Impact Without Limits
Two guys. One truck. Two thousand miles. One big, audacious adventure. Why would two brothers leave comfortable jobs to move across the country, starting a business in a foreign industry and unknown land? Amidst all these challenges, could it be successful?Dale and Brian Karmie are the brothers, family men, and co-founders behind ForeverLawn: an exploding international business with over 80 dealers nationwide. Their journey wasn’t always easy; yet throughout persistent trials, tribulations, and turning points, they kept going. They may have quit individually, but they never quit on the same day. Join the Karmie brothers as they share the highs and lows, successes and failures, and life lessons shaping their entrepreneurial story. Regardless of who you are or what path you’re on, the Karmie brothers’ story is filled with something for everyone: encouragement to keep going, laughter over outrageous antics, inspiration to conquer complacency and keep reaching for more. Who is this podcast for? The aspiring entrepreneur. The young adult determining what direction to take in life. The worn-out, wearied parent. The restless and the seeking. Anyone who wants to breathe tomorrow. This is for you. Because you aren’t just put on this earth to make a living; you’re here to make an impact. Welcome to Impact Without Limits.
Impact Without Limits
S5 E21: George Washington: More Than a President Part 2
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In Part 2 of their series on George Washington, Dale and Brian continue exploring the extraordinary character and leadership of America's first president. From commanding the Continental Army through impossible odds to leading the Constitutional Convention and setting the standard for the presidency, they examine the qualities that made Washington an indispensable figure in the nation's founding.
The conversation also unpacks Washington's unwavering faith, his deep concern for the character of the American people, and the enduring legacy he left for future generations. Through it all, listeners are challenged to rediscover the principles that helped shape America from the very beginning.
Episode Highlights:
- Did Washington have wooden teeth?
- Leading through adversity.
- A president sets the standard.
- Faith and the founding.
- Lessons that still matter.
Links Mentioned in Episode/Find More on ForeverLawn:
- www.foreverlawn.com
- Impact Without Limits Instagram: @impact_withoutlimits
- ForeverLawn’s Instagram: @foreverlawninc
- Get Grass Without Limits Here
- Visit our show notes page HERE
- Subscribe to Our Newsletter HERE
- Dale’s Instagram: @dalekarmie
- Brian’s Instagram: @bkarmie
- Find Our Shorts on the ForeverLawn YouTube Channel
- Read Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow
- Read Being George Washington by Glenn Beck
- Read First by Dave Zanotti
- Visit the White House Freedom 250 Website
- Visit Hilldale’s Website
- Watch the Live Free Podcast hosted by Josh Howerton
- Check out PragerU’s Content
- Visit the Wallbuilders Website
This show has been produced by Adkins Media Co.
Remarkable man, remarkable leader, and you could just you you could spend hours and hours just studying what he did in battle. Right. What he did in battle, how he led the troops.
SPEAKER_01So why would two guys leave comfortable jobs, move across the country, and start a business in an industry they don't know, a place they don't know?
SPEAKER_02And could it be successful? We're Dale and Brian Carmen. Join us as we share our story and inspire you to become people of Impact. Welcome to the Impact Without Limits Podcast.
SPEAKER_03Welcome back to the Impact Without Limits Podcast. Dale Carmy here sitting with my brother Brian. And we are on part two, the continuation of George Washington. And um uh hopefully you heard the last episode. If you didn't, you can go check check it out. Um, but but look, there's so much. I'm I mean, we we could do a dozen episodes on George Washington if we took the time to really study and learn it.
SPEAKER_01But well, considering I'm reading an 800-page book, even if I tried to summarize that book, it would probably be a whole season of the podcast. How many hours was that on audio? Oh, I forget. I want to say it was like 72 or something. Yeah. I don't know, it's ridiculous. It's a bunch.
