Thank you, Coral Cliffs Elementary for providing me with the following entertainment:
6:00 p.m.- I was making smoothies and 'dillas for dinner. Macey was watching. "Mom," Macey asked, "Did you know that Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves?"
"Yeah. That's pretty neat, huh?" I responded and went back to the blender, "Do you know what a slave is?"
Macey, after thinking for a second, "Umm....a bad person?"
Elise: "GAH!" I was then forced into a ten minute explanation of slavery in five-year-old terms. I'm pretty sure Macey considers herself a slave now. And she'll probably be afraid of kidnappers for the rest of her life. And plays (more on that later).
6:16 p.m.- As I was peeling a banana, Macey asked, "Mom, did you know that Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president of the United States?"
Me: "No, I didn't." Inwardly I was thinking about how Macey is already starting to know more than me.
6:24 p.m.- While sipping her smoothie Macey launched into the following speech: "Mom, did you know that Abraham Lincoln was born in the wilderness and lived in a log cabin and had to read by the light of a fire and his mom had to teach him because they didn't have a school?"
"Huh." I responded, trying futilely to ward off brain freeze.
6:28 p.m.- Macey says in her most grave voice, "Mom. Abraham Lincoln was shot and killed."
"Yeah. Do you know where he was when he was killed? At a PLAY. The guy who killed him was... ... ..." (This is where my mind went blank.) "It wasn 't Lee Harvey Oswald...umm...And I KNOW that Benjamin Gates' ancestors had nothing to do with it..."
Normally when I'm faced with a question of this nature I will simply text Jon and Meegan and see who responds first. I wanted to remember it on my own so I spent the remainder of the evening trying to remember who shot Abraham Lincoln. I couldn't focus on anything without Abe Lincoln's nameless assassin interrupting my thoughts.
9:31 p.m.- The kids were in bed, DJ was doing his homework on the computer and I was reading recreationally. (I know. It's been so long! Blasted homework.) The house was so quiet you could hear the cursing of the gnats that were hitting our porch light. "JOHN WILKES BOOTH!" I proclaimed victoriously.
John Wilkes Booth, everyone.
The end.
8 comments:
Um... good thing you've gone back to school ;-) You're knowledge of history sounds about as good as mine. Thank goodness for the internet. I've forgotten most of what I once knew.
Thanks for the laugh.
Benjamin Gates! Awesome! I love that movie!
I could have told you that if you just would've called...
oh yeah...ROTFL! You go Macey!
John Wilkes Booth, The Brad Pitt of his day. That's right. This play was like a hollywood premiere. Imagine Obama going to see Avatar and Brad Pitt shoots him and runs off into the night screaming SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS! (Thus always to tyrants...)
Use that on Macey
See why I always call Jon & Meegan with these questions? Jon could probably also tell you his height, weight, and whether he wore boxers or briefs. (Lincoln strikes me as a boxers kinda guy.)
Elise, I hate to tell you this, but it just gets worse the older they get with knowing all these interesting facts that they have learned from school. I have gotten to the point that when my teens ask if I "knew that" I usually just nod my head and say, "yeah, I did" because even though I didn't remember that, I had to have know it at some point in my school years. My old age just keeps me from remembering ;)
awesome!! I only knew the answer because we have watched National Treasure too many times!! great laugh!
Post a Comment