Then again I’ve gotta add the story about Benjamin Franklin. I read his Autobiography when I was in 8th of 9th grade. I liked it. I didn’t really realize that I had actually learned some lessons in character by just reading this wonderful, easy to read book.

I think for a while it was actually required reading in some high schools. Or at least by some teachers. I guess that’s when I really started having some innate or subdued feelings for the Founding Fathers of our nation.

I do remember that I didn’t much like our high school government class. It was taught by a self-important and proud new teacher to our faculty. He would sit in class sometimes and read the “Wall Street Journal.” That stuck with me and I have never liked to read the Wall Street Journal.

But I have learned to love American history and government. Our founding documents have become important to me. Not only the documents by themselves, but the lives of the men and women who were there to bring them about. And what they mean.

Franklin’s Autobiography can be the basis for a beginning to understand American history. It was what we would call a “best seller” in his day. It reached all of the 13 colonies, as well as being very popular in Europe where it was translated into French, Spanish and Italian.

If you haven’t read it, get a copy and entertain yourself with it today!