SPEAKER_03But so yeah, so as we get started here, I want to ask a question, and this is it's funny because we talk about this um things we know or we hear, we learn, and there's differences from generations. Some generations know things, other generations don't. This was a pretty common thing for me, but I have this question. George Washington, did he have wooden teeth? A true or false question. True or false. It's an easy one. True or false. So let me say it. True or false, because I pose it as a question. That's not that's not how it goes. George Washington had wooden teeth, true or false? And we'll come back to that.
SPEAKER_01All right. Well, I think we should pick up because we didn't finish the question from last time. I asked how many children did George Washington have? That's right. We left him on a cliffhanger. And I will take two answers as acceptable for this. The first one's two shots of getting this right. Go ahead and write your answers down. If you wrote down zero, you are correct. And if you said all of America, because he's the father of our nation, I would give you credit for that one too. So two possible answers there. And even a third one, you know. Yeah, I was gonna say there's a third one. He had two uh stepchildren. Yeah, so his wife, Martha, had been married before. She was Martha Custis, and uh she had two children, Jack and Patsy, and they became Josh Josh's George's um stepchildren, kind of adopted children, and he took good care of them. Um, however, I don't know. Do we want to we're not gonna talk about his kids later? I'll talk about them now. Yeah, um, Patsy has epilepsy and ends up dying as an early teen, and she was kind of the apple of George's eye. He loved her, and that was uh an incredibly difficult thing for both George and Martha. And then Jack was a little bit rebellious, and and the way it worked, Jack's father was very wealthy. And so when he passed away, some of his inheritance went to Martha, some of it went to Jack himself. And so, Jack, think about this. You've got a stepson that actually is more wealthy than you, has more money than you, has more slaves than you. I mean, interesting to think that this kid had slaves, had control of slaves, but he did. And he has all this money, and so George is trying to train him up, but he's kind of like, I don't need you, right? And George is trying to teach him that, like, hey, you've still still got to do things, do things the hard way, you gotta get this education, and he sends him off to to New York College to learn and be trained up. And this talks to the headmaster of the school there, and the guy's like, Yeah, I'll take care of him. And Jack gets up there and he starts like taking the guy out to the taverns and you know, going out partying with his professor that's supposed to be training him, and just kind of goes off the rails a little bit. And you know, George is kind of disappointed by this, but Jack ends up getting married younger than Washington wanted, has a couple kids, but he kind of comes back around and is part of the family and then fights in the war and serves under George Washington and actually dies at Yorktown. Now, I think he died of disease, not of a bullet wound. But so Georgia's only two step kids both pass away. He ends up then kind of overseeing his grandkids, the two kids that are um, I suppose Jack's wife's still around, but uh her kids, and one of them, uh, the granddaughter, ends up writing uh kind of a biography or telling a story about Washington where we learn a lot about him because he ended up taking care of her throughout the years. So the true answer is zero kids, but he certainly had an influence on.
SPEAKER_03Other acceptable answers were two or millions. Millions upon millions. Because he's the father of our nation.
SPEAKER_01All right. So we finished last episode really focused on kind of the early days of Washington, and we've talked a lot about the Revolutionary War, and I don't know that we're gonna go through all of it, but just I mean, without a doubt, he was the reason we the primary reason we won the war. He led John Adams nominated him to be a commander of the Continental Army in 1776. Yeah, actually 75. 75. Yep, sorry, you're right. Um and one of the reasons was, right, Massachusetts and kind of the northeast, the New England states, are under attack under the British, and they're trying to form a continental arm army, and the other colonies are kind of like, well, maybe not. And the guys in Massachusetts realize, hey, we need Virginia on our side. Virginia is the wealthiest state, the most powerful state. And this Washington guy had some great experience. He's he's got great character. So John Adams says, I want that guy. And when he nominates George Washington, that kind of united the colonies. They were all kind of like, well, if George was gonna do it, we'll be on board.
