Why, It Seems Like It Was Just Yesterday
(A lesson in history, written April 28, 1992)
How old are you, Reader? Fifteen? Twenty-five? Fifty?
When your parents talked of things in their memory, but before you were born, didn’t that strike you as ancient history? Well, reflect on this:
When I was four years old, I knew a man who was 103 years old. He would tell me stories about “The War.” I would listen, but I didn’t know what war he was talking about until I was grown; and, I don’t remember any of his stories to this day.
But, one day I got to thinking, “When I was four years old, the year was 1939. That means my elderly friend (Ezra) was born in 1836. And, that means he was 25 years old when the Civil War began in 1861.”
I KNEW A MAN WHO FOUGHT IN THE CIVIL WAR! HE WAS 29 YEARS OLD WHEN PRESIDENT LINCOLN WAS ASSASSINATED.
Let’s pretend that when my friend Ezra was 4 years old, HE had a friend, John, who was 103 years old. John would have been born in 1737. To make our story more realistic, let’s say that John was born in Leipzig, Germany and spent his early childhood there. John attended a certain Lutheran church in Leipzig. In 1749, John would have been twelve years old. Sometimes on a Sunday, he would walk to church, which was a short distance away. On the way, he would sometimes stop by a neighbor’s house, and they would walk to church together. This neighbor would always be accompanied by his wife and a multitude of their children on the way, for they had many; he played the organ at the local church, and his name was Johann Sebastian Bach. At that time, Bach was the same age that I am now,– 56 years old. Bach was born in 1685 and died in 1750 at the age of 65.
Now, let’s pretend that friend John came to America just after Bach died. John would now be thirteen years old, arriving in Boston in 1750, a city of about 15,000 population and was rivaling Philadelphia as the cultural and political center of the colonies in America. Among the citizenry were Paul Revere, John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and James Otis. John got to know all of them very well.