Presidential Shadows

by Michael Cantwell

Life returned to normal after the first of the year. School began the Monday after Steve and Star returned the California. Dad stayed busy with his plumbing job. Mom continued to substitute teach. Grandma and Grandpa would come for dinner a couple of times a week.

  The calendar changed to February. Mr. Weadon, our history teacher, explained that we would be learning about some presidents not named Washington or Lincoln. Having met most of the presidents, I was unaware some presidents were considered lesser known. But then again, Greg still stuck pencils up his nose every time a teacher left the room. Who knew what Greg knew? The class was given a homework assignment to read the back of our history books where there was one paragraph on each president for a future test.

  It was a lazy Friday afternoon when Mr. Weadon reminded us of our past assignment and the contest began. All of the students around me had one eye shut and the other on the clock. I assumed my only competition would be from Andy Bedard. Andy’s mother was a high school history teacher. Andy and Wendy were usually the only two in class who won current events contests other than me.

  Mr. Weadon informed the class that he would ask ten questions about some of the presidents. He then told us that he once taught high school in New Orleans before moving to New Jersey. Will Clark was one of his students and the two of them had stayed in touch over the years.

  “Let’s see if anyone read the chapter in the back as requested,” Mr. Weadon said. “Whoever answers the most questions correctly gets the weekend off with no homework. Should anyone get all ten correct, they win this baseball personally given to me from Will Clark.” He smiled. “I suspect the ball will be going home with me tonight and you all can try to win it another time.”

  His comments didn’t faze me. Will Clark was Star’s favorite player and I was going to win that ball for her.

  “First question, class. What man raised in New York, became president after Zachary Taylor died in office?”

  I was the only one to raise my hand. “Millard Fillmore.”

  Mr. Weadon gave me a quick stare. “Very good, Alex. One for you. Next question, who was the last president to have served in the military during the Civil War.”

  Linda Jones raised her hand. “Uhm, Abe Lincoln?”

  “No, sorry Linda,” Mr. Weadon said.

  Her response had given me time to think. I raised my hand. “William McKinley.”

  “Correct, Alex,” Mr. Weadon said before shooting me another weird stare.

  “Which president annexed the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico and was later assassinated in Buffalo, New York?”

  I quickly answered, “Again, William McKinley.”

  I was getting anxious. I had the first three correct, but only in baseball can you get a hit three out of ten times and make it to the Hall of Fame. I had to focus. I looked around the room. Some had their heads on their desks. Some were looking out the window. Greg had a pencil sticking out of his ear. He was giving me his famous look with his face all scrunched up. I turned my attention back to Mr. Weadon. Three down. Seven answers to go.

  “Which president once stated, ‘there are no second class citizens in this country’ after he ordered complete desegregation of the Armed Forces and sent troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to assure compliance with orders of the Federal Court to desegregate schools?”

  I knew that answer. I had met President Eisenhower on New Year’s Eve. My hand went straight up. “The exact quote was, ‘There must be no second class citizens in this country’ and it was Dwight D. Eisenhower.”

  “Did anyone read the material other than Alex?” Mr. Weadon asked.

  No one budged. Not even Andy Bedard. I looked at Bruce. He shrugged. I looked at Andy. He shrugged too.

  “Let’s continue,” Mr. Weadon said, before offering a long sigh.

  “What general was credited for winning the Battle at Vicksburg, during the Civil War?”

  I raised my hand first. Mr. Weadon picked Greg. “President George Patton,” Greg said.

  Mr. Weadon shook his head. “No, Greg, and take the pencil out of your ear.”

  Mr. Weadon called on me. “President Ulysses S. Grant.”

  Five down. Halfway home. I stared at the ball encased in a small cube on the corner of the teacher’s desk. I thought I saw a bead of sweat along his forehead but it could have been my imagination. Mr. Weadon squinted at me before going to questions, six, then seven and eight.

  Two classmates took a shot at answering the questions. They were wrong. I was right. Question nine was about a man who spent less than two years as president and is thought to have died from eating bad fruit at a fundraising event for the Washington Monument. Some even suggest he was poisoned. This president was a career soldier and rumored to have never voted until his own election.

