Blog 3832 – 05.20.2026

When I Was Eight

When I was eight in 1958, we had the oldest Republican President to date serving his second term Dwight David Eisenhower. He had spent a long and illustrious career in the military before becoming President. He had risen in rank and the respect of his peers to the highest rank achievable, five star general, and commanded the allied forces in Europe.

He ran for President in 1952 on the promise of ending the Korean War and presided over a prosperous peace time in America that was the envy of the whole world. Times have changed. Presidents are not required to keep their promises to get re-elected anymore. They can even call those who served in the military suckers and losers and still somehow hold on to the reigns of power using them to punish those who oppose them and to hide facts from the American people i.e. the Trump-Epstein Files.

At eight I did not following the news of an elderly President that liked to play golf. Our current President when he is not posting rants on his cell phone, or planning new wars, that he promised to keep us out of, likes to golf in his spare time. He likes to put his name on everything and signs his name with a Sharpie permanent marker hoping to leave an indelible legacy in Washington, D.C. and on the world. He wants to build a ballroom, renovate the the mall reflecting pool, and build a huge Arc De Trump at the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery.

Last year he claimed to have ended eight wars, since then he has started three and tried to start a war over Greenland and now has his eye on Cuba.

I think he’d like to find a face-saving way out of his Iran blunder so he could concentrate on his “Donroe Doctrine” of dominating the Western Hemisphere leaving the rest of the world to Russia and China.

When I was eight our President was more concerned with building the best Interstate highway system in the world. Yes, and it was designed to rapidly move troop from one place to another if war ever came to our shores, but it in addition it became a great boost to our economy. Gas was about twenty cents a gallon when I was eight and the Bic pen that wrote four different colors came out October 19, 1950, a month and three days before I was born.

When I was eight years old I thought a four color pen was a communications marvel today’s eight year olds see the smart phone as that. In five years and a few months my granddaughter will be eight years old. I wonder what eight year olds will be wanting then.

My daughter Emily before she died in 2012 at thirty-two years of age told me I had to live till my eighty-third birthday because the date would be 11.22.33. Emily loved to see significance in numbers. I wonder if four color Bic pens and smart phones will still be around in 11.22.33 and if Presidents will still play golf.

I think I’ll hang around to see for myself.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David James White