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| Students from Columbus Elementary School in Glendale, Calif. doug kim/special to the christian science monitor |
How one man brings Abe Lincoln to life
J.P. Wammack is one of hundreds of people who put on public presentations of the 16th president at schools, libraries, and other venues.
from the April 11, 2008 edition
Page 3 of 3
Columbus Elementary School sits in a tidy Glendale neighborhood of modest homes, near two freeways. American flags poke out of flower pots. A sign outside the school's front office proclaims "honesty" as February's character theme.
Four-score-and-more fifth-graders crowd around blue metal picnic tables, and when Wammack strides across the playground, they gasp and shriek: "He has a beard!" "He has a hat!" "He's a man!"
The energy on the patio is different from the previous night's talk – less scholarly sophistication, more volume and verve. When Wammack recalls chopping down trees with an ax when he was 8 years old, there are murmurs of "That's cool!" When he describes battlefields "where fathers fought against sons, where brothers fought against brothers," there are exhalations of "Whoa."
But the biggest response comes toward the end. "This is the story of how I became the first president who was assassinated," Wammack begins – and the boys, in particular, hiss out a collective, "Yesssss." Several pump their fists.
Not all ALP presenters will talk in detail about that fateful day at Ford's Theater, telling students it's too painful to discuss. But Wammack does – to the fifth-graders' delight.
Still, this isn't an easy crowd: When I ask young Arada Gholian what he thinks, he leans over and confides, "The real mustache is a little longer." But by the end of the talk, he's been won over. "It was so good, very good!" he effuses.
Vanuhi Khdryan admires Lincoln's career trajectory. "He tried so many jobs and he found a great job for him," she says.
The children swarm him after his talk, defying their teachers and the bell. Their questions are familiar, but Wammack relishes the routine. "Lincoln came up with these great things to say, but he only got to say them one time," he tells me. "I get to do them over and over again."
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