CHAPTER 19: PRESIDENTS, CAPITALS, AND GETTYSBURG

If you thought for a minute that mastering the times tables would be enough for me to learn during the summer—think again. My uncle Jake had other ideas. He wanted me to learn a bunch of other stuff, too. Once I got the times tables in less than three minutes, he made me make flash cards for every state in America and the capital of the state. Next he wanted me to learn the name of EVERY PRESIDENT WE HAVE EVER HAD. I had no idea how I was going to do that!

So Uncle Jake sat me down. He told me to write down every single president on a piece of paper. “Like flash cards?” I asked.

“No. Not this time. Just write them down on a piece of paper. In a row or two.”

“Okay.” Uncle Jake walked out of the room, and I pulled out a book from school about all the presidents. Then I wrote them all down in two rows, like he said.

Washington	Harrison
Adams	Cleveland
Jefferson	McKinley
Madison	Roosevelt
Monroe	Taft
Adams	Wilson
Jackson	Harding
Van Buren	Coolidge
Harrison	Hoover
Tyler	Roosevelt
Polk	Truman
Taylor	Eisenhower
Fillmore	Kennedy
Pierce	Johnson
Buchanan	Nixon
Lincoln	Ford
Johnson	Carter
Grant	Reagan
Hayes	Bush
Garfield	Clinton
Arthur	Bush
Cleveland	Obama
	Trump

Just as I finished up, Uncle Jake came back into my room. I showed him the list.

“Good,” he said. “Now let’s trailblaze.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“It is another way to memorize things. Things that are longer and not direct question-and-answer. Like the presidents or the Gettysburg Address.”

“What’s the Gettysburg Address?” I asked.

“What’s the Gettysburg Address? Really? All right, we’ll get to that later. Right now, let’s focus on the presidents. Look at them and memorize the first ten. I’ll give you five minutes.” With that, Uncle Jake walked out the door.

NOW WHAT WAS I GOING TO DO? How could I ever memorize these in five minutes????

I looked down at the paper: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Adams, Jackson, Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler. I read through them again: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Adams, Jackson, Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler. And I did it again. And again.

Then Uncle Jake came back in. “You got them memorized yet?” he asked. I thought he might be kidding. But he wasn’t.

“No,” I said. “Not even close.”

“That’s okay. No one can memorize that fast. But you can definitely memorize this easily. Now. Take one last look at those first ten. But focus on the first four.”

I looked down at the paper again, looking at the first four: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison. Again: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison.

“Okay,” Uncle Jake said as he snatched the paper away from me. “Go.”

“Washington. Adams. Jefferson. Mmmmm … mmmmm…” I knew the next one began with an M, but I just couldn’t remember the rest of it.

“Mad…” Uncle Jake gave me a hint.

“Madison?”

“Yes. Now. Look at the paper. And then start over again at the beginning, down the trail you already made. But try to go just a little farther down the trail each time.”

I looked at the paper and saw Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, MONROE.

Uncle Jake flipped the paper over. I started again. “Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe?”

“Yes,” Uncle Jake said, “and who is after Monroe?”

“I actually have no idea.”

“That’s okay. Look at the paper again.” I looked down and saw that after Monroe was ADAMS. I thought to myself: Monroe, ADAMS, Monroe, Adams. Monroe, Adams.

“You ready?” Uncle Jake asked.

“I guess so,” I replied.

“Go. From the beginning.”

“Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe … Adams.”

“Yes!” Uncle Jake said. “That’s it. Each time you get stumped, you stop, take a look, think about how it ties into what you know, and then go back to the beginning of whatever you are trying to memorize—the beginning of the trail. I just want you to finish the first ten tonight. I will test you on them in the morning.”

And that was it. It was a simple system. AND IT WORKED! I kept repeating the presidents I knew, and then when I got stumped, I would check the paper, look at it and try to memorize the next one, and then put the paper down and go back to the beginning. I didn’t always get it right. And I got stumped a few times really bad. I had to go back and look at the paper six times for Van Buren. What kind of name is Van Buren anyway? But I got them memorized.

The next morning, as soon as I rolled out of bed, Uncle Jake was there. “Go,” he said.

“Go? Go where?” I asked, still a little groggy.

“The presidents! Let’s hear the first ten.”

“Oh yeah,” I said. Those. Here we go:

Uncle Jake got a smile out of that! “Good job, Marc,” he said. “Good job.”

“Thanks, Uncle Jake.”

We headed down for the morning workout.

“So. For the next four nights, you can keep working on memorizing the presidents. Once you have those, you can move on to the Gettysburg Address.”

“You still haven’t even told me what that is, Uncle Jake.”

“Well, first you have to know about the Battle of Gettysburg…,” Uncle Jake said. Then he told me all about it. It was a brutal battle in the Civil War near the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Almost fifty thousand men were killed or wounded in three days of fighting. After the battle was over, President Lincoln came to the site and gave a speech called the Gettysburg Address. Although the speech was only ten sentences long and President Lincoln spoke for only two minutes, my uncle Jake says it is one of the best speeches ever. I copied it out of a history book:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Uncle Jake said everyone should memorize that speech. I agree with him, and I will.