SPEAKER_03I I also I don't think George was uh I know there was a relationship, but I don't think he was incredibly fond of Gage, General Gage. He was not suicide. He was not that was Gage that was terrorizing Boston that was brought in because uh Governor Hutcheson did not do a good job from the British standpoint, the the the loyalist standpoint of controlling Boston. You had the Boston Massacre, you had the Boston Tea Party, and so uh the king sent in General Gage, um and he kind of brought in the heavy hand, brought in Is that Sons of Liberty that they depict that? Yeah, yep. And so while the first Continental Congress is going on, and then I guess even into the second, but the the guys from Boston are down there saying we are under a tyrannical rule, we are being um brutalized and mistreated, and uh some of the other states were like, hey, that's your problem, right? You're you're misbehaving, you're acting up. Um, we're not all going to go fight a war because you're doing something wrong, you know, and that's where they were sending letters and petitioning the king to change, but nobody wanted to fight, and I shouldn't say nobody, but the the bulk of the people. And it was Washington who was like, Gage is a tyrant, that gage is is uh a brutal person, and um he won't listen to reason. Not that gage made those decisions, but Mr. Washington says, I'll come, I'll step up and and and and help. And then he gets appointed in 1775 shortly after Lexington and Concord. He uh I think it was June 14th, he gets appointed. Yeah, and he goes to server. So um yeah, just interesting how how all this plays out and sets up to to to get to this point. And and I think uh like you said, Brian, we've talked about a lot of the battles, we've we've gone through uh things that happened, but just as an overview. You know, I want to talk about and this is gonna uh maybe not sound right, but I think one of his as I read and look and learn about what happened, one of his most incredible attributes was his ability to lose without getting wiped out. Yeah. Right. And I think you could say part of that has to be this, he wasn't caught up in pride. Like to to lose a battle is humiliating. Um, but he was willing to lose, to give up ground, to fall back, to regroup, to save his troops, to save the people, and then live to fight another day. Right? He didn't hang it, like he could have been in one of these battles and just said, you know, we're we're not we're not turning, we're not leaving, and and they could have gotten conquered and wiped out. And if he gets wiped out, uh you know, it's all over. And I don't mean that to say he was soft because he wasn't. And in the battle, what was it, the battle of Monmouth, where um Gates turned and was retreating, and Washington is like, no, hold your ground, and he calls out Gates on the battlefield, and Washington takes him out, and and the uh the the Americans actually won that battle. I'm not saying he didn't fight hard and he didn't stand his ground, but at the same time, and and it refers back maybe Brian to prescience, yeah. Um, what you talked about on the last episode. I think he had the ability to see um when it was just it wasn't the right time. It wasn't the time to fight. He would he would pull back and regroup and live to fight another day. And we've said this multiple times. He he lost more battles than he won. But even when he lost, he lived to fight. And in in many cases, his retreats were almost like a victory because it was something the British should have crushed him. Right. And many cases enveloped him, should have wiped him out, should have taken all these prisoners, and he escapes and almost becomes heroic, or uh, you know, it's it's almost like a victory that rallies not just the the the people who served in the army, the the colonists in general, but the French. Right. He escapes to say this is real, right? These guys are standing toe-to-toe with the British.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um, I'm reading the book and and you see it in the movie, but that I love about the way he led in these times of of war was his care for the troops, right? He loved these troops and he respected them. And and it's kind of interesting because it turned when he first gets appointed, right? He kind of is almost disappointed or disgusted by the the state of affairs of the military. It's the militia, it's kind of a ragtag bunch. Um, and he's almost disheartened by um the troops he's asked to lead. But over time, he realizes that these guys are are volunteers, often out there. I mean, they they weren't out there with they were going without pay for extended periods of time. They were putting themselves uh on the line for this cause. And and he grew to really have a fondness for these troops. And um he never asked them to do, I think this is true of any good leader, but never asked them to do something that he wouldn't do himself, right? Yeah. Now, that didn't mean that he was always the one on the front line. Like, I mean, he would go with his troops and be in battle, and and there are certainly situations like portrayed in the the movie Young Washington where he is on the front lines, but even the ones where he realizes, hey, he's got to stay back, he had a real heart for putting these people in the best positions possible because he had been there and he wasn't asking them to do something he wouldn't have done or hadn't done.
