141 Independence Day Trivia

Bob Smith 0:00
What signers of the 1776 declaration of independence would be called Millennials today and

Marcia Smith 0:06
every Independence Day How many times does the Liberty Bell ring answers

Bob Smith 0:11
to those another Independence Day questions coming up in this episode of the off ramp with Bob and Marsha Smith?

Welcome to the off ramp a chance to slow down steer clear of crazy. Take a side road to sanity and get some perspective on life. Before we get started. Let’s just have a little patriotic music here. Let’s get in the spirit of this thing

we go Do you like that? John Philip Sousa music? Oh my goodness, this one of my favorites, Stars and Stripes Forever. Now, that gets us in the spirit of the questions today. Okay, Independence Day is a day when we all pause and get some more perspective on our country and how it began and how lucky we all are. And I just recently found an article that kind of confirmed something I felt when I was at Independence Hall back about three years ago visiting and they had busts of people who signed the Declaration and on the floor, they had their names with their ages at the title. Yeah. And I was astounded at how young many of them were the average age of the signers was just 4444. Okay, four of the signers were in their 20s 16 of the signers were in their 30s including Thomas Jefferson, who is 33 He wrote the ship and 12 more signers were from 34 to 39, including John Hancock, the man who had that huge signature. Yes, he was just 39 Oh,

Marcia Smith 1:56
Johnny Hancock with that big gaudy signature. Look at me, look at me. There’s

Bob Smith 2:02
one in every Congress there, though. For every revolution, certainly there were several of those. Oh, my goodness, yeah. But just think of that he’s only 39 When he’s doing that. John Adams was 40, Francis Lightfoot Lee and two others were 41. And on and on today, they’d be called millennials.

Marcia Smith 2:20
Indeed they would. I mean, you just don’t think of them that way. You think of them as Yeah, old and wise. They were young and cranky. They were

Bob Smith 2:27
young and cranky people. I’m going to ask you a question about founding fathers. How old some of those people were, but I’ll let you get to your question.

Marcia Smith 2:33
All right. All my questions today are from a fourth of July quiz and Parade Magazine. Okay, let’s see how well you do. I have a feeling you’re going to do very well. Mr. Smith. Every Independence Day, Bob, how many times does the Liberty Bell ring how

Bob Smith 2:48
many times does it ring? Every for them? I love that they rang the bell?

Marcia Smith 2:52
Well, let’s not hit really hard. But this is interesting backstory. Okay, on every fourth of July at 2pm. Eastern Time, children who are descendants of declaration signers symbolically tap the Liberty Bell 13 times oh, bells across the nation also ring 13 times in honor of the patriots from the original 13 states. Well, that’s pretty

Bob Smith 3:16
symbolic, having the descendants, you know, great, great, great, great grandchildren of the signers tapping at 13 times. That’s

Marcia Smith 3:23
cool. That is very cool. You’re waiting for Descendants of the Mayflower to get to do something. Yeah. When will we be able to do something well, or you know,

Bob Smith 3:31
take a boat something, you know, something?

Unknown Speaker 3:34
If we gotta do something, I’m scurvy. I don’t want scurvy.

Bob Smith 3:37
That’s you get that one. You don’t eat right on the boat

Marcia Smith 3:40
while you eat my cooking and you’ll get scared. Well, that’s okay. All right. Okay, Bob. Where was the first celebration of Independence Day held?

Bob Smith 3:49
Was that in a tavern? A certain tavern somewhere meant city or city? The first celebration may have been in New York City. No. Was it Philadelphia? Yes. Okay. Well, that’s where they signed it. That

Marcia Smith 4:00
makes sense. Got the bell? There. You

Bob Smith 4:02
got the whole independence?

Marcia Smith 4:04
Right. All right. What was the name of the newspaper that published the Declaration of Independence? That’s a good question. First one,

Bob Smith 4:13
you go to Philadelphia, there are markers on all the buildings. And this apartment above this building is where they signed the declaration. That was a fascinating thing to see. Yeah, just imagine them being in that room up there writing it. But I don’t know the answer to that.

