Today is December 8th, 2021. Christmas is coming but it’s lost a lot of the magic over the last 70 years. I can remember when I still believed. Mom would give me the Sears & Roebuck catalogue and I’d make a list of toys, write a letter to Santa and hope that one of them would be under the tree on Christmas morning. Those are some good memories that I can still relive. Moving on. It’s National Lard Day, Pretend To Be a Time Traveler Day and National Brownie Day. I am a time traveler, but I only go in reverse. A few seconds ago, I was in 1950. Now to the history of December 8: In 1792 Henry Laurens became the 1st person to be cremated in the United States. Burning at the stake doesn’t count. In 1863 Abraham Lincoln issued his Amnesty Proclamation. Everyone who fought for the South was guilty of Treason which carried a death sentence. Lincoln pardoned them. In 1886 the American Federation of Labor (AFL) was formed by 26 craft unions coming together and Samuel Gompers is elected AFL president. Here’s a quote from Mr. Gompers: “The man who has his millions will want everything he can lay his hands on and then raise his voice against the poor devil who wants ten cents more a day.” In 1936 the NAACP filed suit to equalize salaries of black & white teachers. On this day in 1941 the US and Britain declared war on Japan. This is the day in 1980 that John Lennon was murdered at the age of 40. In addition to being a singer/songwriter, I’d list poet and philosopher too. I’ll end this post with some of his quotes: “Being honest may not get you a lot of friends, but it’ll always get you the right ones.” “We live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight.” “Life is very short, and there’s no time for fussing and fighting my friends.” I’ll end with the best advice I’ve ever heard for a poet or a song writer: John said, “tell the truth and make it rhyme.” Abide.
