Who Was It When You Were Born?....

So I have this thing.. yes! Another thing.... but I play this game w/ myself to keep my mind occupied when I have nothing to do or feel as if I am losing it due to lack of use....My current profession does not allow me to use a lot of brain power and to THINK really hard, so I have to keep up...
I have learned all the 50 states and their Capitol cities... can name them in under four minutes....(good for me..) and then I became interested in getting to know about all the presidents and who they were and what they were all about....So now I can name all the presidents... I am finding presidential trivia brilliant. For those of you who could care less... try this...

My Grandmother on my father's side was born in 1903. Although she was born in Italy... in 1903 Theodore Roosevelt was into his first term as the 26th president. TR was also the first president of the 20th century. TR was the youngest man to be President at age 42.

When she moved to America in 1910, Howard Taft was the 27th President.

My Grandfather on my father's side was born in 1899. (although he was born in Messina Sicily) The president then was William McKinley. He was the 25th President. Six months into McKinley's second term as President, he was shot and nine days later he died.I don't know how old my grandfather was when he came to America.

My dad was born in 1924, and Calvin Coolidge was the 30th President of the United States. dad passed in 2008, so he lived through...Coolidge, Hoover,Roosevelt,Truman,Eisenhower,Kennedy, Johnson,Nixon,Ford,Carter,Reagan,Bush,Clinton and Bush...a span of 84 years.

My mother was born in 1938...Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the 32nd President of the US. FDR spent twelve years as President. No one has done that but him. He was actually elected four times but passed away in office the first month into his fourth term.

My brother Paul was born in 1952, and Harry S.Truman was the 33rd President. Truman would arise at 5am each day and play piano for two hours before beginning his day as President.

My sister was born in 1965-Lyndon Baines Johnson was the 36th President. Johnson did not give an inaugural address when sworn into office in1963, because he was sworn in on Air Force One after the death of President Kennedy.
I was born in 1969-(ahh flower power) and again LBJ was in his last year as President....

The neat thing about all this is when you think of our history we have had 44 Presidents. Obama being the 44th....It's not all that much for a nation as young as ours, but we have come a long way...some for the good , some for the not so good.
Here is some of my Favorite trivia....
1. Jimmy Carter was the first president born in a hospital. All the presidents before him were born at home.
2.Martin Van Buren, the 8th president was the fist Citizen of the America Nation elected president. 1-7+9 were subjects of the American Colonies or even England subjects because they were born before America was "technically" a nation.
3.Andrew Jackson and Abe Lincoln were both completely self educated and Woodrow Wilson was the only President to hold a PHD.
4. Abe Lincoln was the first President born outside of the Original Thirteen Colonies"
5.Ulysses. S Grant was arrested when he was the 18th President for riding his horse to fast down the streets of Washington DC. We was to pay a 20$ fine.
So who was President when you were born and what do you know about him?

Through The Door...

I have this photo of my family...my "Original Family" The Mayo's...taken back in something like 1974. You can see us as true future contestants on Project Runway... But in this photo is my Dad, my mom my brother Paul, my sister Angela and me. The little one, obviously not happy. It seems by our name tags that we have on we were all at a 10th Mountain Division Reunion in New Hampshire. So this is what the 70's gave us...we THOUGHT it was fashionable so lets run with it.

I say this is the Original Mayo family because It was. And to be honest I do not think another picture exists of the five of us. A few years after the picture was take my brother Paul was killed in a car accident and left us. So The Mayo five became Four....but as we grew there was always others that came through our door and became family. If they stayed for a long or short time it would never matter. We had this open door policy in our home. Anyone from anywhere could find a hot meal, a place to lay their head and open arms. There was always people. No cost , no chores, no nothing was ever expected of them. (I just hope that they have been able to do the same for others as my parents did for them by passing it on.)

Although Angie and I are married and we have our eye candy husbands, (my sister has been married longer than she carried the name Mayo)The Mayo Four stood strong some thirty odd years after the passing of Paul. Here we are in April of 2008 at The Marco Island Relay For Life. One of our favorite causes.

Five months later the Mayo Four became the Mayo Three. I will have to find a picture for you all, but I think my point is... That we grow each day as individuals, we learn so much from people and we may not know it. My mother, my father, my sister and myself learned more from the people that stayed with us throughout the years as the Mayo Family.

Each person has a story, each person has baggage, each person has or needs or wants to give something. The Mayo's just allowed them to be themselves. They never turned anyone away. They always had a chance or two at our home. As a society today we turn lots of people away, they are different, they look funny, they don't have the same religious back rounds as we do, they have different political parties, they don't have money. they have too much money, they have different color skin, they have handicaps that we just cant accept. We are selfish and want things for ourselves and don't want to share, we can't trust...as a society....

My parents would not have been able to teach us as they did when we were growing up if we did not open our family door to people and invite them in. Maybe someday you should open your door and learn about the people who walk in and how you can you learn from them? Don't try to teach them, learn from them...but the first step is to let them through the door.....