Marcia Smith 4:26
This is something I didn’t know either. It was called the Pennsylvania Evening Post, the Pennsylvania Evening Post. And oh, here’s the tough one, Bob, but people get this wrong. I have the Fourth of July commemorates which document the Declaration

Bob Smith 4:42
of Independence, not the Constitution, which came after the war. All right. Okay, I got some more of these founding fathers ages. Now. These people weren’t signers. How old do you think the Marquis de Lafayette and James Monroe were the day that the Declaration of Independence was signed any idea? No, they were teenage yours really are justice. Yeah. 18 years old. Wow. Aaron Burr was 20 Alexander Hamilton was 21 and James Madison was 25. Wow. Okay. And even good old Betsy Ross. How old you think she was? Betsy

Marcia Smith 5:14
the sower? Didn’t she saw that. So the flag so the flag, okay. She was 28 years old. She was

Bob Smith 5:20
24 the day the declaration was signed. So she really she sewed that American flag in her 20s Not as a senior citizen now.

Marcia Smith 5:28
Okay. You really don’t think that you think of Betsy rockin in the chair sewing away on the Stars and Stripes.

Bob Smith 5:34
Betsy Ross 24. I bet she was a baby.

Marcia Smith 5:39
So what is the proper way to fold the American flag?

Bob Smith 5:42
Oh, the American flag. You start it and you fold it at angles. Don’t do the hands up as a as a triangle, correct? Yeah, that’s correct. He has to do that. And boy scouts. Yep. Sure. learned to do that and be we’re going to

Marcia Smith 5:54
be a boy scout. Yeah. Which American president Bob was born on the fourth of July.

Bob Smith 6:00
That was, oh, wait a minute. Which American president was born on the fourth of July? Born on the Fourth? Was it. Teddy Roosevelt? No, no. I don’t know. Calvin Coolidge. Calvin Coolidge Born on the Fourth of July. So he was a Yankee Doodle Dandy. He

Marcia Smith 6:17
was you know who died? We both know who died on the fourth of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson within minutes of each other 50 years to the day of the signing of the Declaration. That’s one of my favorite. One of the miracles of American history. Yeah, it is amazing. Just amazing. All right, what do you got?

Bob Smith 6:35
Okay, I’ve got some more ages. How old was King George? The old King George RR hated

Marcia Smith 6:39
42. He was 38 Oh, my goodness. So even

Bob Smith 6:43
even our enemy was a young man. British General Charles Cornwallis. He was only 37. The day the declaration was signed, and George Washington, George Washington was already in the field with the army. The day that the declaration was signed was just 44 years or so this Declaration of Independence thing. This was a young person’s game and most of the rebels and those who oppose them were the millennials of 1776. It’s

Marcia Smith 7:09
good because they had new ideas and young ideas. They weren’t tethered to the old land, the the, you know, the king and the England. Okay, Bob, which president of the US was the first to host a fourth of July celebration in the White House?

Bob Smith 7:25
Was that Abraham Lincoln by any chance? No. Oh, was it before Abraham Lincoln? Yes. Okay, so it would probably been maybe Martin Van Buren? No, or Buchanan? No, Andrew Jackson. Oh, all right. I’m missing out. Who was it?

Marcia Smith 7:41
Thomas Jefferson. Okay, no, went back that far. He probably served ice

Bob Smith 7:44
cream because he liked ice cream.

Marcia Smith 7:46
I know their little factoid that holy faces and amused amazing how many stars and stripes? Does the US flag have

Bob Smith 7:56
13? Stripes? Right. And 50 stars? Correct. Wasn’t sure about the stripes or for the every channel for the original colonies. Right. And

Marcia Smith 8:05
what is the location of the nation’s oldest Fourth of July parade? Well,

Bob Smith 8:11
that would probably be in Philadelphia to you think New York now. Where?

Marcia Smith 8:15
Bristol Rhode Island? No

Bob Smith 8:17
kidding. Tell me about that.

Marcia Smith 8:19
What year was it? 1785.

Bob Smith 8:21
That’s the first parade. Yeah. Hmm. So I think the first fireworks were actually 1777 I think that was the year after the sign there. Guys.

Marcia Smith 8:29
One of my questions by Okay,

Bob Smith 8:33
okay. I got another question for you about one of the 1776 Millennials we talked about who is the one who said after signing the Declaration there. I guess King George will be able to read that. Oh,

Marcia Smith 8:45
that was John Hancock. That’s

Bob Smith 8:46
what he said. signing it. Isn’t that funny? Yeah. He signed it in those big letters. He said that and

Marcia Smith 8:51
I bet. Had it been another time George would have tweeted him on that one. You know, really, John, do you have to be so ostentatious? That’s right.

Bob Smith 8:59
Don’t poke him in the eye.

