Blackie and Danny Go To See The President
Screen 1 of 5In the summer of 1916 Woodrow Wilson was campaigning for a second term as President of the United States. This country had not yet entered World War I, although England and France were already at war with Germany. Mr. Wilson's hope for peace and neutrality for the United States was strongly reflected in all his campaign speeches, despite the fact that during 1916 German submarines were deliberately sinking American ships in the Atlantic.
People throughout the country were understandably very apprehensive about this grave situation and were therefore intensely interested in what the President had to say each day about the prospects of the United States entering the war. His campaign tour was drawing large crowds at every stop of his special train.
My mother, a college teacher at the time in Bowling Green, Kentucky, learned that Wilson's extensive speaking tour was to include a stop at Hodgenville, Kentucky, where Abraham Lincoln was born and spent the first seven years of his life. Of course, my mother would go to hear the President. I say, "of course," because she was always aware of the significance of such events, and ready to be a part of any constructive activity dealing with problems facing her family, her native state of Kentucky, and the nation at large.
It soon became evident to my older brother, Gooch, and me (he was then six years old, and I was four) that she thought we, too, should go to see and hear President Wilson. I did not realize it at that time but I certainly learned later that she believed strongly that everyone--young and old alike--should make every effort possible to see and listen to prominent people. "There must be good reason," she would often say, "why they are holding high office or are successful in some line of work, and we should find out more about them through reading and if possible first?hand, direct contact with them."
At the age of four, I was not at all excited or impressed about going to see what at first I understood to be "the present." But my mother carefully explained to me that what we were to see was not a "present" such as the ones we found under our Christmas tree each year. Instead, she said, it was the President (she taught me to spell it correctly that very week), the President of the United States, the highest elected official in our country. The trip then began to make more sense to Gooch and me. It might be fun, we thought, to ride on the train from Bowling Green to Hodgenville, especially if we could take Blackie and Danny, our pet guinea pigs, along with us. These guinea pigs (they might be called hamsters today but they were just plain guinea pigs then) were not much bigger than a large rat, and we carried them wherever we went--except to our meals. Our mother would never allow us to take them to the table. Blackie belonged to me, and he loved for me to cuddle him in my arms. He was also delighted (he squeaked softly when something pleased him) when I would put him into my coat pocket, with his head sticking out for air.
So I felt I would just have to take Blackie with me to see President Wilson. And my brother, Gooch, also wanted to take Danny. Both guinea pigs should go to see the President, we pleaded with our mother. But she was not persuaded. "Taking guinea pigs on such a trip would be silly," she said at first. "After all," she asked us, "what can animals learn from hearing presidents speak?" Then Gooch suggested, "but they could also see the cabin where Lincoln was born." She was still not impressed.
It was then that I remembered the Billy Whiskers books our mother had read to us so often. "Well, Billy Whiskers was a goat," I reminded her, "and he traveled to many different places and learned lots of things." Our mother was not yet convinced that the guinea pigs should go. "In fact," she said further, "they wouldn't even be able to see Mr. Wilson. Hundreds--perhaps even thousands of people will be there all crowded together, and guinea pigs are so small." Almost in tears by then, Gooch and I both said together, "But we can hold them high above our heads so they can see everything."
We knew well, as did everyone else acquainted with our mother, that she was a very firm and resolute woman. She had proved this many times during our early boyhood years in overcoming many difficulties and hardships, as she served quite successfully both as mother and father to us. (Gooch and I never saw our father; he had gone away several years before.) She took good care of us and our modest four-room house which we rented, as well as earning a small but regular salary as a teacher. All this responsibility not only kept her very busy, but also required that she develop and exercise a strong will of her own. But she was also reasonable and fair. She would usually listen and respond sympathetically to reasons she felt were sincere and sound. And in this case she finally relented and said Blackie and Danny could go with us to see the President. "Hurray," we shouted as we hugged and thanked her.
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