How many of you went to Tallapoosa Elementary School and Mrs. Eaves had 
you learn the about American History? If memory serves me correct on 
this President's Day she made us learn Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. I 
can get the first line about "four score and seven years ago" but 
forget it before "we cannot consecrate this land". President's Day is a 
day we honor Abraham Lincoln and all presidents before and after his 
administration. We honor those who led our nation through crisis and 
challenges by holding a mattress sale. Seems a shame that we don't 
think much about people who served the highest office in the land like 
Warren G. Harding or Grover Cleveland. William Howard Taft would have 
never made "You Tube" with any of his speeches. Dwight Eisenhower could 
never been on Facebook. I used to think that Abraham Lincoln was a 
somber and scholarly fellow who was sad most of the time. I could have 
understood that since reading about his wife Mary Todd who was crazy as 
an outhouse rat. On the contrary, research I did during graduate school 
revealed that Honest Abe was the "James Carey" of the White House. He 
was hysterical in what is documented by many. He was great with a story 
and a joke. My admiration for Lincoln was for the ability to
lead and get along with his enemies by putting them in a cabinet position in his 
administration. Going against the grain of politics is not an easy 
task. I plan on celebrating President's Day by seeing if Jack Jackson 
at Crossroads Furniture can cut me a deal on a Beautyrest. What a good 
week of more tolerable temperatures last week. Monday, President Obama 
could have declared it the most beautiful day in the history of the 
United States. It gave us an early feeling of spring. It also reminded 
me of back in 1993 when I woke up on March 13th with a foot of snow in 
the yard. My grandmother always said that late February and into March 
are the times we observe the biggest snowfalls. I wish it would snow a 
good one just once this year. Question for you, why is it when Glenn 
Burns at Channel 2 or Ken Cook at Fox 5 mention snow, we head to 
Holcombe's Foodland or the Pig and buy milk and bread? If there is a 
dusting of snow in metro Atlanta the city shuts down. If you ever 
encounter somebody from Michigan, Ohio, New York, or heaven help us, 
Minnesota, they are quick to point out how we Southerners don't know 
jack about snow, ice, and cold weather. Most of them don't know jack 
about pork barbecue, cornbread or swimming in the Tallapoosa River. I 
have a buddy in the radio business Gene Bridges who was on the air in 
Sacremento, California for years and now is in Kansas City, Missouri. 

We were talking about hometowns and he told me he grew up 6 miles from 
Tallapoosa, Missouri down in the southeastern corner of the "Show Me" 
state. In researching it, I found out the hamlet took its name from our 
town. Seems the founder of the town had a friend in railroads who lived 
here and took the name for the Missouri town because of his admiration 
for his friend who loved Tallapoosa, Georgia. I promised Gene and his 
wife Joyce a tour of Tallapoosa anytime he can get away from Kansas 
City. By the way, he lives only a few miles from my favorite president 
Harry S. Truman's home in Indepence, Missouri. Happy President's Day!