When I was very young there were two Presidential birthdays observed in February. Neither of them was a school holiday. I don't recall, but I think banks and the post office were closed in observance of both. I guess that for such a short month, two legal holidays were too much. Thank God there was no official observance of Groundhog Day or St., Valentine's Day. Other than the passing reference to whether Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, I tried to ignore Groundhog Day.
Observing St. Valentine's Day seemed kind of silly too. There was the annual, traditional and almost mandatory exchange of valentines with all the members of the opposite sex. Not only did you give them to the prettiest girls - those that would never otherwise give you the time of day, but also you had to include all those that you feared might actually believe that you had some cloistered amorous intentions. I suppose in these politically correct times, it may have not occurred to anyone that this practice probably violates some obscure but federally-mandated something-or-the-other.
Don't laugh. That might happen.
It usually takes Congress to create something utterly ridiculous. A case in point may well be Presidents' Day.
You may have noticed on the calendar that Abe Lincoln and George Washington's real, honest and true birthdays are ten days apart. It is kind of obvious; enough so that even Congress may have noticed it. The irony is that the collective body of elected officials decided to legislate a lie into a holiday to fall on a Monday between the twelveth and the twenty-second of February. It was to serve as a day to celebrate both birthdays of the past presidents. Oh, but it was also intended to celebrate the birthday of every president, even the not so great and forgettable ones. So, not only did a Congressional act split the respect for two men reputed to be truthful and honest men well beyond the norm, but it also diluted the holiday to the point of near meaninglessness.
As legislation of the sort goes, it is not surprising. The desire was to eliminate as many holidays that interrupt the middle of the week to officially celebrate them on a Monday, creating a three-day-weekend for those who do not work on weekends.
I believe this was around the same time that my state of birth, Ohio, decided to adopt Daylight Savings Time. My mother accused politicians of passing a law that allowed golfers more time on the links.
Who knows? Maybe she was right.
Mom also commented on the new law creating Presidents' Day. She said that if George and Abe were still alive to know about it, they would probably react the same way that my daughter Amanda might, if I told her that since her birthday is on the nineteenth of December, and so close to Christmas, that we are just going to pick a day between the two and celebrate that instead.
I could be wrong but, as I recall, in the years that followed the tragic assassination in 1963, there was some discussion about making John F. Kennedy's birthday a national holiday and, as should come as little surprise, Congress could not seem to agree on doing that. They had already replaced the venerable Benjamin Franklin's likeness on the fifty cent piece to create the Kennedy Half Dollar. It was considered redundant, perhaps since Franklin's image already adorned the hundred dollar bill.
Oh, and by the way, Franklin was never a President, so please do not refer to American currency as 'Dead Presidents'.Not true.
Anyway, I think the creation of a combined celebration of the birthdays of Washington and Lincoln sort of served to quell all the emotionally driven and politically controversial good intentions. In theory, over time there would be enough Presidents with diverse birthdays on the calendar that every day would eventually be some President's Birthday. So maybe Congress did us a favor, even if they didn't realize it. Three or four hundred years from now, when every day of the year will have been some President's birthday, there will still be postal service and banking underway.
President's Day has emerged to become a simple way to honor, remember and basically have excuse for the rest of the year to pretty much ignore the times of the greatest, along with the most obscure, of all the Presidents. Combine everything into one grand celebration that could be remembered in a tribute to the office itself, not so much the individuals that have served. There is a sort of egalitarian logic about that, and it strikes me as being a particularly American sort of thing to do.
At any rate, it was a fairly intelligent, and therefore, probably unintended, after thought, pursuant to the actual legislation. I was not paying much attention at the time, but I know that at the outset the holiday was only intended to honor the two patron demigods of American myth and legend: George that could never tell a lie and good ol' Honest Abe. Honoring truthful and honest men who served in the highest office of the land seems like a very admirable thing to me. But somehow, everyone else got lumped into the mix sometime afterwards, to ride on the coattails of the great in a celebration of honor as well as mediocrity in public service. .
When Congress was debating the matter, it wasn't like the creation of the holiday really needed a whole lot of discussion, but just that debating is one of the things that Congress seems intent on doing. They are pretty good at it, since they have a lot of practice.
During the period of discussion about the new holiday, someone asked my mother what she thought they were going to call the combined holiday. Her reply was classic, and clearly it made me laugh, because it was just as ridiculous as the whole concept of combining the two birthdays into one. Then and ever after, February not only has been unique for having merely 28 or sometimes 29 days. It has been forever associated in my mind with everything else that is kind of off-center and maybe even sideways about our country.
