Attending a new school made me nervous. I don’t know why. Maybe it was the unknown. There would be many familiar faces joining me in the new one but it was still scary. The new school was two miles from home. I took the bus. Bruce, Wendy and a few others all met me for our pick up at seven twenty-two each morning. Some mornings our bus driver smelled like Dad after he drank too much beer with his friends. Those mornings she arrived grumpy and not until seven-thirty. One day the bus never showed up. The next day we had a new driver. We all liked it better when we could walk to school.
Arriving late as the bell was ringing drove me crazy. I felt the pressure to rush to class. For the first few days, it took me several tries to get my locker open. I practiced for an hour the day before school started. Eventually, I learned how to do it fast.
Greg and some of his friends got on the bus a few stops after mine. It was a good thing too. He smelled different in the new school. Some days, it made me sneeze. When I asked him what the smell was, he told me, “We’re in middle school now. Time to look and smell the part. I splashed some of my dad’s aftershave on my face.”
I wasn’t impressed. “Uhm, Greg, aftershave is for married people or ballplayers wanting to impress the ladies after games. You’re stinking up the whole bus. The bus driver keeps looking in the mirror to see where the smell is coming from.”
“Whadda you know, Schuler? Maybe the bus driver thinks I’m hot.”
Wendy laughed so hard, the chocolate milk she was drinking shot out her nose. Good thing Bruce had napkins stored in his Batman lunchbox to clean up the back of the seat. Greg’s face turned red before he twisted back around in his seat facing forward, with a few drops of milk on his chin. Those few seconds made me smile all day.
Usually on Friday afternoon in history class, our teacher would discuss current events. My teacher, Mrs. Lee, told us that our president at the time, George H.W. Bush made a statement saying, “Read my lips; No new taxes.” He said it during the Republican convention where the Republicans picked him to run for president. However, the year he was elected, the Democrats controlled both the House of Representatives and the Senate. President Bush didn’t have many friends in Congress. The Democrats insisted on raising taxes to lower the deficit. I knew all about deficit spending.
Mrs. Lee told our class that Mr. Bush compromised with Congress. He passed a budget. Taxes were raised. The teacher said it was the only way to try to make the amount of money the government spent, equal to the amount it received. I knew from speaking with presidents and listening to Dad, there was another way. I raised my hand with a suggestion.
“Instead of raising taxes, why doesn’t Congress reduce the amount of money they spend, Mrs. Lee? Last summer, my dad wasn’t paid as much overtime. I didn’t get to go on as many rides on the boardwalk on our last summer vacation. Dad said, ‘We have to live within a budget.’ Instead of his doing what he call deficit spending, he reduced how much he spent on our vacation. Dad told me all about it on the way down to the beach house. He made sure I understood.”
Mrs. Lee stared at me. She walked down the aisle next to my desk. She tapped my desk and said, “Increasing taxes will add more to the treasury. Don’t confuse the class, Alex.”
All I could think about was Tommy Wilson, asking me to work harder to earn more money for the treasury. But Thomas Jefferson told me the Federal Government shouldn’t do much more than protect its citizens. Jefferson said the individual states should take care of everything else. John Quincy Adams told me the government should build roads and promote the arts. I was so confused. How could presidents not agree on how to spend money in the treasury?
I thought about what Calvin Coolidge wrote in my book. “Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.” I was going to raise my hand again but then I remembered another thing Mr. Coolidge wrote, “It takes a great man to be a good listener.”
I did. I listened as Mrs. Lee blamed President Bush for the deficit growing larger. I thought harder about what I had learned from the presidents. I realized what the teacher was saying wasn’t completely true. All spending bills must start in the House of Representatives, even if Congress doesn’t always follow their own laws. The president can’t spend money. The president might have influence over Congress, but it is still the responsibility of Congress to allocate money.
President Bush was a Republican. Congress was controlled by Democrats. The President could only veto spending bills sent to him by Congress. We learned that President Bush vetoed many spending bills that year. I guess his pen ran out of ink. He gave up and allowed Congress to raise taxes.