  Andy Bedard raised his hand. “This one I know,” he said. I thought my streak and ownership of the Will Clark ball was over. “John Tyler,” Andy said.

  Mr. Weadon lowered his shoulders. “Very close, Andrew, do you have another guess?”

  Andy sat there. I looked over at him and then I remembered. I raised my hand. Mr. Weadon would not look my way. “Oh, oh,” I said, still raising my hand, only higher now.

  Mr. Weadon was still looking at Andy. “Try again, Andrew.”

  Andy said with a slow inquisitive tone, “Jeffery Taylor?”

  I was swaying back and forth in my seat. I was doing the wave like I had seen at ball games. Only I was the only person in my wave. Mr. Weadon had little choice but call my name.

  “Zachary Taylor. It’s really easy to mess up your Tyler’s with your Taylor’s. I had a hard time telling them apart when they showed up too.”

  Nine down. One to go. I stared at that ball. I stared at Mr. Weadon. This time there was sweat. I could see it. There was snow on the ground and we were all wearing sweaters. He shouldn’t have been sweating unless he was afraid of losing that ball. I now suspected he never once thought anyone would come up with two correct responses, let alone ten. Possibly, it was my teacher’s way of getting someone, anyone to pay attention right before the weekend. He had mine.

  I glanced at Wendy. She smiled. Greg had leaned back in his desk with his head tilted towards the ceiling and his mouth wide open. A pencil was on the floor. Andy was staring straight ahead.

  Our teacher scratched his head. He removed a slip of paper from his desk and read from it. “Who was quoted as saying, ‘You don't become President of the United States. You are given temporary custody of an institution called the presidency, which belongs to our people. Having temporary custody of this office has been for me a sacred trust and an honor beyond words or measure.’” Mr. Weadon looked at Andy mouthing the answer to him.

  I wasn’t going to wait. I yelled out “Ronald Reagan.”

  “Excuse me, Alex. Wait your turn,” the teacher said. Do you have an answer, Andrew?” Mr. Weadon scanned the room. He looked again at Andy.

  Andy replied, “Ronald Reagan?”

  “Correct, Andrew. Great job. Alex, you don’t have any homework this weekend.”

  I was super ticked. “No one has any homework this weekend. I won that ball fair and square.”

  “Everyone else does have homework. The entire class is required to read the chapter again. There will be a quiz on Monday. You don’t have to take the quiz, Alex. You have already earned a perfect score.”

  “I earned more than that,” I grumbled.

  “Maybe if you had shown more patience, you would have earned more. How did you know some of those answers?” Weadon asked. “Three of those questions weren’t taken from the last chapter or even anywhere from your history book. The last quote from President Reagan was something I read last night.”

  “I never read the last chapter in our school book. I read my own book. I guessed the last one because I knew from reading about President Reagan how honored he was to have been our President.”

  The school bell rang. Mr. Weadon excused the class. I spied the ball as I left the classroom. Once on t
he bus, Wendy sat next to me. “How did you know all those answers, Alex?”

  “I told you before. I have a special book my grandpa gave me years ago. I read it almost every day. It has stories about almost all the presidents.”

  “Who cares about some old men? You need to have fun sometimes, Alex. I do my homework. But, I like other stuff too, like music. I like Bryan Adams and Michael Bolton, they are so dreamy.”

  I shook my head at Wendy. She was sounding like a typical girl, who was a new teenager, which made her almost an adult, sorta. “I like music too, Wendy. My brother and Star played me some Grateful Dead and Jimi Hendrix while they were home. They made me listen to R.E.M and Star’s new favorite, Lenny Kravitz. I know about music. However, it’s very important to know your history. If you want to be a leader, you must learn from the past.”

  “Now you are sounding like my grandma. She says stuff like that too. No kid talks like that.”

  “Tell that to President Lincoln. He’s the one who’s teaching me how to be a leader.” I looked out the bus window. There was no reason to argue with Wendy. She would never understand. No one did, except Star and sometimes Grandpa.

  Wendy started talking with Erin and Bruce who were in the seat in front of us. They were mocking me because I knew so much about the presidents. I told them they were the ones with a quiz on Monday. Not me. When we arrived at our bus stop, I jumped off the bus and stayed home all weekend. Wendy called three times. I refused to take the calls.

