The Company I Keep

On Thursday evening, Doug and I attended a celebration in honor of Abe Lincoln, which I thought would just be a lecture by Dr. Holland, one of my favorites, at the Provo Library. It was quite the experience. The room was packed with fellow Abe Lincoln lovers, and I was interested to find out what kinds of people were there.

The program included Mayor Billings of Provo, Mayor Wasburn of Orem, the County Commissioner, and Lieutenant Governor Herbert reading excerpts of writings or speeches of Abraham Lincoln. In the background, they had a band playing 19th-century fiddle tunes. I thought that it was a nice touch, but apparently not everyone else did. When Dr. Holland got up to speak, this old lady yelled out, "Could you not have the music in the background? It's distracting." Thankfully, Dr. Holland wasn't planning on having music accompanying his entire lecture, but if he did, it could have been incredibly awkward.

Dr. Holland gave a fine lecture, one that I've heard before when I was his TA, but enjoyable nonetheless. Afterward, a Lincoln impersonator got up and recited the Gettysburg Address. This was received by a standing ovation, which I kind of thought was weird (I would have stood if it were actually Lincoln, but I was 99.9% sure it was NOT Abe Lincoln). Apparently, the program was quite inspiring because I overheard a guy on his cellphone afterwards saying, "I'm going to memorize the Declaration, like I started doing a few years ago." After a pause, he said in very serious tone, "It HAS GOT to be memorized."

Those, my friends, are the kinds of people that have the same interests as me. And yes, Doug and I DID get a picture with Abraham and Mary Todd. I will definitely post it when I get a copy. In the mean time, I will be memorizing Washington's Farewell Address.