From 8-year old Hilda’s diary:

Today is Washington’s birthday so there is no school. Yesterday, Miss Hare went up and down every row and asked each of us to tell a story about what we knew of George Washington. William said that he was the only man in the world who couldn’t tell a lie. Wesley said that he chopped down all of his father’s cherry trees and when his father asked him who did it, he said “I did it, father, with my little hatchet.” Robert said he was a fine General and Antoinette said he was a fine horseback rider and Leonard said he was good to his men at Valley Forge, he froze along with them. When she got to me, there was nothing more to say about him but to tell about his false teeth and I said that they were the first false teeth that could chew corn. I am not sure that the part about the corn was true. I guess I made it up because Grandfather always tells everyone that his false teeth are so perfect and that he can even eat corn on the cob. I couldn’t think of anything else. Miss Hare said that I made a nice contribution and told me to sit down.

As I read Hilda’s explanation of George Washington, I realized that I had the same history lessons over 50 years later when I was in elementary school in San Francisco.