Brooks D. Simpson Profile picture
Apr 7, 2020 14 tweets 4 min read Read on X
Time for a little story about a boy, his first hockey hero,and his hero's hero ... featuring @rodgilbert7 ...
When I first became really interested in ice hockey in 1969, there was only one team in New York ... the Rangers.

That's right, before the #Isles appeared, there was only one way to #PlayLikeANewYorker ...

... and the New Yorker I followed was #7, Rod Gilbert.
My mom secured a copy of his autobiography, co-written with @StanFischler, and I devoured it. Yes, Stan, I still have it. Goal: My Life on Ice.

When I went to my first game at MSG, guess who scored the first NHL goal I ever saw? That's right ... Rod Gilbert.
I went to see the Rangers practice at Skateland, a rink in New Hyde Park, during the 1971 playoff series with Chicago. I even got to say hello to Rod as he got into a car with Bob Nevin. The autographs would come later.
That summer, knowing I was about to go off to prep school at #Exeter, I convinced my parents to send me to hockey camp at Skateland where Rod and Brad Park were the headline stars (and they showed up all the time). I also met some guy named Nick Fotiu there.
Meeting Rod was one of those things I will always remember. He autographed my book ... his photo ... a number of pieces of paper ... and he did so with a smile. He was kind to my mother, who was pleased.
On the ice, he noticed that I wore #7 on my skates, just like the pros did, and he started telling "little number seven" to skate hard.

That was something.
Now, I knew from reading Rod's book that his childhood hero was Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion, the Montreal Canadiens great who had finished his career with the Rangers. "The Boomer" assumed mythical dimensions in my imagination.
It was a two-week hockey camp. During the first week we learned that there would be an exhibition game that weekend featuring camp instructors (many were NHL players), local players ... and the Boomer.

Wow ... now I'd get to see the Boomer, too!
So Saturday night came. I went to the rink and squeezed into position right next to one of the players' benches.

Now, I really can't tell you much about the game itself. No matter. But I can tell you what happened between periods.
After the first period, the players stayed on the ice. They were going to go around the rink and sign autographs. I was ready for this moment, autograph book in hand.

And then I saw Boom Boom Geoffrion.
Something of the historian in me clicked (yes, even then ...). Most of the kids didn't know who Boomer was, but I did, thanks to Rod and Stan.

"Boomer! Boomer! Over here!"

Geoffrion looked up. He smiled.

And then he skated over to me, the first kid he was going to meet.
I couldn't believe it. I was so excited. The Boomer seemed to be beaming ... and then he signed my book.

Wow.

I guess you can forgive me for not remembering much about the game, because I had all the memory I needed.
Between Rod, Brad, several of the other instructors (I patterned my goal celebration dance after Pierre Jarry's celebration), and Boomer, I was hooked forever.

Blame @StanFischler and @rodgilbert7.

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More from @BrooksDSimpson

Jun 4
Time and again critics of Ulysses S. Grant's generalship claim that, above all else, he was "Grant the Butcher," who prevailed because of his superiority in resources (which was seemingly endless) despite a certain mindlessness and dullness.
Grant's supporters counter this charge largely in a statistical fashion. They compare the percentage of Grant's losses versus the percentage of losses suffered by other generals, including Robert E. Lee.
Sometimes these analyses focus on the 1864 Overland Campaign, which in the minds of some people is the only campaign Grant ever fought ... the claims of butcher rely mostly on May-June 1864.

Even then Lee's losses were also heavy.
Read 18 tweets
Jun 3
Today's the 160th anniversary of one of the most misunderstood battles of the American Civil War ... Cold Harbor.

The story of the battle has turned into a myth that in turn has long shaped the image of Ulysses S. Grant's generalship.
Make no mistake about it ... Cold Harbor was a significant setback for Grant and US forces during the Overland Campaign. Several US commanders performed poorly that day, especially in not carrying out George G. Meade's orders to reconnoiter the Confederate position.
However, we now know that tales of 7,000 men falling in less than an hour are false. We also know that the quest for a ceasefire to recover wounded and dead between the lines was botched by two prideful commanders.
Read 19 tweets
May 8
It's often asserted the as president Ulysses S. Grant destroyed the Ku Klux Klan.

The reality is not nearly as satisfying or uplifting to those who deplore white supremacist paramilitary terrorism as conducted primarily by veterans of the Confederate war effort.
The KKK became a shorthand descriptor for the many forms of white supremacist terrorism that slowly took organized form in the late 1860s. There were other massacres (Memphis) and attacks (New Orleans) against blacks and their white allies in the Reconstructing South.
By 1867 and 1868, when Black men in large numbers exercised the right to vote for the first time, white supremacist terrorism, often defined as KKK activity, targeted Black voters and Republican officeholders.

This was voter suppression, pure and simple.
Read 21 tweets
Apr 10
Yesterday I shared with you various images of the events in Wilmer McLean's parlor on April 9, 1865.

Today I plan to share a few more images that shape our memory of what happened that day ... and April 10, 1865 as well.

Grant and Lee met a second time this day in 1865.
These images fall into three categories.

First, there are images of an imagined surrender conference outside that draw upon talk of an apple tree at Appomattox.

Second, there's Lee's departure from the McLean House.

Third, there's the April 10 meeting.
Let's look first at the imagined outdoor April 9 encounter.

Sometimes Grant and Lee meet while mounted on their horses. A rather dapper Ulysses, no? Image
Read 10 tweets
Apr 9
Visual portrayals of what happened in Wilmer McLean's parlor on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House are worth some study.

Here's a simple early version: two generals, one table. Image
The table is a curious effort to bring together elements of the two tables involved in the event. Grant said at a brown wood oval table; Lee sat at a squarish marble table. Grant's chair was a swivel desk chair backed in leather, while Lee sat in a high-backed chair.
Image
Image
Yet it took a while for artists to include those four pieces of furniture, let alone to assign them to the general who used them. Image
Read 21 tweets
Apr 9
As true Americans commemorate the anniversary of Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox, let's recall that the events of April 9 marked an end to one of the most successful pursuits in military history ... one that is often underappreciated.
In some sixteen days the US forces under Grant's command repulsed a breakout attempt, severed Confederate supply lines and railroads, forced the evacuation of Petersburg and the the Confederate capital at Richmond.

That's for starters.
They then outmarched a foe determined to escape, blocked any chance of the enemy combining forces in North Carolina, then headed the insurgents off before they could reach the protection of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

In the process the foe suffered nearly 50% losses.
Read 5 tweets

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