National Library Lover’s Month in February is dedicated to the people who love whole buildings devoted to reading, housing, organizing, categorizing, finding, studying, and otherwise loving books. At STL Sports Page, we love books and we also write books, so on any given day you can see us reading a book.
The book “White House Memories, 1970-2007” by Gary J. Walters is a perfect book to read this month as it is found in libraries and is about U.S. Presidents. The book is subtitled, “Recollections of the Longest-Serving Chief Usher.”
The author, Walters served under seven presidents, working at the White House for more than 35 years.
He breaks the book into chapters: The Nixon Years, The Ford Years, The Carter Years, The Reagan Years, The George H. W. Bush Years, The Clinton Years, and The George W. Bush Years. Each chapter contains interesting things that those who worked in the White House and had personal time with the presidents and their families would only know. He takes big stories which the reader will remember hearing about in the news and localizes it to what was happening at the White House at the time.
It is a behind the scene tour of how each U.S. President and First Lady shaped the White House in some way. All the hoopla about Nancy Reagan “insisting” on and spending moey on new China that was talked about in the news was not quite how the White House usher saw it. He saw the head usher at the time talking to Mrs. Reagan about what changes she would like to make (as they do with each incoming First Lady, we learn in the book). The head usher suggested new China and she was give a suggested budget for making changes. Turns out she did not want to spend the Government’s money on that and according to the book she raised $200,000 herself to make the changes.
It is interesting to go deeper into the daily lives of those who live in the White House and learn more about them, including Richard Nixon’s soft side where he loved having his dog next to him at this desk, petting him while working.
We encourage you to take this as your reminder and visit your local library.
Compiled from National Days Calendar:
#NationalLibraryLoversMonth
Libraries provide so much more than a place for us to enjoy great novels or to discover amazing adventures and untold history. Yes, they help us ace our research papers and provide a quiet space to study. However, they do so much more.
