Comments on: President Ford Memorial

By: Stacey

Stacey — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 19:19:01 +0000

Amy – that’s a great memory to pass on, thanks for posting.

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 18:25:35 +0000

Speaking of football, Ford was also an All-American center with the undefeated ’32 and ’33 national champion Michigan Wolverines. He won the team MVP his senior year, and his number 48 was retired in 1994.

By: amy

amy — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 15:43:39 +0000

He was a president who never forgot where he came from. My grandfather was his high school football teammate and friend. Their team called themselves The 30-30 Club – which was the 1930 South High School team which won the State Championship. There were 30 guys on the team, so they decided to meet every Thanksgiving to celebrate and it also was a rememberance of the 1930 Union High vs South High game played on Thanksgiving day which they still talk about in Grand Rapids……probably still a few around from those days!

Anyway, for as long as I can remember, my Grandfather got up on Thanksgiving morning and drove to Grand Rapids for that breakfast, through sleet, rain, snow, etc. he never missed one that I know of. Gerald Ford came back to many of those events, and later when he could not, he always called in by conference call. I

When my father was about 15, my grandparents took him to DC for a vacation and they met Ford in his office. He closed the door and they talked for at least an hour.

When he became president, Ford invited all the remaining living members of the 30-30 Club to the White House for Thanksgiving dinner. My grandmother sat at the side of the President and my grandfather next to Betty Ford. We have lots of pictures from that event and there were lots of newspaper stories about it at the time in the Michigan papers.

so even though he moved on to greater things from Grand Rapids, MI, he never fogot the people who meant a lot to him along the way.

By: Tiffany

Tiffany — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 14:17:29 +0000

I don’t think I would object to the word “ordinary” had it not been paired with the word “common.” Perhaps it should have been paired with the word “citizens,” as in, “look at all the ordinary citizens who have taken time from their hardworking, tax-paying lives to pay their last respects to the former president.”

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 18:42:02 +0000

In Shakespeare’s day, they might have used the term “groundling,” for the cheapest seats (one penny) in the theater–not seats at all actually, but standing near the front of the stage. Sort of the moshpit of Elizabethan Britain. I’m not sure how well defined class structure still remains across the pond, perhaps a brit expat visitor can enlighten us.

At any rate, I agree the CNN reporters stepped on their tongues. I’m sure they will get an earful from it. Hell, write them a letter…

By: Maggie Rubi

Maggie Rubi — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 17:23:02 +0000

This morning in the CNN Newsroom, reporters, Bob Frankin and Jim Clancy were reporting on the viewing of President Ford in the Rotunda.

I was shocked when they described the viewers of the President’s body as the “ordinary” and “common” people. ORDINARY??? COMMON??? What are the “other” people called, i.e., the Bushes, Clintons, Carters, extraordinary? I am sorry but we are not ordinary or common people. Next will they call us peasants? Do we have “Royals” in America now? We are just as special as they are. I am appalled that any reporter would consider that type of labeling of the general public. That is one of our current problems existing in Washington DC and in corporate America, most think they are above the law and free to do whatever suits them. This type of the media reporting feeds that mentality.

Most of us “ordinary and common” people are descent, hardworking, taxpaying, honest, fair, loving and sharing individuals, anything but ordinary or common.