Boyz in the House
Mar 7th, 2010 by MPC Press
When was the last time a U.S. President’s son lived in the White House? It was about 45 years ago, when JFK and JFK Jr. inhabited America’s number one address. Is it possible that the President truly needs to tuck in a son at night in order for him to make pragmatic decisions? Let’s hope not, but worth thinking about for a few seconds. Barack, W, and Clinton only have daughters. George H. W. Bush has four sons and a daughter but his youngest son was 32 when President Bush moved into the White House in 1988. Reagan’s youngest son was 22 when President Reagan was inaugurated. Carter has three sons and a daughter, and only his daughter lived in the White House. Ford’s youngest son was 17 when Ford became president, but he did not live on Pennsylvania Ave (he was all set to head to college at Duke but instead moved out West to pursue a dream of being a cowboy). Nixon and LBJ each had two daughters and no sons. This brings us to JFK, whose young daughter and son joined him in the White House. The average age of a President on inauguration day is a little over 55 years old, so we cannot expect every President to have young children. But there have been nine presidents who have followed John F. Kennedy, and five bore only daughters, including Clinton, W, and Barack (so it has been 16 years since we’ve had a President with a son). What does this all mean? Really nothing, but I’ve been thinking a lot about Presidents lately.
Nice writing style. I look forward to reading more in the future.