SPEAKER_03I mean, you you know this, not comparing business leadership to what he did in leadership and war, but as a leader, there are times and places where you need to be, and there are times and events you say, although I could do that, I'm better served doing something else. And I think he had the uncanny ability to know when he needed to be out front. To know, and and there were multiple times reading these books where he was out at, like you said, at the front lines in the heat of the battle, bullets flying places he shouldn't have been, technically, but he was because he knew he needed to get out there and rally the troops and encourage them or lead them. But then there are other times we realized that's not where he needed to be. And there there were, you know, other uh situations or opportunities calling him. Um just remarkable. Remarkable man, remarkable leader, and you could just you you could spend hours and hours just studying what he did in battle. What he did in battle, how he led the troops, and and and you know, I we talked about this already too, but you then you go to something like Valley Forge.
SPEAKER_01Oh my goodness. It was something like one in three or one in five soldiers did not have shoes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Uh how he kept that army together and and I think it was they lost one in five, either to death or desertion. Oh my goodness. Uh, at Valley Forge, because they started with something like 15,000. I I I might have the numbers wrong, but I thought it was fifteen thousand and they they lost three thousand men through the winter. That's so the soldiers out there without pay, many of them without shoes, um rudimentary. Uh I mean they they had built cabins, but they didn't have enough cabins. So they're they're building like lean twos and tents. These guys are going through the winter at Valley Forge, but what he was able to do was to encourage and inspire those troops and hold them together. Um, so coming, you know, coming out of that winter into the summer, um, they were still there and and and actually chased the British out of Philadelphia. Yep. The summer after Valley Forge. Yep. Um, so you know, so many qualities and characteristics.
SPEAKER_01I was just gonna transition from do you anything else on him as a military general?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I I mean yes, let me say this. It's more um, it gets into his military leading, but his faith or his character. First of all, he he did not allow his soldiers to swear, right? Use profane language, couldn't be drunkards, couldn't be drunkards, and he commanded them to attend church.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_03And I have this uh a couple quotes I wanted to read here, if I if I can get centered on this. Washington urged this is a quote from Washington every officer and man will endeavor so as to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier, defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country. And then it says um he later charged his troops to the distinguished character of patriot, right? We call them patriots. It should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian. So these soldiers, this army, this militia, all these groups that are under the command of Washington, they are patriots, right? They're sons of liberty, they're the freedom fighters. And he says even higher than the honor of being called a patriot, you need to endeavor to be the more distinguished character of Christian. You tell me, was this country founded on Christian principles? Absolutely. So those are it's getting out of like uh the craft of being a general, but uh those are certainly things that pertain specifically to him leading troops and and what have you, but but ties in his faith and his character of leadership.
SPEAKER_01So after he finishes the military duty, wins the Revolutionary War. Um did I I did say that his Yeah, never mind. Uh after he wins the Revolutionary War, he resigns as commander, but then he's called back a few years later to to lead the constitutional convention. They need somebody to lead this. And I don't think he really wanted to. No, it was a reluctant service.
SPEAKER_03I mean, he retired. He wanted to be in Mount Vernon, he wanted to um enjoy life. He had just spent, I mean, you think about it, the Revolutionary War, he took command in 75, it ended the Treaty of Paris in 83, eight years. He spent, you know, you're away from home for eight years. It's not like you serve a little and you go home and hang out. And that was hard, hard years and incredible stress and strain. And he wants to go back and enjoy life. And he's back for not more than a couple years, and he gets called out of retirement, so to speak, to say, hey, we need you to come lead this constitutional convention. And I think he started to say it. It was like a reluctant service because he felt the duty, he felt the call.
