White House residents come alive

Danette Goulet

CORONA DEL MAR -- Just in time for Presidents Day, history came alive

at three schools as some of the White House greats walked again.

Last week, Students at Our Lady Queen of Angels School clamored to

speak with George Washington when he put in an appearance at their

campus.

“Did you chop down the cherry tree? Was that you?” asked Christy

Roberts, 13.

In his guise as the nation’s first president, Hal Pisors of Newport

Beach visited first Eastbluff Elementary School, then St. Marks

Preschool, and finally he met up with two other patriots at Our Lady

Queen of Angels.

Thomas Jefferson, the third U.S. president and author of the

Declaration of Independence, and Dolly Madison, wife of the fourth

president, James Madison, also put in appearances.

Jefferson, known day-to-day as Tom Bubonic, has a grandson at the

school. He regaled students with tales of Jefferson’s feats as only a

grandfather could do.

Madison, played by Sandy Perez, has two girls at the school. In honor

of Madison being the original first lady to serve ice cream in the White

House, she brought some icy treats for the children to enjoy.

The three historical figures roamed the lunch yard answering questions

and quizzing students about “their” lives.

“George Washington never smiles,” Pisor told a group of students. “Do

you know why?”

“Because he had wooden teeth,” said Jennifer Denumuri, 8.

He also told them of Washington’s alternate dentures made of cow bones

and ivory, neither of which looked much better, he said.

But when he tried to tell a group of students that he, Washington,

might have been the greatest president of all time, students told him not

for long.

Their 8-year-old classmate, Nicole Casey, not only has aspirations of

being president, but she would be the very best.