  Sunday night, being bored with TV, I went to my room. I opened my book to a very long section. The notes were from a man named Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He must have loved being president. The nation elected him four times. After being president for one hundred days, Franklin and Congress gave the country a New Deal. One night at dinner, I heard Grandpa tell Mom it was a raw deal. She disagreed. She usually did with Grandpa about politics.

  I read about how FDR thought his programs where best to lead the country out of the Great Depression. The Great Depression was when people lost their jobs and had no money. For the first time in the history of America, some immigrants went back to their old country. Some Americans even moved to Canada and Australia. It made me appreciate all the things Mom and Dad had given me after reading Franklin’s notes regarding the Great Depression.

  In reading about Franklin, he reminded me of Tommy Wilson. Mr. Roosevelt wrote in my book, “Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.” I also realized how some presidents would believe one way, and others would believe a different way. In my opinion, President Coolidge and President Franklin Roosevelt wouldn’t have agreed on much.

  Franklin wrote in my book, “The United States Constitution has proved itself the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written.” I wondered if President Jefferson or President Madison would have thought the same way. When Dad gave me rules, I never tried to change them. I wasn’t positive what those words from Franklin meant. I assumed Franklin thought he could change the rules President Madison wrote.

  A man appeared in my chair. He sat very still. He introduced himself as Franklin Roosevelt. He then told me he had been stricken with a disease called polio. He asked if he could stay seated in my chair. I agreed to his request.

  “I’m quite busy fighting a World War and arguing with the blasted conservatives in Congress. If you have questions for me, ask them quickly,” Franklin said.

  “Grandpa Frank told me to watch out for you if you ever showed up. He said you’re a progressive.”

  “I am a Christian and a Democrat, that’s all,” Mr. Roosevelt said. “It sounds to me your grandfather is a conservative. I’m not fond of them.”

  “What is wrong with conservatives?”

  Franklin removed a tissue from the side pocket of his jacket and cleaned his glasses. “A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward.”

  “That makes no sense to me, Mr. Roosevelt. I’m a pretty smart kid, but I really don’t understand what you’re trying to tell me.”

  “I realize these concepts might be hard for you to comprehend, Alex. I do not look upon the United States as a finished product. We are still in the making. I want to move this country forward. I will alter the fabric of this nation. That is why I have established new programs like Social Security. I once closed all the banks until the system was reformed. We created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which insured deposits up to $2500. This stopped people from running to the banks and removing all their money.”

  I thought about it. “I guess you had to do something because of the depression?”

  “We did much more. We created programs to help farmers. We created the Tennessee Valley Authority. That was a plan to make a dam and provide electricity to poor farms.”

  “I read in your notes where you did things called Executive Orders. You did so many of them the Supreme Court made you stop.”

  “Darn straight I did. I told those justices that I was going to get rid of any of them that blocked my ambitions. I had every intention to stack the courts in my favor. I would have too had the conservatives not stopped me.”

  “Uhm, you wrote that even some of the Democrats blocked you too, Mr. Roosevelt.”

  “You read too much, kid.”

  “Your notes say that in your New Deal you made rules to help the unions. I think my Dad is in one with other plumbers. I heard him tell Grandpa one night he has no idea how they spend his dues.”

  “If I went to work in a factory, the first thing I’d do is join a union,” Franklin said. He looked uncomfortable in the chair.

  “It must be hard being president during a war. I know President Lincoln was sad during the Civil War. He taught me all about the Battle of Gettysburg. I memorized his famous speech.”

  Franklin sighed. “I’m sure the Civil War took a toll on Mr. Lincoln. I know the one day that took a huge toll on me. December 7, 1941, the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. That is a date which will live in infamy. However, do not fret. We will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God.”

  “Yeah, I hope I never have to fight in a big war. However, I learned so much from men like President Monroe and others who risked everything in trying to win our freedom. I read all about how George Washington was freezing cold one winter at Valley Forge during the Revolutionary War. Most of the presidents talked about how much we all must sacrifice one day. I don’t want to fight in a war, but I will.”

  “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

  “I guess you’re right, Mr. Roosevelt. But war still sounds really scary to a kid like me.”

  ~~~*~~~

  Chapter Twenty Three