You Had to Be There?

(This may make little sense represented in textual form, but I didn't have a camera capturing everything that happened during dinner in video form. Maybe next time?)

Tonight during dinner, Grace was explaining what she'd learned about George Washington at school: 1.) he didn't have wooden teeth, 2.) he didn't chop down the cherry tree.

She was very aware of the fact that the cherry tree story was more of an illustration of Washington as an honorable person, suitable to bear the burdens of presidency, and an uncorrupted model of what the fledgling government stood for. Well . . . she didn't put in exactly those terms, but that was the subtext of what she said.

ANYWAY . . .

The old wooden teeth/cherry tree story got my mind running so I said something like this in a bit of a rapid fire:

"You know . . . the bit about Washington not having wooden teeth is true. But did you know that while he (George Washington) didn't chop down the tree, it was, in fact, chopped down by that American traitor Aaron Burr? Yep. And the wood from that tree was later used to build the log cabin that Abraham Lincoln was born in."

"And did you further know that a bit of the wood from a branch of that same tree was carved into a door knob that--even to this day--is the door knob that the president uses to open the door to the Oval Office where all president's work in the White House?"

"I'll be detailing all of this in my newest book, The Root of Evil, which outlines the secret conspiracy of a group of 18th century botanists who plotted to control the United States and eventually take over the world."

The kids laughed; Lynda laughed; and I felt good about it.

You probably had to be there.