Marcia Smith 9:01
Okay,

Bob Smith 9:01
what what signers said, We must all hang together, else we will all hang separately. Great

Marcia Smith 9:07
quote, one of my favorites. And not many people were that eloquent back then. But Ben Franklin, that’s right

Bob Smith 9:14
up there. Benjamin Franklin. He signed it when he was 70. And he said that

Marcia Smith 9:17
Yeah. Okay. Here’s another number question. What was the total number of people who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Bob Smith 9:25
Now? That’s a good question. Because I got all these names. I found a whole list of them. I would say 50. That’s pretty good. How many 5656 signers

Marcia Smith 9:36
and what is the name of the national anthem of the USA?

Bob Smith 9:42
Well, that is the name of the national anthem. The Star Spangled Banner. It is

Marcia Smith 9:46
yes. Because peoples often say different maybe think of America. Yeah, but it’s not it is the national anthem is the Star Spangled Banner. Alright, Marshall,

Bob Smith 9:55
I have some things you know, there were other things going on in 1776. Did you know Thomas Paine published some very important pamphlets sense, yes, common sense that really stirred up a lot of feelings. But what other momentous action did the Continental Congress take that year? They signed the Declaration of Independence. What’s another thing they did that year?

Marcia Smith 10:19
pretty exhausted. But people go

Bob Smith 10:22
to the gas station today and they buy tickets. These days lottery, the lottery, the lottery started, they started a national lottery to raise money for the Continental Congress. at gas stations all over New England. No. I don’t know where they sold the tickets. But yeah, they started horse. Hey, store the horse a store.

Marcia Smith 10:40
Okay. All right. Here’s an easy one and a hard one. Okay, who gave the United States the Statue of

Bob Smith 10:46
Liberty? Oh, that’s the country of France. Correct? Yeah. And

Marcia Smith 10:50
what was the Statue of Liberty’s official name? Wasn’t

Bob Smith 10:54
Lady Liberty. Was it? Nope. Bertold the statue? What was it called? Liberty lights the way or something like that.

Marcia Smith 11:03
I’ll give you 50% on that. Okay. Okay. Liberty. Enlightening the World Enlightening

Bob Smith 11:08
the World. Yeah.

Marcia Smith 11:09
Okay. All right.

Bob Smith 11:11
I think it’s time for a break out. Yeah. You’re listening to a special Independence Day edition of the off ramp. We’ll be back in just a moment.

Marcia Smith 11:18
What do they know about their country?

Bob Smith 11:21
This is Bob and Marsha Smith. We’ll be back. Okay, you’re listening to a special Independence Day episode of the off ramp? Marcia. I’ve got another question about something that occurred that year, but it wasn’t related to Independence Day. What famous him was first issued in 1776. It

Marcia Smith 11:43
wasn’t something like mine eyes have seen the

Bob Smith 11:47
glory. No, that was that was around the civil war time. Okay. Okay. Well, I’m wait. It’s a famous one. It’s a three word him. I don’t know. It’s rock. On. Rock on. Rock on America. That’s right. That’s what it was. Yeah, rock of the ages actually appeared in 1776. With verses by the London editor Augustus Toplady. Public lady. Yes. Published in the February 1776 issue of the gospel magazine and London Rock of Ages. I thought of that as a 19th century him not an 18th century him. Interesting. Okay. What great western city had its beginnings in 1776. Western city, a western city of the United

Marcia Smith 12:30
States, Denver. No, no, la No, San Francisco.

Bob Smith 12:35
Yes, its original name was yerba buena, meaning good herb. But San Francisco had its real beginnings in the settlement of yerba Wenda, which was established by Spanish monks in California. They actually established that in 1769, but it really started taking off in 1776. So there were other things happening that

Marcia Smith 12:54
year. Well, here’s one that’ll stamp you. Where is the Liberty Bell located?

Bob Smith 12:58
Oh, that’s not hard. It’s located right down in downtown Philadelphia. Yeah, I’ve never seen it. They’ve taken it and put it again, a little beautiful building. It’s adjacent to the Independence Hall. And you know, that was antislavery. Bell. That’s why they call it the Liberty Bell. Oh,

Marcia Smith 13:12
see? I didn’t know that. Yeah. Did you get to ring it when you attach it? No, you can’t ring it. Okay. All right. As if that wasn’t hard enough. How about this? How many hotdogs are consumed every fourth of July in America?

Bob Smith 13:26
Take a guess there’s a good one. Oh, my goodness. So we’re talking millions of hot dogs. Okay, so let’s say let’s 1776 1776 dogs. Oh, good. No, no, I’ll say 2 million. Ah,

Marcia Smith 13:41
not even close. 150 million on the Fourth of July.

