“..Edsel is a no-go.”

This was a perfect SignPost. It tripped up about 70% of the people who saw it. They recognized it, but couldn’t place it. Had I started with “Harry Truman, Doris Day” I’m sure more would recognize Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”

My brother had a history teacher in High School whose end of year exercise for ‘modern history’ was making all of his students decipher the references in the song.

Today, it’s a simple internet search to get all the answers.

But in 1998? I remember the entire family spending multiple nights digging through encyclopedias, history books, and more than a handful of phone calls to our grandparents and aunts and uncles to tie together the poetry.

We didn’t know it at the time, but we were learning the skill of researching. I hope the generations behind us learn how to find information when it’s NOT at their fingertips.