Bob CollinsIf you have any love of history at all, you’ve got to love this picture.
The five living presidents (I realize Barack Obama is president elect, but work with me here) posing at the White House, something that hasn’t happened since 1981, and then there were only three (Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Carter)
Has there ever been a time when six presidents were alive? We’re researching — as time allows — but so far we can’t find that there has. As far as we can tell, if there have been, there are no pictures of them together.
It would have been nice if they’d lined up according to their service.
If you’d been invited to lunch today, what question would you ask?
update 4:55 p.m. – Six presidents were alive at the same time only once: 1992-1994 (Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton).
5:10 p.m.- – A reader asks “what are the lapel pins?” Both Obama and Bush II have American flag pins. But G.H.W. Bush is not wearing an American flag pin, but a closer look shows this:
I don’t recognize it. It appears to have wings, and he was a World War II aviator (trained at South St. Paul, you know), so perhaps it is related. Anyone?
