Here’s the Wikipedia entry on Samuel J. Seymour: Samuel J. Seymour - Wikipedia
He passed away 12 days before I was born. We forget how young our country is.
Rosa Parks was born the same year that Harriet Tubman died.
There was a thread on this clip a while back. I’ve gone back and watched it regularly. Priceless!
He was 5 years old at the time. I don’t think I remember anything from when I was 5. It must have made a huge impression on him, to remember it at 96 years old.
That would be like meeting someone today who remembers 1921 (the year mother mother was born) as a small child–still pretty impressive.
I was 7 when JFK was assassinated, and I remember it. I wasn’t an eye witness like this gentleman, but I remember being sent home from school early that day and the news coverage that seemed to be the only thing on TV for days.
My still living grandmother(she’s 107) has spoken of HER maternal grandfather, who was incarcerated at Andersonville, during the US Civil War.
Anne Frank and Martin Luther King, Jr. were born the same year. That just weirds me out immensely.
Just the other day I realized that, in 2015, when I turn 60, I will have been alive for one quarter of the US’s history (taking 1776 as the birth of the nation). It does not seem possible.
Rub it in, Pal, rub it in!
Why don’t you just give me a nice paper cut and pour some lemon juice on it?
Former President George H.W. Bush and Anne Frank share the same birthday (June 12) five years apart. When I first learned this fact, I was not a huge fan of then-president Bush, and I started thinking about the contrast in their characters. Then I realized that while Anne Frank was recording her W.W. II experiences in her diary, Bush was serving as the youngest aviator in the U.S. Navy, fighting bravely and honorably in the Pacific. It gave me a sense of respect for him that I have had ever since, despite our political differences.
There was a mention of this on the Slate Political Gabfest some time back and I think it was featured on the Kottke blog also. I find this type of fact fascinating. Another one that was discussed was John Tyler who was POTUS in the 1840’s and still has living grandchildren.
I was older when Reagan got shot (15 I think) and it happened right when school was getting out (found out when I got home) but it too was the only thing on TV for days. Difference being however that they had & ran the actual videotape of the assassination attempt endlessly! So much so that SNL parodied it with the assassination of Buckwheat!
I’m always surprised when I realize how relatively young MLK would be; 83 is old, but not ancient- there have been plenty of men still going strong and in the public eye at that age.
Hal Holbrook (who has now been playing Mark Twain far longer than Sam Clemens did) actually interviewed two of Twain’s former secretaries, servants, and eventually his daughter to get pointers on his gestures and voice when he was first preparing for his one-man show in the 1950s. (A couple of things he deliberately changed: Twain never smoked onstage and while he often wore white suits when not performing he did not wear them at his lectures [save once before Congress].)
The death of Mike Wallace this month was a huge blow to “Living Memory” connections.
I remember plenty of things that happened long before the age of 5, and I hope to still remember them in 30 years, when I’m 96.
And when Lincoln was born, Adams and Jefferson were still very much alive. So the entire history of this nation fits into just a few lifespans.
Oh, and I was already in college when JFK was shot.
Yes. He interviewed Frank Lloyd Wright, who was born right after the Civil War, early in his career.
Baker,I just can’t get over how amazing that is.It’s incredible that people are still living today who heard first-hand stories of the Civil War,after all these 147 years.Thanks for sharing it!