SPEAKER_01And we talked in the last episode about the idea of providence and feeling like he had been called for a time such as this, and he felt like, listen, this is I God has given me all of these tools and traits and experience and put me in this place. And if I have the ability to serve the country by, you know, giving more of my time to lead this constitutional convention, I'll do that. And he does, and to be honest, it doesn't go well at first, right? I mean, that this at this point, right, there was you have the Declaration of Independence that says, hey, we're we're independent from Britain. You have the Treaty of Paris in '83 that kind of defines the country. But this is six years later, right? They operate under that Articles of Confederation, which were these individual states, but no strong central government. And they're like, hey, we need something stronger than this Articles to hold us together. We need an actual constitution as a nation. And there were some of the colonies or some of the states they didn't want it, did not want that. And so it was the fear was tyrannical rule, right? You get afraid of it.
SPEAKER_03You get rid of one and you step right into another. So there was a very strong contingent that was like, no, let's let each state govern itself.
SPEAKER_01And so he does lead that, and toward the end of that, there's this uh need to um that they establish the the constitution and establish the three branches of government, and there's this need for a presidency.
SPEAKER_03Oh my goodness. So a couple things there, and and we we may talk about this more in others, but the fact that they established the framework of that government the way they did, just incredible. Um and as they went through that, and and we may have mentioned this before, but the most quoted or referenced book or document was the Bible, and it was Deuteronomy, I think was the main one. They're taking the principles uh expressed in the Bible and applying that to the government here and you know how to rule and lead the people. But the three branches of government the checks and balances, the representation to include the states, give the states power, but still um uh you know, have the the the federal oversight, uh I it was brilliant. And I I heard this quote. I'm jumping around a little bit, but uh what is it? The average over the history of you know the six thousand year history of of uh governments in in this world, the average life of a constitution, of a of a country living under a constitution is 19 years.
SPEAKER_01That's crazy stuff. I know that we are the longest running. 20 years. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And we've been living under a constitution for 250 years.
SPEAKER_01A relatively unchanged constitution. What? There's 27 amendments. The last one was 92. And 10 were right out of the gate. 10 were out of the gate, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um, but yeah, just so I I got off track there, but but um he's called back to serve.
SPEAKER_01He serves as the leader of this the Constitutional Congress, and then he gets nominated for president.
SPEAKER_03Well, yeah, you create this branch, the executive branch, so you have this position called president. Now you've got to say, okay, who's gonna be the president?
SPEAKER_01And again, he's kind of like, I thought I was coming back for this, and then going back home, and he gets nominated to be president, and he's like, if that's what the people want. Precedence. He uh yeah. He understood that uh yeah, somebody had to do this, and he had been called, and and so with incredible um uh what's the word I'm looking for? I would say reluctance and humility. Humility, he takes this role of being the first president of the United States. And just just tremendous. One of the the first things done is his um first national Thanksgiving proclamation on October 3rd of 1789. And just uh a couple points on this. I mean, first of all, there's a few documents we we talk about going back and reading the original and hearing it in their words. And we've put this out on at our company over uh at different times on on Thanksgiving. But go back and read the original Thanksgiving proclamation from George Washington. It's great. It's awesome. What is it? Like two minutes? It's not a long read. Yeah. Three minutes. The other document, his farewell address or his farewell, that one's a little bit longer, but really, really good. Um but the the idea, I mean, he's he's saying, listen, we've got reasons to be thankful. And he listed listed out the blessings um of the opportunity for people to establish their own government for the peaceful resolution of the war, the tranquility of the union, and the the blessings that they were received experiencing as a country. And then he calls America to prayer, right? And as a nation, he calls on us to give give thanks to God for his care and protection, thank God for the opportunity to establish the government, pray for a pardon of national and personal sins. Think about that. Like he's calling on the nation to turn, right? And you went to that event this year, uh rededication of America and the idea of coming together as a people, not just individuals, doing it as individuals as well, but as a nation part asking for grace for the sins that we've committed, and then praying for continued blessing and peace and harmony among other nations. Like I it's just crazy. And and then we have some lunatics out there today that you want to say a prayer in a public school and they want to take you to court. Like it's insane how far we have fallen from the original target and what these guys lived out. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03So there is a very real effort, and there has been over the last several decades to rewrite history. And if they can tear down the the founders of this country, if they can strip away the truth of the beliefs that it was really founded on and replace it with these were bad men and evil men and and this and that, and just if they can change the narrative, then it becomes easy to to knock, to take out the pedestal that this country was founded on. And that's again where we talk about the importance of knowing the truth, of remembering it and then sharing it. Um because there's no doubt that uh the Christian faith, uh, reliance in God, the hand of providence was uh key and central to the foundation of this country. Um there's just a short little quote, but this is from Washington. He says, I have only been an instrument in the hands of Providence. So there again we talk about the Providence. He knows. He he knows his place. And he didn't sit there and beat his chest and say, I'm great. You know, I I I won the war, I led the constitutional convention that set up this constitution, I'm president. Uh look what I did. He's saying, I've been a tool in the hand of providence.
