John Adams has a birthday coming up at the end of October, and that means the Navy will come to United First Parish Church in Quincy, Massachusetts for a wreath laying ceremony. (Owen and I were at the church for the John Quincy Adams ceremony this summer.)
I won’t be able to make it to the John Adams party, but the family and I did make it down there today for a tour, and I learned something very interesting. Since the wreath ceremonies involve military personnel, a church tour guide named Gary said there was some question as to whether the wreath event could go forward if the government was still shut down in late October. What did they say? we all asked.
Gary explained, “They told us last week that it would have gone forward.” I haven’t had a chance to check this out with the Navy yet, but assuming this is true, it means that the US takes honoring presidents so seriously that laying wreaths at the graves of dead presidents will go on even when the government is partially shut down. Which is pretty much exactly the point of the book I’m writing.