Chief Justice Taft told me the Republicans fight with Democrat presidents too. President Taft said, “Politics when I am in it makes me sick.” I was starting to understand why all the presidents I met looked so old and tired. I guess they were always fighting with someone.
The next morning, Dad told me not to sit in the house all day. I had to go outside and run around. “Because that’s what boys your age do.”
I snuck my book out the back door. I rode my bike down to the park. Dad might have kicked me outside, but I still wanted to read my book. I wanted to read more about Calvin Coolidge.
I sat under my favorite tree, not too far from the basketball courts, enjoying the fresh air while reading. A man walked over and introduced himself as President Calvin Coolidge. He asked if he could sit next to me. I was used to presidents showing up. I enjoyed speaking with all of them. The only one I had to watch was Tommy Wilson.
Mr. Coolidge sat next to me. I kept reading. I read for thirty minutes without a word between us. Usually presidents couldn’t wait to tell me a story. Not Calvin. He was silent. Finally, I spoke to him.
“You don’t talk much do you, Calvin?”
“No.”
“I’ll bet I can get you to say at least three more words.”
He smiled. “You lose.”
I laughed. I kept reading. Calvin was once the Governor of Massachusetts before being Vice President and later President. While working as Governor he signed a bill reducing the workweek for women and children from fifty-four hours a week to forty-eight. He said, “We must humanize the industry or the system will break down.”
It started to bug me that Calvin just sat there. I poked him in the ribs and said, “Hey, Mr. Coolidge, did you ever do anything goofy as a kid that got you in trouble?”
He scratched his head before looking at me. “I have no doubt there were those times, young man, but I don’t think they are relevant to my visit. I will offer one story my wife enjoys telling about how we met. My beloved wife, Grace, was a teacher at a school for the deaf, near where I resided. She was outside the school watering her plants and looked in an open window where I was shaving my face. She found it amusing that I would shave with nothing on but long johns and a top hat.”
I giggled. “You gotta admit that’s a bit strange. When my dad shaves, he wears a towel or boxers. I’ve never seen him wear a hat. Why’d you wear a hat?”
He frowned. “To keep the hair from my eyes, why else?”
His comment made sense to me.
“I think my mom would like you, Mr. Coolidge?”
“What makes you say such a thing, Alex?”
I pointed to one of the yellow crinkly pages in my book. “It says right here that you fought to get teachers raises when you were Mayor. Mom’s a teacher. It also says you voted to allow women to obtain the right to vote, when many men didn’t like the idea. I know Mom likes to vote. How come you wanted to let women vote? Don’t you know girls will only do stuff like make pink the official color of the United States?”
Calvin laughed so hard I thought the kids on the basketball court heard him. Once he stopped laughing he said, “We draw our presidents from the people. It is a wholesome thing for them to return to the people. I came from them. I wish to be one of them again. I do believe women are people too, Alex. Besides, my wife is a very good cook. Why upset her?”
That made sense
to me too.
“So how come you don’t like to talk much, Mr. Coolidge?
“If you don’t say anything, you won’t be called on to repeat it.”
Unlike some of the other presidents, President Calvin Coolidge was easy for me to understand. He was funny. He was a quiet person, like me. I kept reading. He smiled wide every time a breeze kicked up or when the bird started chirping in the branches above.
I looked at my watch. It was past lunchtime. There was a big science test on Monday. I needed to study. Dad could only keep me outside so long. “I can’t stay too much longer, President Coolidge. I gotta go study for a test. Did you stress out over tests like I do? I’m always afraid of failing, even if I rarely do.”
“Had I permitted my failures, or what seemed to me at the time a lack of success, to discourage me, I cannot see any way in which I would ever have made progress. You learn from failure, Alex. I am not saying you shouldn’t give your best effort, but failure is part of life.”
President Coolidge made so much sense to me. I knew I had to leave but I never knew when these men would visit again. There were no guarantees I would see Silent Cal again. I told him about the times I met Tommy Woodrow Wilson. I explained what I had learned about spending money I didn’t yet earn. Dad insisted I borrow to get the better tape player but it cost me my allowance for weeks. When the new baseball cards came out in the stores, I didn’t have money to buy them. I was broke. As much as I loved my tape player, there were tradeoffs to my choices. President Coolidge sat quietly and listened to every word. I asked him if he knew Tommy Wilson and if he agreed with him?”
