Presidential Fun Facts

Some of the facts that I found in researching my book, Presidential Education: Prelude to Power, are listed below. Our presidents are an interesting bunch of guys and this book takes the reader through each one's first 25 years or to his highest degree.

George Washington was once an officer in the British Army.
John Adams and James Monroe each carried a gun to school.
Thomas Jefferson played fiddle in a combo at college.
John Quincy Adams failed his first Harvard entrance exam.
Andrew Jackson is the only president who was ever a prisoner of war.
Franklin Pierce was constantly in trouble at college for ingesting illicit substances -- root beer and gingerbread.
Abraham Lincoln's father objected to his reading and studying, considering it lazy and a waste of time.
Andrew Johnson never spent a single day in school.
Ulysses S. Grant wanted to be a math professor.
Rutherford B. Hayes’ only playmate was his older sister until he went to school.
James Garfield could read proficiently at the age of 3.
Teddy Roosevelt was afraid of his laundress when he attended Harvard.
Woodrow Wilson, the only president with a Ph.D., dropped out of three colleges.
Calvin Coolidge, “Silent Cal,” was taken on as a law clerk because the lawyer liked to laugh and said Cal was a very funny speaker.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was arrested in Germany four times in one day when he was 14.
Harry S. Truman ordered and consumed an ice cream soda then discovered he lacked the nickel to pay Jesse James, Jr. for it.
Dwight D. Eisenhower taught Sunday School to the children of West Point personnel when he was a cadet.
John F. Kennedy had his phone tapped by the FBI because he was considered a security risk when he worked for naval intelligence during World War II.
Ronald Reagan saved seventy-seven lives working summers as a life guard.
William Jefferson Clinton was advised to become a Jesuit priest when he attended Georgetown University.

Presidential Education: Prelude to Power is now available: www.joyouspub.com