Bob Smith 13:46
No kidding. 150 million on the Fourth of July. Oh, yeah.

Marcia Smith 13:51
That’s a lot of mustard and relish. Boy, is that ever like the onions? You know, I

Bob Smith 13:55
gotta have you always have to have onions. Okay. What country

Marcia Smith 13:59
declared independence from the US on July 4 1946. From

Bob Smith 14:05
the US? Yeah. A country declared independence from the US. 1946 our Independence Day. How dare they? Let me see. I don’t know who would that be? I’m sorry. I’m drawing a blank on the Philippines.

Unknown Speaker 14:20
Okay.

Marcia Smith 14:21
With you. I’m out of here.

Bob Smith 14:23
Well, you’re right. It was the year after the war, the war it ended. So that makes sense that the Philippines declared its independence on July 4 1946. Yeah, that is a great, great trivia question.

Marcia Smith 14:35
I’m here to hear do amaze and amuse. I have

Bob Smith 14:38
something it’s kind of an amazing thing. What great drink may have also been invented in 1776.

Marcia Smith 14:44
Drank Tang. Tang. i Right

Bob Smith 14:49
now no beer. It’s a it’s a mixed drink.

Marcia Smith 14:53
A mixed drink. Really? Okay. Well, I’ll say the gin Ricky now that’s the 20s I don’t know the car. cocktail. Oh the cocktail without believing anything. Yeah, there are

Bob Smith 15:03
several stories on the cocktail but this one comes from the food chronology by James Trager and he says that by some accounts the cocktail was invented in 1776. At an Elmsford New York tavern bar made Betsy Flanagan decorated the bar at halls corner with discarded tail feathers from poultry that were roasted and served to patrons. The cocktails see, and an inebriated patron demanded that she bring him quote, a glass of those cocktails. Oh, and Flanagan served him a mixed drink garnish with a feather.

Marcia Smith 15:37
Isn’t that fun? Yeah, well, you know, basically back then then before we got all sorts of fancy names for it, it was any kind of booze and soda with a feather. Yeah. Apparently, now you can put in an umbrella instead. But okay, as

Bob Smith 15:52
I said, there are other stories, but that’s one that I liked that. I thought that was good because we could talk about 1776 With regards to that.

Marcia Smith 15:59
That’s very interesting to me, said the Barkeepers daughter.

Bob Smith 16:04
We have to remind people your dad ran the tavern, French cheese, French cheese in Milwaukee French cheese. Okay, we mentioned Betsy Ross a while ago. We did. Now we don’t know for sure if Betsy Ross actually did make the flag.

Marcia Smith 16:16
Yeah, I’m positive. She did. We do know

Bob Smith 16:20
five things about Betsy Ross that you might find interesting. All right, we know her name was Elizabeth Grissom. Ross. She was born in Elizabeth Grissom in a Quaker family in Gloucester City, New Jersey back in 1752, which would make her 20 for the day the Declaration of Independence was signed now okay. And we know that in 1773, while serving as an apprentice for a Philadelphia a pollster, she fell in love and eloped with another apprentice John Ross. He was a member of a prominent Philadelphia family that included a signer of the Declaration of Independence. So okay, by the way, the Quakers expelled Betsy because she married a Protestant so they can’t have that. We also know that Elizabeth and John Ross set up their own upholstery business in Philadelphia, okay, and they enjoyed what National Geographic describes as a lively social life. They attended his family’s Christ Church with people like George Washington, but tragedy struck two years later, in 1775, John was killed in the Revolutionary War. His widow Elizabeth carried on she put a shingle out and ran her own business, and she married two more times and gave birth to seven children. Oh,

Marcia Smith 17:30
Lord, she married when did she do the flag? Well, we don’t

Bob Smith 17:33
know for sure if she sewed the first US flag. We do know that she did so flags for others, though her upholstery business made flags for Pennsylvania’s Navy, and has supplied the Continental Army with tents and other goods in the Revolutionary War. And one of her daughters carried on that work making flags for the US government and merchant marines until 1857. So there’s a lot of information. A fifth thing we know is that she rubbed shoulders with some of the nation’s founders because 15 members of her Church’s congregation signed the Declaration of Independence. So she was in the right social circles. You might say that she wasn’t cut from whole cloth

Marcia Smith 18:07
for God’s sake, but nothing that says like my grade school book that she sold the flag. How