“President Wilson was the twenty-eighth President, I am number thirty. As president, we have an unwritten rule. We do not speak poorly of other presidents. I would trust all our future leaders of this great nation; understand we have enough distractors without the men or women who share the same bond being counted among the critics.”
I smiled. “Ok, I won’t talk trash about Tommy as much in the future. Maybe. But, I’m not a former president.”
President Coolidge frowned. “Alex, I will admit his ideas on how to run an economy and mine differ. I believe the business of America is business. Civilization and profit go hand in hand. I never want to believe that any future president would seek harm on our citizens, but we do have our different ideologies.”
“Ok, so you won’t talk bad about Tommy. But, come on, President Coolidge. The man thinks that the harder you work the more you should have to pay in taxes. He thinks some people have too much money. Why is it his decision how much money I can keep from shoveling sidewalks or helping neighbors around the house? Does a president really have that much power?”
Calvin smiled. He patted my shoulder. “Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped. I don’t agree with Mr. Wilson on restricting profits. But people will take things to extremes.”
“Dad works really hard for his money. Some days he comes home late and is so tired he gets a shower and goes right to the living room. He falls asleep watching the Yankees or Knicks. I don’t think he gets paid enough.”
“I believe in our citizens, the workers and the men who they work for. The man who builds a factory builds a temple that the man who works there, worships there, and to each is due, not scorn or blame, but reverence and praise.”
The scanned park now full with people playing tennis and basketball. “I need to get going, President Coolidge. Even though you don’t talk much, I learned a lot from you. Thanks. I hope I get to meet you again. Is there any other lesson you want to share before leaving?”
“Be proud to be an American. To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race. People died for this right and still defend it every day. The nation which forgets its defenders, will be itself forgotten. Lastly, Alex, never be afraid to work hard and prosper. All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.”
“Thanks again. Please, come back and visit anytime.” I stood up and stretched my legs. President Calvin Coolidge was gone.
I started for home when I noticed someone heading in my direction. He was wearing a dark suit like Grandpa would wear. I tried to walk past him but he called me by name.
“Alex, I surely would appreciate a moment of your time.”
He had a slow country accent. He convinced me to sit with him on the nearby bench.
“I guess you are one of the presidents? Who are you?”
“The name is Lyndon Baines Johnson. I’m from the great state a Texas and don’t ya ever forgit that.”
“Whatever, Mr. Johnson. I’ve got a test to study for and I don’t have much time to talk about the great state of Texas right now.”
“Relax, I’m not fixing to stop you from your studies, youngin’. But education is not a problem. Education is an opportunity. I saw you sulking home like you had a problem with studying.”
“Not exactly a problem. No. I didn’t want to stop speaking with my new friend, President Coolidge. But I have things to do.”
I got up to leave but Mr. Johnson yanked my arm. “You have time to study. I recognize the noblest search is the search for excellence. I’ve heard you try to do your best in school and that hasn’t gone unnoticed.”
I studied his face. He stared back at me. “I don’t remember too much about you in my book. Did you do anything good as president?”
He frowned for a long time. He twisted his neck then straightened his thin black tie. “Yes. But you might say Lyndon Johnson is a cross between a preacher and a cowboy.”
“Well, I still don’t much about you. When did you get to be president?”
There was a long pause. I watched the basketball game from a distance. There were people sitting in an open field with some food. I think they were doing more kissing than eating. I turned back to look at the man who was insisting I stay.
Lyndon’s bottom lip curved out. “Horrible day, the day Jack was assassinated. It was November 22, 1963. I’ll never forget that day.”
“Who was Jack?”
“Jack Kennedy. You don’t know the story of President Kennedy?”
I thought about it for a moment. “Oh yeah, he’s the guy who wanted to send us to the moon and had the pretty wife. He got to see the aliens too. Did you? Grandpa said the Rooskies didn’t mess with President Kennedy.”
