>>But he did turn down a chance to play pro football ( which of course was not the road to riches in the late 1930s) He had a scar on his face from tackling Jay Berwanger.
>>
>>Ford also provided material for Chevy Chase on the early SNL episodes. I think NBC owes the Ford family some royalties!
>
>The ironic thing about Chevy's portrayal of Ford as a physical klutz, of course, was that Ford was probably the most athletic president we'd had since maybe Teddy Roosevelt and then going back to Lincoln's wrestling or Washington swimming the Rappahannock.

Leave it to you to know he swam the Rappahannock ;-)

When I was commuting back and forth between here and St. Louis two years ago I always made it a point to stop at a rest area on I-55 with a plaque commemorating the young Abe helping out during a flood near there, long before he was known for anything. IMO he is among our greatest Presidents. Washington because he was the first, making it up as he went along, and Lincoln because he presided over the country during a terrible time. I also put JFK in that group, although I know you do not agree, for his eloquence and his ability to inspire people. My favorite quotation of his is not "Ich Bin Ein Berliner" (literally, I am a jelly donut) or "Ask not what your country can do for you." It is "We all share this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children's futures, and we are all mortal." He said that in the summer of 1963.

You are a few years older than me so undoubtedly remember the assassination better than I do. I remember some. I was in 1st grade and remember the announcement coming over the loudspeaker that he had been killed and we were all being sent home early. My mom had the TV on and was crying. When my dad got home from work -- you didn't get sent home early from much of anything in a Maine mill town -- he was as angry as I ever saw him. "They should hang that SOB by his thumbs." (He was a staunch Republican, the tradition fiscal kind. The only Democrat he ever voted for was Barack Obama). And then Jack Ruby shot Oswald on live TV. And then the funeral, Jackie in her hat and veil, John John saluting his father's casket. No one who witnessed it will ever forget those days.