G. Washington dropped by the other day. Yep, the father of our country. He was in a grumpy mood. I could understand it. The guy went through a great deal during his normal lifetime and now it has been 282 years since he was born. He actually never made into the 1800's. So, naturally, he was a little confused by the way we do things now. Mostly, he was disoriented. Cars and motorized traffic? Credit cards? Electric lights? What's electricity?
This is still the country he did so much for and the government still operates in ways that he felt familiar with. The whole business of political campaigns was new, though. The shameless promotion of a particular candidate, even by the actual person and not just friends and supporters, was a surprise. G.W. departed this earth in 1799 and according to "What Hath God Wrought" by Daniel Walker Howe, by the presidential campaign of 1828, political smears and negative campaigning had gained a clear foothold. And women! Women running for office, right out in the open! Amazing!
The acreage of the country as well as the size of the population set him back. He had warned about foreign entanglements and of course, we are pretty tangled with other countries. He said that if he could find a way to stay for a while, he wanted to learn more about US and world history in the last couple of centuries. He wanted updating about modern methods of magic that seemed to have a great deal to do with this electricity stuff. He was flummoxed by current longevity. G.W. lived to be 67 and that was a good long life. When he heard the current longevity record of 122 and some months, he was really amazed.
I think he was actually glad not to be here for too long. Everything seemed to be a strain and another source of confusion. We never did get to computers and the internet.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