“The Russians feared Ike, they didn’t fear me. Jack, well he did kick their rear ends outta Cuba. But as far as me seeing aliens, you got the wrong cowboy.”
“I don’t understand why people want to be president. People are always shooting at them.”
He laughed. “I guess I gotta agree with ya on that one. Being president is a high calling. I worked hard for many years to be in position to be President of the United States. I was a member of the House of Representatives, and Senator before being asked by Jack to be his running mate and later President.”
I looked at my watch. I really wanted to go. “Ok, well it was nice meeting you, Mr. Johnson, but I have to study. Maybe we can talk later.”
“Son, you aren’t learning anything while you’re talking. Now sit here for a moment and let me teach you about the Great Society. After that, you can run along and finish your studies.”
I looked at my watch again. I thought if I gave this guy a few minutes he wouldn’t return. I didn’t like him tugging at my sweatshirt sleeve. “Ok, mister, hurry up and tell me what you got to tell me, so I can get to my studying.”
The man with slicked back dark hair with slices of gray in it, started to tell me about how he grew up the oldest of five kids. He was raised Baptist and his family was deeply religious. He told me his family didn’t have much money when he was young. He told me that getting rid of poverty was one of his major goals as president.
One of his exact quotes was, “Poverty must not be a bar to learning and learning must offer an escape from poverty
.”
Lyndon talked about how while president he worked hard to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He was mad at some of the Senators because they did what is called a “filibuster”. That is where they talk and talk on the Senate floor for hours and sometimes days instead of taking a vote. It was mostly Democratic Senators from the south, who didn’t want to vote for the bill. Eventually, enough of them stopped talking in the filibuster and the law to stop discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin was signed by President Lyndon Johnson.
He said, “Every president wants to do right.”
“People must have really liked you then, Mr. Johnson. I mean you wanted to get rid of poverty and tried to make sure every kid got a good education. It also says in my book, you thought you could get rid of all diseases.”
“I won reelection by a wide margin, son. You would think people would be happy but the press was always after me. I think if one day I walked on the top of the water across the Potomac, the headline that afternoon would read, the President can’t swim. They despised me for escalating our presence in Viet Nam.”
I snickered. “Yeah, my friends Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and President Jefferson all told me about the newspaper people. Mr. Nixon told me never to become a writer. And President Jefferson, boy he didn’t say many nice things about newspaper people either.”
Johnson swatted a bug swirling around us. “I once told Nixon that the presidency is like being a jackass caught in a hail storm. You’ve got to just stand there and take it. Jerry Ford is so dumb he can’t fart and chew gum at the same time. I’m not for Republicans. I’m a fella who likes small parties and the Republican Party can’t be too small to suit me.”
Mr. Johnson’s attitude towards some of the other presidents was how I felt about Greg. It was one thing for us kids not to get along, but I was surprised at how some presidents fought each other. I wanted to know more about the Viet Nam thing he mentioned. I asked him.
Johnson said, “We sent American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.”
“I don’t understand, Mr. Johnson. Why were you fighting with people in a place called Viet Nam?”
Lyndon answered in an angry voice. “To stop the Communists! If you let a bully come in your front yard, he’ll be on your porch the next day. But nothing matters to the press. They torture me over the war. I don’t believe I’ll ever get credit for anything I do in foreign affairs, no matter how successful it is, because I didn’t go to Harvard.”
“You are starting to sound like Mr. Nixon now, Mr. Johnson. You guys really don’t like reporters.”
He sneered. “The fact that a man is a newspaper reporter is evidence of some flaw of character. I’m not sure how you met Nixon, but our despise for reporters is one thing we can agree upon. Don’t become a newspaper reporter.”
“Mr. Johnson, I really have to study. You can tell me more about Viet Nam and your fight against poverty another time. I hope you have a good rest of the day. It was nice meeting you.”
I stood up and starting walking towards home. Lyndon Johnson called out to me. I turned around.
“Remember, Alex. Doing what’s right isn’t the problem. It is knowing what’s right.”
~~~*~~~
Chapter Twelve