A few decades ago three special days in February were widely observed in the United States: Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday on February 12, Valentine’s Day on February 14, and George Washington’s Birthday on February 22. Washington’s Birthday was a federal holiday. A few states observed Lincoln’s Birthday as a holiday, and many public schools had special activities to mark each day.
Bulletin boards and classroom windows were decorated with symbols of each president:
log cabins, axes, stove pipe hats for Lincoln,
hatchets, cherries for Washington, and
silhouettes of both presidents.
Teachers read or told stories of the childhood or youth of each president, stories intended to inspire students to follow their good examples.
We were told of 7 year old Abraham Lincoln helping his father clear land and build the family’s log cabin in Indiana. We heard that he had to walk 4 or 5 miles to school as a young teenager and that he practiced math problems on the back of a wooden “fire shovel” by writing on the wood with charcoal and then “erasing” his work by scraping the board with a knife. We learned that he borrowed books from anyone who would lend them to him, and that he worked long hours at physically demanding work to earn money to replace a borrowed book that was damaged by weather.
We were also told that as a 6 year old boy George Washington chopped down his father’s cherry tree, probably to test a new hatchet, and when questioned confessed and said “I cannot tell a lie.”
Older children read and discussed Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and learned about Washington at Valley Forge.
Now, we fast forward from the middle of the 20th century to early in the 21st century. I planned to do some entertaining last weekend and wanted table decorations and cake decorations that related to these two presidents. One day last week I went to several stores, including a chain craft store that carries a large variety of cake pans and cake decorations, a large greeting card and gift store, and a large discount store that was well stocked with items for Valentines Day, St. Patrick’s Day, and Easter. I found nothing at all related to Lincoln or Washington.
What had happened?
I think at least two things have happened. We’ve entered a time of debunking and cynicism in which it is more acceptable to point out weaknesses of prominent people than their exemplary qualities. Also, as more federal holidays have been created and as schools face increased pressure for students to perform well on standardized tests, the time available for the celebrations common fifty years earlier has decreased.
The result is a generic “Presidents Day” observed primarily by a closed federal government (officially still called Washington’s Birthday) and many retail sales promotions that feature caricatures of a few presidents (including, this year, a KIA automobile television ad featuring Millard Fillmore and honoring him for having the first bathtub with running water in the White House).
I did buy one item on my shopping trip last week: an unfinished wooden bird house made to resemble a log cabin. Without tax the price was just under five dollars; with tax the price was five dollars and change. As I removed a five dollar bill and a one dollar bill from my wallet I saw the only acknowledgement of Washington and Lincoln in the craft store in February!
Minerva Abbott
proud to be a West Virginian
proud to be a Reagan Republican
References
The Boy’s Life of Abraham Lincoln
by Helen Nicolay
Chapter 1 A President’s Childhood
http://www.worldwideschool.com/library/books/hst/biography/TheBoysLifeofAbrahamLincoln/Chap1.html
George Washington’s early life
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington’s_early_life
Parson Weems
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parson_Weems
Washington’s Birthday
posted fo Westsylvania blog February 18, 2008
http://minervaabbott.wordpress.com/2008/02/18/washingtons-birthday/
Millard Fillmore
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millard_Fillmore
Bathtub hoax
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtub_hoax
Tags: Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Millard Fillmore, Presidents Day, Washington's Birthday