SPEAKER_01I mean, he had people wanting to make him king. And even even after we say, no, we're gonna establish it as a um you know, a constitutional republic, and he gets elected president, even the title that they use to describe him as president, right? Like John Adams is one to call him his excellency, right? And and out of good reason, wanting to to elevate Washington and appreciate the the status of president, and Washington just says, no, Mr. President will be fine, right? And that's to this day, Mr. President is what we call the president. Instead of even a judge, we say your honor, right? But it's Mr. President because it's a civil servant. And it's just such a he set that precedent with the way he accepted the power that was bestowed on him. And and anyone else, we we talked about it this morning. Um, but you look at the French Revolution and Napoleon steps into that vacuum of power after the monarch monarchy was overthrown, and Napoleon becomes a tyrant, right? He get he gets power hungry and wants to take more, and and it's all about him. And then you've got Washington at the almost exact same time, just a little bit before, but Washington saying, listen, it's not about me.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, what's that saying? Absolute power corrupts absolutely. But Washington's the exception to that. Yeah, right? It's truly remarkable. And I think it it was uh King George III is said to have remarked when Washington laid down, stepped away from his role as president. Uh he said something like he is truly I think the greatest to ever live, to, to, to lay that power down, willingly lay it down and step away from it.
SPEAKER_01Which ironically, I didn't know this until recently, but King George is just a little bit younger than George Washington, right? I always thought of him as an old older going through. That's the wigs. You should know you running around in a wig last week.
SPEAKER_03I thought you were like 70.
SPEAKER_01There were a lot of thoughts when I put on that white wig. 70, I did not know, was one of them, but yes. Uh but just an incredible example as present. And then we we talked about just being willing to walk away and to say, no, this is this needs to turn over to the next generation and peaceful transfer of power. And his farewell address um, again, is so good. But I think one of the things that was incredible about it, when you go back and read it, he focuses on the enemy within, right? The potential, the thing that could destroy our countries from within, right? We we beat the greatest power in the world in Britain. But the idea of, you know, regionality, states being um more concerned with their own good than the good of the whole, or even political parties. He's warning against political parties, you know, fracturing and and and dividing the country. Um, he talks about the need for the checks and balances that are established in the Constitution and how important those are to preserve. And then he goes on to talk about religion and morality, right? And saying the thing that can destroy America is if we lose this, if we lose the foundation of who we are. And he the this is a quote. He says, of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in the exclusion of religious people. And then he goes on and he he talks about the importance of virtue and that the republic depends on the virtue of its citizens. Without moral restraint, free government can't function. And he looks at America and says, Listen, I'm at the end, I'm stepping away. And here are the things to focus on. And one of the biggest themes of his farewell address is like, as a people, we need to stay tied to our faith. We need to understand God's hand in our country, and we need to be thankful for that, respectful of that, and we need to live it out. We need to be virtuous, and without that, this government's gonna collapse.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. It's amazing stuff. Um, again, guys, go learn, go dive into it, and you can take uh, you know, an easy road, and it's you know, you know, just to get started, watch some of the shows, watch some of the videos we talked about, America 250, um, Hillsdale has a lot of good stuff, Prager You, but then get into the sources, and and we talked about the the Live Free or Die podcast with Josh Howerton where we interviewed Tim Barton.
