Things you might not know about Thomas Jefferson

I have an old book called 40 Presidents Facts and Fun that tells little known facts and stories about the Presidents. The book shows not only how intelligent Thomas Jefferson was - something we all know - but this particular story tells about how resourceful he was too. The authors - Joan Bumann and John Patterson - who compiled this book - starts out the coverage of Jefferson by saying that he was told by his father to take a gun and go into the woods and learn to hunt. The ten year old former President came upon a wild turkey trapped in a pen - which he promptly shot and threw over his shoulder to present to his father. It may or may not be commom knowledge that Thomas Jefferson had a pet mockingbird that he called Bill - and while it was his companion in Jefferson's study - he taught it to peck food out of our third President's mouth. But what I like best - was a fact not found in this book - and that is that Thomas Jefferson established the tradition of shaking hands with people - rather than the habit they were in of bowing to Washington and Adams. And my hat is off to Thomas Jefferson - who according to my little book - is considered a People's President. We could use him about now - don't you think?