The story you just read is fiction—that means it was made up. But there is a lot that’s true in this story. So I’m going to set the facts straight.
When I was seven, I lived on the banks of the Rappahannock River in Virginia. I had two half brothers, Lawrence and Augustine; a younger sister, Betty; and three younger brothers, Samuel, John, and baby Charles. You don’t see Lawrence in the story because he was living in England at the time.
It’s true I was a serious little boy. I was very interested in the weather, and in the landscape around our house, and in my lessons, of course. I really did write out 110 rules to live by, and I kept them with me as I grew older. I rode horses almost all my life, and they did have the names Charger, Lightning, Snow, and Blueskin. I commanded the American soldiers as they traveled by ferry back and forth across a river. I was a general in the Revolutionary War, and I became the first president of the United States. But when I was seven years old I didn’t know that any of that would happen!
I got to be such an important leader that lots of myths grew up about me. Teachers and parents used me as an example of how really good children should behave. The story about how I threw a rock or a silver dollar across a river was told to show how strong I was. (I was strong, but not that strong!)
In 1800, a preacher named Mason Locke Weems wrote a book calledThe Life of George Washington. Parson Weems made up the story about the cherry tree for his book, to show my goodness and virtue.
It’s funny to think that a story about the truth was actually not true!
Nowadays, my birthday is a holiday called Presidents’ Day. Banks, post offices, and schools are closed on the third Monday of February to celebrate. But when I was born, it was just a cold February day. In fact, we used a different calendar back then, so according to that calendar, I was born on February 11, 1732. Then we changed our calendar (it was very confusing!) and my birthday moved to February 22, 1732. I suppose my mama was right—nobody forgets my birthday anymore!