By the way, my mom's suggestion on naming the new holiday was, what else? 'Abe Birthington's Washday'.
Observing St. Valentine's Day seemed kind of silly too. There was the annual, traditional and almost mandatory exchange of valentines with all the members of the opposite sex. Not only did you give them to the prettiest girls - those that would never otherwise give you the time of day, but also you had to include all those that you feared might actually believe that you had some cloistered amorous intentions. I suppose in these politically correct times, it may have not occurred to anyone that this practice probably violates some obscure but federally-mandated something-or-the-other.
Don't laugh. That might happen.
It usually takes Congress to create something utterly ridiculous. A case in point may well be Presidents' Day.
You may have noticed on the calendar that Abe Lincoln and George Washington's real, honest and true birthdays are ten days apart. It is kind of obvious; enough so that even Congress may have noticed it. The irony is that the collective body of elected officials decided to legislate a lie into a holiday to fall on a Monday between the twelveth and the twenty-second of February. It was to serve as a day to celebrate both birthdays of the past presidents. Oh, but it was also intended to celebrate the birthday of every president, even the not so great and forgettable ones. So, not only did a Congressional act split the respect for two men reputed to be truthful and honest men well beyond the norm, but it also diluted the holiday to the point of near meaninglessness.
As legislation of the sort goes, it is not surprising. The desire was to eliminate as many holidays that interrupt the middle of the week to officially celebrate them on a Monday, creating a three-day-weekend for those who do not work on weekends.
I believe this was around the same time that my state of birth, Ohio, decided to adopt Daylight Savings Time. My mother accused politicians of passing a law that allowed golfers more time on the links.
Who knows? Maybe she was right.
Mom also commented on the new law creating Presidents' Day. She said that if George and Abe were still alive to know about it, they would probably react the same way that my daughter Amanda might, if I told her that since her birthday is on the nineteenth of December, and so close to Christmas, that we are just going to pick a day between the two and celebrate that instead.
I could be wrong but, as I recall, in the years that followed the tragic assassination in 1963, there was some discussion about making John F. Kennedy's birthday a national holiday and, as should come as little surprise, Congress could not seem to agree on doing that. They had already replaced the venerable Benjamin Franklin's likeness on the fifty cent piece to create the Kennedy Half Dollar. It was considered redundant, perhaps since Franklin's image already adorned the hundred dollar bill.
Oh, and by the way, Franklin was never a President, so please do not refer to American currency as 'Dead Presidents'.Not true.
Anyway, I think the creation of a combined celebration of the birthdays of Washington and Lincoln sort of served to quell all the emotionally driven and politically controversial good intentions. In theory, over time there would be enough Presidents with diverse birthdays on the calendar that every day would eventually be some President's Birthday. So maybe Congress did us a favor, even if they didn't realize it. Three or four hundred years from now, when every day of the year will have been some President's birthday, there will still be postal service and banking underway.
President's Day has emerged to become a simple way to honor, remember and basically have excuse for the rest of the year to pretty much ignore the times of the greatest, along with the most obscure, of all the Presidents. Combine everything into one grand celebration that could be remembered in a tribute to the office itself, not so much the individuals that have served. There is a sort of egalitarian logic about that, and it strikes me as being a particularly American sort of thing to do.
At any rate, it was a fairly intelligent, and therefore, probably unintended, after thought, pursuant to the actual legislation. I was not paying much attention at the time, but I know that at the outset the holiday was only intended to honor the two patron demigods of American myth and legend: George that could never tell a lie and good ol' Honest Abe. Honoring truthful and honest men who served in the highest office of the land seems like a very admirable thing to me. But somehow, everyone else got lumped into the mix sometime afterwards, to ride on the coattails of the great in a celebration of honor as well as mediocrity in public service. .
When Congress was debating the matter, it wasn't like the creation of the holiday really needed a whole lot of discussion, but just that debating is one of the things that Congress seems intent on doing. They are pretty good at it, since they have a lot of practice.
During the period of discussion about the new holiday, someone asked my mother what she thought they were going to call the combined holiday. Her reply was classic, and clearly it made me laugh, because it was just as ridiculous as the whole concept of combining the two birthdays into one. Then and ever after, February not only has been unique for having merely 28 or sometimes 29 days. It has been forever associated in my mind with everything else that is kind of off-center and maybe even sideways about our country.
By the way, my mom's suggestion on naming the new holiday was, what else? 'Abe Birthington's Washday'.
Your mom was funny.
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