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Our Price: $19.95
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Type: Hardcover
Item#: C7601
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Fred Thompson remembers the solid American values his father taught him -- and that he took to Hollywood and Washington
Teaching the Pig to Dance: A Memoir of Growing Up and Second Chances
by Fred Thompson
Fred Thompson has been a TV star, a Senator, and a
candidate for President of the United States – and now, in
this homespun recollection of growing up in small-town
America, he sets out with abundant charm and wit the
American values that carried him through his remarkable
career. In Teaching the Pig to Dance: A Memoir of Growing
Up and Second Chances, Thompson takes you to the
Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, of the 1950s -- an American town
where young men like Thompson learned the importance of
hard work, honesty, perseverance, and other solid American
virtues that are sadly vanishing in Barack Obama's America.
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Buy Teaching the Pig to Dance: A Memoir of Growing Up and Second Chances with:
Laughing at Obama: Volume I
by Scott Ott
Buy Together: $31.90
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(continued from above)
"There is an old saying," Thompson recalls, "that
teaching the pig to dance is a fruitless endeavor. It is a
waste of your time and it irritates the pig. That was
probably how my parents, teachers, coaches and townsfolk
felt about me. That, of course, makes me the pig." Thompson
brings to life the characters he ran into in Lawrenceburg
and the indelible lessons he learned from his father and
family, and then carried through life. He tells it all with
a wry good humor that makes Teaching the Pig to Dance a
Southern, solidly conservative version of the NPR tales of
Lake Wobegon.
Teaching the Pig to Dance is not a political
manifesto, but in it, Thompson recounts his life-changing
discovery of Barry Goldwater and conservatism. That makes
this not just a heart-warming evocation of a lost, better
America, but a soft-spoken manifesto for taking our country
back today.
Sample the wit and wisdom of Fred Thompson:
"My parents never set the bar high for me as far as
education or professional titles were concerned. But they
gave me much more. Dad set the standard for what a man
ought to be -- strong and protective of those who depended
on him. Trustworthy and striving every day to be a better
man."
"Good guys looked and dressed the part, were strong, brave,
took up for the little guy, won against all odds and
apparently never had to make a living. Any little boy who
didn't want to grow up to be like Roy Rogers or Gene Autry
would have been cause for serious concern by his parents."
"Many years later, when I was in the United States Senate
and attending a hearing, we were talking about how violence
in the movies and television had increased over the years.
I made a passing reference to growing up with Gene and Roy
and watching them shoot a lot of bad guys. Soon I received
a long letter from a Gene Autry-related organization taking
umbrage and expressing outrage over my statement. They
pointed out that Gene Autry always shot the gun at the bad
guy's hand. He never actually shot anybody. I stood
corrected."
"Perhaps surprisingly to some, having political views based
on childhood religious influences does not necessarily
translate into approval of a lot of the political
activities of some religious groups. In our church we drew
a clear distinction between the responsibilities of church
and state. This was not a legal concept. This was based
upon scripture. 'Render under Caesar. . .'"
Back in law school for my final year I had to smile when
asked what I had done on my summer vacation. I wanted to
say, 'Well I won my first case, carried a gun and busted a
strike.'"
"Although my friends and family had conservative
viewpoints, the Republican Party had little standing in the
South; everyone still seemed to be trying to reconcile
their values with the policies of the Democratic Party. But
it's a reconciliation that I could not make. So although my
state, my country and my Dad. . .were Democratic, I decided I
was going to be a Republican."
"As a campaign manager I got to sit backstage with Governor
Reagan for a few minutes before he went on stage. He turned
to me and said, 'What do you think I ought to tell them?'
Taken by surprise I gave him a few thoughts. He went out
and said exactly what I had suggested. I was amazed. So
Reagan had me for life even before I fully understood his
philosophy. His philosophy was a bonus."
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