Bob Smith 18:14
did Betsy Ross become famous for the flag her grandson made that happen now Elizabeth died in 1836, at age 84. In 1870, her grandson William can be gave a speech on the history of the American flag at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and he claimed that George Washington and members of a congressional committee approached his grandmother asking if her shop could create a flag. He even came up with signed affidavits from family members saying, Yeah, we heard the story all of our lives. Okay. She told this story. True story. Well, we think it was but we don’t know for sure. And one thing she said that she gave them some suggestions, all kinds of little design changes she supposedly came up with. And then later magazine started publishing these stories. There were two big paintings that you’ve probably seen where Betsy Ross’s sewing the flag. One was a massive painting that was at the Columbian Exposition. World’s Fair in Chicago. 1000s of people lined up to see this thing. So it became a sensation and that became embedded in the public memory. Now there is a paper trail on the US flag and it belongs to a man. I’m getting confused if Elizabeth Grissom Ross Betsy Ross didn’t design the first flag who did well, it may be Francis Hopkinson, a patriot poet, lawyer, Nabal, flag designer, Congressman erlebt, Treasury official and signer of the Declaration puppeteer. He left a paper trail in 1780. He billed the Continental Congress for designing two items the Great Seal of the United States that’s the one with the eagle with its talents wielding the arrows. And the other was for the flag of the United States. He asked for a cask of wine for his services, but there’s no evidence he was paid. While the journals of the Continental Congress show he designed the flag the board of treasury disagreed, claiming he was not the only person consulted and couldn’t take full credit for that. And besides, they said he earned a big salary as the treasurer of loans for the government. So they felt he owed a service to the public and the design was a way to pay that debt. So they never apparently paid him. Well. Couldn’t

Marcia Smith 20:17
he have designed it and she sold it? Maybe that makes sense. Who

Bob Smith 20:21
knows? But that’s the paper trail in the Smithsonian. We have that information but don’t don’t know for sure if Betsy did her family says she told the story and there’s no reason not to believe her.

Marcia Smith 20:31
I believe Betsy. All right. All right. Thank you, Bob.

Bob Smith 20:34
I’d set the record straight here. All right. Here’s some other questions that aren’t Fourth of July. Just make some good trivia here. Okay. We have a question from Millie in Miami. Bailey lives in Miami. He’s one of our listeners. And she asks, Which of these cities as known as the Venice of America, Boston, Minneapolis, St. Louis or Fort Lauderdale?

Marcia Smith 20:54
Well, I would say Fort Lauderdale. You’re right.

Bob Smith 20:57
Really? Yeah. Yeah, it features an extensive canal system. It has more than 300 miles of inland waterways in the greater metro area. And a popular way for tourists and locals to get around is via water taxi on the city’s many canals. You can even have a full definition experience by hopping aboard an authentic Venetian gondola on the New River Fort Lauderdale so proud of its nickname it even appears on the official city seal so thanks for Emily that was a great one

Marcia Smith 21:25
Marco Island we’ve been to several times and they had a lot of canals there that I didn’t expect to see. That was amazing. Thank you Millie.

Bob Smith 21:34
Have you ever heard of forgot Tonia Varsha. Forgot Tonia I

Marcia Smith 21:38
forgot to remember that. No, I don’t. It’s one

Bob Smith 21:41
of those places. It could have been a state at one point in America’s history. Yeah, it’s in rural Illinois was actually started as a publicity stunt in the early 1970s. local businessmen in Western Illinois were frustrated at the lack of attention their region received from the state government. So they proposed a new state named for God Tonia comprising 16 counties. They recruited a theater student to be their governor have proclaimed they would see seed and apply for foreign aid or foreign aid. Yes, but the whole thing fizzled out in 1972. But Amtrak established a train route through the area so maybe forgot Tonia wasn’t so forgotten. After all,

Marcia Smith 22:20
the good place for people with dementia to Seattle. Forget Tony settled where

Bob Smith 22:23
you from from COC Tonia.

Marcia Smith 22:25
I forgot to Okay.

Bob Smith 22:27
What unusual background did a Supreme Court justice named Byron White half Marcia? He was a Supreme Court justice for 31 years. He was nominated by President Kennedy. He was on the Warren Court from 1962 to 1993. before retiring, what was unusual about his background,

Marcia Smith 22:46
oh gosh, I don’t know him or, or even of him. He

Bob Smith 22:50
was a Rhodes scholar. He attended Yale University. Okay. I still don’t know why he was also an NFL football player. He was an all around athlete, kind of an All American boy. He went to the University of Colorado and he was big and sports there. And then he got called up in the NFL draft in 1938. And he played for the Pittsburgh Pirates game the Steelers, which became the Steelers. And then he also played for the Detroit Lions. In fact, he was going to Yale University when he was playing for the Detroit band. And it was only after World War Two that he came home and decided I’m going to be an attorney and went from there and he became Supreme Court justice. There’s a man in full so now we’ve had NFL players become Supreme Court justices. What other high office almost had an NFL

Marcia Smith 23:38
player President Jerry Ford. Right.

