[Northkeep] History lessons

[Kevinkeary at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/6/2004 8:58:16 PM Central Daylight Time, 
marccarlson20 at hotmail.com writes:
>and our directors... Or even more frightening, to >do a survey of how many 
>American believe the Washington and the apple tree story, or Jonny 
> >Appleseed, or Paul Bunyan?

I would submit that most modern Americans don't really have a clue who 
Johnny Appleseed or Paul Bunyon were.  They haven't done big screen movies 
about either of them lately.
Actually, my bet is that more people believed the -cherry- tree story in my 
father's generation than in mine or my children's, Paul Bunyan was a figure in 
Tall Tales with Pecos Bill and John Henry (Diarmaid didn't limit the 
discussion to -good- movies...), and Johnny Appleseed WAS a real figure from American 
History (John Chapman, 1775-1847), but like Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone, his 
legend exceeds his reality.
Kevin