Lincoln Doomsday

    President Abraham Lincoln died on April 15^th 1865. When the one hundredth anniversary of his death was approaching in 1965, I was in sixth grade. There were all kinds of dooms-day rumors about that the world would end on April 15^th 1965. Maybe it was because I was just a kid and it just seemed that way – but the end of the world talk seemed like a really big deal – similar to the millennial end of the world predictions when we approached the year 2000.

     But even as a sixth grader, the end of the world on the 100^th anniversary of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln seemed rather hokey – why would the powers that be end the world on what was really a rather arbitrary date in the grand scheme of things, especially globally? One would think that if Lincoln's presence or absence in the world determined the fate of the earth, then things would have ended upon his death, not exactly one hundred years to the day after his death.

Who was I, however, to argue with the rumors that the big people were speculating upon? It could happen.

     And we sat around in class talking about it and pondering on whether or not we should do the homework that was due on the 15^th? Really, what a waste that would be!

Mr. Friar, our teacher, would hear none of this doomsday talk. He said if we didn't do our homework that day – we would go through a different kind of end of the world experience – one of our own making and his implementing.

     That seemed more real.

     Still – what a waste of time it would be to do homework when there were just hours left in the whole world!

     What sixth graders worry about.

     By the time April 14^th came along, the plainly clear consequences of not doing my homework outweighed the presumed consequences of existing in a world that assassinated Abraham Lincoln.

     And because we all did our homework, April 15^th, 1965 was just like any other day.

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