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

Dec 30, 2023
What stake did non-slaveholding southern whites have in the protection and preservation of slavery? Why would they support secession? Why would they go to war?

Reasonable questions.
First, not all white southerners supported the Confederacy. There were Unionists. There were also deserters.

The Confederacy had to resort to conscription in 1862 to recruit its ranks. Even Lee complained about desertion and questioned the commitment of Confederate civilians.
Still, a lot of non-slaveholding whites did support secession and joined the Confederate armed forces.

Does that meant that the Confederacy did not rest upon the foundation on slavery?
Read 23 tweets
Dec 30, 2023
In 1865, with the US Army choking Richmond and marching its way through the Deep South unopposed, Jefferson Davis rejected proposals for peace that meant the end of Confederate independence and slavery.

The blood of the spring of 1865 was on his hands.
After all, look at the situation at the time.

Sherman marching through Georgia and the Carolinas ... and David did nothing to stop that destructive path of war.

Grant having cornered Lee, who would have to abandon Richmond if he wanted to survive.
The Confederate Congress quarreling over whether to enlist Blacks in the Confederate army, with opponents saying that if one did this, the whole rationale for the existence of the Confederacy would be undermined.
Read 10 tweets
Dec 30, 2023
What was the Crittenden Compromise? What did it entail? Was it truly a compromise settlement, or a series of concessions to southerners to prevent secession?

Why did Lincoln oppose it? What did Jefferson Davis say about it? What was it impact on the secession movement?
The Crittenden Compromise was a series of proposals offered by Kentucky Senator John C. Crittenden on December 18, 1860.

There were six proposed constitutional amendments and four resolutions in Crittenden's package of proposals.
The first proposed constitutional amendment would have reinstated the Missouri Compromise line as the boundary between free territory and territory where slavery could expand.
Read 25 tweets
Sep 15, 2023
The origins of section three of the Fourteenth Amendment, a constitutional clause currently under discussion, is worth remembering.

The clause now being cited to prohibit Donald Trump from returning as president originated during Reconstruction.
In 1865 Andrew Johnson issued a series of proclamations looking to reestablish civil government in the former Confederate states and to frame an amnesty policy for Confederates ... although the latter also used the term pardon.
To be pardoned, some people once argued, one had to be convicted of a crime, but that's clearly no longer the case. Preemptive pardons essentially free their recipients from prosecution.

In this case, there had been no convictions.
Read 24 tweets
Jul 20, 2023
It has become tiresome to deal with those people on the far right who like to claim that Republicans ended slavery while the Democrats founded the KKK ... as if we should then say that this says anything meaningful about the parties today.

It doesn't.
First, while Republicans helped end slavery, they didn't do it on their own, and the primary reason slavery ended was because the Civil War did much to destroy it.

Period.

Yes, the vast majority of Democrats at the time were not interested in ending slavery. That's a fact.
But black people, enslaved and free, also did much to force the issue onto the political agenda and helped undermine the Confederacy.

So to say that the Republicans ended slavery does not come close to telling the whole story.
Read 15 tweets
Jun 12, 2023
Today I want to say a few things about Ulysses S. Grant's decision to cross the James, a move sometimes as misunderstood as it was brilliant.
First, we might want to set aside the notion that Grant's decision to cross the James was conceived in a moment of inspiration after the defeat at Cold Harbor.

Grant was far more open-minded and flexible than that.
When Grant first turned his attention to what to do in Virginia, before he was general-in-chief, he contemplated holding Lee in place in Virginia while mobilizing a task force to hit North Carolina.

Why, you ask?
Read 26 tweets

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