Four score and a few hundred years ago, little George Washington was sitting on a yellow Thomas Built Bus eating his cherry pie and staring out the window. He spent most mornings this way, gazing out at the countryside and dreaming of the day he would leave home and make it on his own. This morning however, he had other things on his mind; the day was February 27th and his mother had forgotten his birthday. Again. She was a frugal woman and baked but one cherry pie a year to celebrate the birthdays of all her children at once. On that dirt road between home and school, Little Washington thought to himself, this group birthday shenanigans had been going on for far too long…
Little Washington rose out of his seat.
“Sit down please! Buckle up!”, hollered the driver.
“I will not! Fellow classmates, listen here. You have each seen me eating this pie, too consumed in its’ deliciousness to share with any of you. Do you want your own pie as well?”
“YEAH!!”, the children roared.
“Then we must come together in unison and let our parents know! We will not settle for but one shared pie a year! We will pick the cherries ourselves if we must, but we will no longer settle for but one! We as individuals must unite to help ourselves and our neighbor. What do you say?”
The yellow bus erupted with cheers of solidarity and purpose! What an idea, Washington thought to himself as he sunk back down into his seat, but how to execute it?
Years passed and Washington left home to become a land surveyor, a skill that would assist him into his role as military leader in the years to come. When he rose to the Presidency, he kept in mind that February morning and the promise he made to his fellow countrymen. It’s said that he made multiple attempts to pass legislation granting US Citizens each a pie of their choice on their birthdays but Secretary of Treasury Hamilton wouldn’t allow it to pass. Others claim that Washington fell for his wife Martha due largely in part to her culinary abilities; they say he would send their two children to school each morning on that same yellow bus, each with a piece of pie in their lunch pails.
Despite his many achievements, Washington never saw this dream come to fruition. In fact, his mother’s tradition carried on over the years and became what we know today as Presidents’ Day – celebrating the birth of each US President on the third Monday of February every year.
In the weeks leading up to President’s Day 2017, we ask that you honor President George Washington’s wish and pack a sweet treat for your children before they climb aboard their school bus. The purpose and magic that can transpire aboard a big yellow bus is second to none – it’s a place that’s allowed great ideas to be thought for years and years; a place where children can come together and day dream out the window of all the greatness they hope to one day bring into our world.
What greatness did you dream of?
Fun Facts:
· George Washington was born in 1732 and died in 1799
· Washington most notably shares this holiday with Abraham Lincoln, who was born February 12th. Other February birthdays include William Harrison (b: February 9th) and Ronald Reagan (b: February 6th).
· School buses originally began as “kid hacks”; hack being the term used for horse-drawn carriages that took children from rural areas to their one-room schoolhouses
· Massachusetts became the first state to enact legislation allowing public funds to be used for transporting children to school
· Weather protection in the original school wagons was nearly non-existent, meaning Washington’s pie would have been great way to warm that cold February morning!
· Washington would have been 285 this February… that’s a lot of pie!