music [fife & drums]
What I want the kids to realize when they are here tonight is that history is not
a bunch of dates and facts that you memorize, history is
a selection process, and it chooses every single one of us
every single day, and the only question is do you hear the call and I think tonight
for all these families here, they’re going to hear the call.
I think kids especially, they don’t really think about the past, they don’t really think about
history, but it’s amazing when you show them it, for some kids especially,
you’ll see them light up and they suddenly realize that
so much of who they are comes from where they come from and
I think when you can give a kid that, you give a kid a gift that
they’ll never ever have a thing quite like that, so that
to me is the special part of it.
The Archives are incredibly important source for anybody doing any kind of historical research,
and I do a great deal of historical research. But it’s also wonderful for people all over
America to come here to see the documents that are the
basis of our nationhood and everything else interesting that’s going on here.
I hope the kids just have a wonderful time; if they come away
saying “Wow”, history is really interesting and really cool and I want to go and learn
more of it, that would be perfect.
music [flute duet]
This is a fabulous night, look at this people are coming in from all over the country to
sleep on a cold marble floor! But they clearly think that it’s fun
and interesting and exciting, and it is true that they
will never forget this night. These kids will remember, some of them will probably have
interesting stories of the night that they spent with the Constitution.
music [fife & drums]
The founding fathers loved chocolate! Did you know that George Washington had 25 pounds
of chocolate in his estate when he died? 25 pounds!
The average American eats 25 pounds of chocolate in a year.
These kids will never forget tonight. Wherever they go, whatever they’ll do, they will never
forget we were the first ones who spent
that night in the Rotunda, we slept in the Archives, and they’re going
to tell that story to their kids and those kids, every time they think of this
building, they are always going to tell that story and
we’re going to really in that way make history.
So what are you personally looking forward to most tonight?
So here is what I am looking forward to most, 1) I want to see if my daughter makes it,
because she was very excited to sleep here here until my son said
George Washington’s ghost is here, and then my daughter said
I don’t know if I’m going to make it the night, so we will see if she makes it,
so that’s a big one for us. 2) We’re sleeping with
the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the Bill of Rights,
I mean, top that Smithsonian! Right, and 3) Tomorrow morning,
myself and the Archivist of the United States are making pancakes for everyone, and who
could not be excited about pancakes?