SPEAKER_01It's just live free. He doesn't say or die.
SPEAKER_03Live free. I continued that the live free podcast. Um Tim Barton with wall builders, Tim and David Barton, what they do at wall builders. There's a there's so much you can get out and learn. And the closer you get to the source, the truer the information's gonna be. So speaking of that, let's go back to the opening question. Yes, true or false. George Washington had a set of wooden chompers, and the answer is it's false. It's false. Who knew? I thought that was true most of my life. My whole life believing that he had wooden chompers and that he chopped down the cherry tree. Neither one of them said I cannot tell a lie. Neither of those are true. Now, the chompers, what they said, he had dentures, but they were made largely of human teeth, horse, cow, or pig teeth, possibly ivory from some animals, and that may have included copper, zinc, lead, silver, and other metals. This is and he has a set of his dentures, I believe, are on display at Mount Vernon. That is a cornucopia of of material. So when Brian was earlier saying that he was uh tempered in his speech, it may have been because the old chompers were slipping out and it was hard for him to talk. What was that when he talked, he made it important.
SPEAKER_01That one quote you the source you saw said that he only had one actual tooth was present when he was spinning his president. Wow. Yeah. The dental hygiene has come a long way, and I'm thankful for for it. So any of you dentists out there, thank you for what you do.
SPEAKER_03So he he had uh and and just a side note, they said that his bad teeth actually helped trick the British and could have possibly led to the victory at Yorktown because he had sent they the British had somehow intercepted this letter he sent to his dentist saying that he was going to be in New York for a period of time um and needed dental help there, um, but at the same time, Washington was planning to attack Yorktown and move troops there. And the British, after getting this letter of his, were convinced he was going to be in in New York. And while uh Cornwallis was calling for reinforcements in Yorktown, um, the British did not think it was needed because they knew Washington was in New York, and little did they know that even with the bad chompers, Washington headed down to Yorktown, and the rest, as they say, is history. The dentures of George Washington.
SPEAKER_01Not the adventures. We could make a the dentures.
SPEAKER_03Not the indentures. Uh and then yet just quickly because he threw it out there, the cherry tree was not a true story. That was um, oh, what's that guy's name? I better look it up and say it. But there was an author who wrote a biography on Washington. His name was Mason Locke Weems, and the biography was called The Life of Washington, was first published in 1800 or 1801, and had it was a bestseller because Washington was obviously a hero. And by 1805 or 6, that when they came out with the fifth edition, they added this story about the cherry tree. Now it was put in there almost as a form of mythology, right? To tell a story and to get a story that would capture the hearts of the people. And the story is the importance of a youth to tell the truth and how virtuous the truth is, and how shameful telling a lie is. And that story was done to demonstrate that. And Washington tells his dad, I cannot tell a lie. I chopped down the cherry tree. Um, so the lesson is great, the virtue is great, but the story is mythology, uh, not so much an actual account of history.
SPEAKER_01So coming out of elementary school, I knew two things about George Washington. Three things. One, he was the first president, two, he had wooden teeth, and three, he chopped down a cherry tree but couldn't tell a lie. Only one of those three survived.
SPEAKER_03He probably did chop down cherry trees. Yes. But he didn't have that moment with his father.
SPEAKER_01All right, we're gonna wrap up this series on George Washington and get on to some other American uh revolutionary characters. But um, thank you for joining us. I would there is so much good information out there. We've got links in the show notes. Please check it out.
SPEAKER_03There is a plethora of good information out there. There is. And don't forget, one last plug, young Washington, you gotta go see it. Have a great week, everybody. God bless America.
SPEAKER_00This is the thread call me reminding you that faith looks up, hope looks ahead, and love looks all around to see whom it can help. Good day.