I'd love to see George Washington's Birthday come back as a holiday again, it was a good one, honesty never goes out of style - a shame to have it fade away. 

Comments

[senmut]

SO it's not just my faulty memory? Or the fact it was my Dad's birthday? I recall doing something on his day and on Lincoln's day, and people said that it's always been President's Day. Granted, they are all younger than I am...

[primsong]

Not a faulty memory at all - and yes! More construction paper for Lincoln, black stovepipe hats in his case, and little brown log cabins, talking about how hard it would be to study by firelight. Main lesson for children there was "Anyone can grow up to be President." We were too young for the civil war aspects to be brought in, so it was just "see? a country boy can become a leader!"

I liked him too, but George had more tasty treats involved and a child's priorities are always aligned with where the sugar is.