Bob Smith 23:41
That’s right. Gerald Ford because he had offers in college for the Detroit Lions really. And he decided to go to Yale become an attorney instead.

Marcia Smith 23:49
I remember picture of him in his little football outfit and didn’t Ronald Reagan play football,

Bob Smith 23:55
football and another president played football in college? That’s the

Marcia Smith 23:59
only two I know big name. Big name tech Dame big college hit college big name don’t know. Right,

Bob Smith 24:04
Eisenhower. Oh, really? I don’t picture him played football for army. So okay, so those are interesting backgrounds. But again, Byron White. What an interesting guy Rhodes Scholar, Yale attorney and an NFL football player. He was good too, because the first year he led the NFL in rushing yards in his rookie season. He

Marcia Smith 24:22
had some cred. Wow. Yeah, very good. All right,

Bob Smith 24:25
let’s wrap it up with some of your final independent state questions Marsh.

Marcia Smith 24:29
Okey doke. Bob, can you tell me what was the estimated population of the US in 1776?

Bob Smith 24:37
Oh, no, that’s a good one. I think it was like 2.5 million, something like that. Was it that many people? How much did you say? I said 2.5 million. Was it that many people?

Marcia Smith 24:50
Yes, it was exactly that many. Oh, you’re

Bob Smith 24:53
kidding. He has two. Yes. 2,500,000 people

Marcia Smith 24:57
is the estimate. Yeah. Okay. And Don’t forget, we today eat 150 million hotdogs and back then there were only 2.5 million people

Bob Smith 25:07
and 35 hotdogs consumed on the Fourth of July. Okay, a piece

Marcia Smith 25:11
that is correct. Who is the author Bob of the Pledge of Allegiance?

Bob Smith 25:16
Oh, no, that’s a good one. I don’t think you’re gonna say who authored the

Marcia Smith 25:18
Yeah. And that was the easy one. But the hard

Bob Smith 25:21
ones on wasn’t around for this. Yeah. who authored the Pledge of Allegiance Francis Bellamy Francis Bellamy, you know him. I went to school with somebody named Francis Bellamy, not

Marcia Smith 25:32
that old. Here’s an interesting one. Okay. Where was the Declaration of Independence stored during World War Two? Oh, I

Bob Smith 25:41
bet it was stored down in where they stored a lot of the famous paintings. Oh, Asheville, North Carolina.

Marcia Smith 25:47
You’re thinking of the Vanderbilt house? No, no, where was it? Fort Knox? Oh, no

Bob Smith 25:52
kidding.

Marcia Smith 25:53
Yeah. How about that they

Bob Smith 25:54
took it to Fort Knox and stored it underground. Yeah. Wow.

Marcia Smith 25:57
I thought that was pretty interesting. Well, during World War Two, the

Bob Smith 26:00
government did take a lot of famous paintings from the National Gallery and stuff and took them to the Vanderbilt mansion. Because they thought yeah, if Washington was bombed, they wanted to make sure that some of the treasures where other places. Yeah.

Marcia Smith 26:13
All right, Bob. Well, I’m gonna wrap it up. There’s so many great quotes Bob about freedom and the Fourth of July, but I decided to go right for the big enchilada. And here’s a brief excerpt from the Declaration of Independence signed on July 4 1776. And when you hear the word man in this think mankind, okay, I do. You know, and I think of George and Tom and John lived longer along with the other boys, they would eventually have wanted it that way too. Okay, quote, We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. And so it goes, yes, there

Bob Smith 27:13
we are, at some special fun Independence Day information, trivia, facts, figures, and something

Marcia Smith 27:20
I call bountiful band anoche.

Bob Smith 27:25
Okay, that’s it for today. I’m Bob Smith.

Marcia Smith 27:29
I’m Marsha Smith.

Bob Smith 27:30
We hope you enjoyed today and that you’ll join us again next time when we return with more fun facts and trivia here on the

the off ramp is produced in association with CPL radio online and the Cedarbrook Public Library Cedarburg, Wisconsin.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai