I began taking my daughter on road trips to visit the homesteads, birthplaces or burial sites of our nation’s presidents before she was old enough to understand the meaning of the trips.
Or talk back when she was roped into visiting another dead president.
My hope was that her father's passion for presidential history would combine with her impressionable age and create another history geek in the family. Ensuring me that I would never be left alone on my quest to visit these types of memorials for all (now 46) of our nation's chief executives.
But with the whining about “another dead president?” starting on the driveway in Stamford, I may have outsmarted myself a bit!
Are We There Yet?
On a weekend when THE New York Yankees were scheduled to play four-games against their hated rivals the Boston Red Sox, Buck and I donned enough Yankee swag to make our point, and pointed the car towards the homesteads and gravesites of President Franklin Pierce (14) of New Hampshire and Calvin Coolidge (30) of Vermont.
In the heart of New England’s Red Sox country.
Buck’s lack of enthusiasm did not dampen mine. Pierce and Coolidge would be numbers 21 and 22 on the list of presidents I have visited.
If you count a venti latte from the Starbucks in Trump Towers as a trip to a presidential homestead, I'm halfway there!
(With the current state of our nation’s politics, I feel the desire to share that my interest in this topic historic and not political.)
Our first stop, the Pierce Manse in Concord, New Hampshire, was the only home owned and lived in by our nation’s 14th President.
Generally considered by historians to be among the worst presidents, Pierce’s signing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 is considered a contributing factor to the South’s secession from the Union in 1860.
So unimpressive were Pierce's four-years as the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue that to this day he remains the only incumbent president who sought re-election, who failed to receive his party’s nomination for a second term.
Calvin and Me
Like the hero in all my blogs, President Calvin Coolidge was the son of an independent retailer.
Calvin's father, John Coolidge Sr., was a store owner in the family’s home town of Plymouth Notch, New Hampshire.
And that’s not where the simulators between me and Cal end! Previous to becoming our 30th President, Coolidge lost an election for the local board of education.
Giving me hope if I ever care to mount a political comeback!
The Birthplace of THE Revolution
The trip included a stop at the Bennington Battle Monument in Bennington, Vermont. Where the Revolutionary War is said to have turned in favor of the original Yankees.
My New York Yankees didn’t have as much luck!
With my Yankees losing three of four games to the Sawks their playoff chances are blown. leaving locals happy to comment on my attire.
I was repping the Buckeyes for the ride home!
Before Buck and I hit the road, I spent the early part of last week getting the final pieces of my Revolution database ready to support all I have planned for them.
THE Revolution of course is my web and e-commerce play form for independent paint dealers.
Like the products on the shelves in your stores, the thousands of SKU’s in THE Revolution’s database need to be organized to help consumers shop your site. Consumers, often with little knowledge of paint and painting supplies, should be able to easily find all they need to complete a paint job without a trip to the hardware store or Home Depot for the brushes, rollers and spackle. The add-on items which many sites struggle to sell.
Like with their in-store business, e-commerce sites benefit from the added revenue and higher margins on tools and sundries which go with the gallon of paint.
The sites of THE Revolution will never forget to offer consumers an add-on sale of a product hand-selected (by me!) to go with what they’re purchasing.
Much of the database work for THE Revolution has been done by my intern Anthony, who I introduced you to last week.
But the work of categorizing products; abrasives with abrasives, super premium paints with super premium paints, etc., is best done by someone who spent their career behind the counter in a paint store!
