Transcripts For CSPAN QA 20240622

Brian kurt deion, you have a website. Kurtshistoricsites . Kurt it is a website where i detail the accounts, i have the accounts of all my different trips to president ial and Vice President ial burial sites, president ial homes, libraries. Different gravesites. I have interesting facts about the different individuals whose gravesites i have been to because also, not just showing the different sites i have been to, but it is also supposed to be a learning tool. Brian how old are you . Kurt 20 years old. Brian where are you in school . Kurt Cranston High School west in cranston. Brian and where are you now . Kurt presently, i am a rising senior at Bryant University in smithfield, rhode island. Brian what is your major . Kurt i am a history major, one of the few at bryant. It is a very small History Department but a very good History Department and i have actually the only history major graduating from bryant next year. Brian why history . Kurt i have been so passionate about history for well over half my life. I first got into president s when i was seven years old. My mother bought me this book called so you want to be president . By judith st. George, illustrated by david small. I actually dont know why she bought me the book. I think she offered to tell me at one point, but i declined because i like the mystique about it. Brian have you read the whole book . Kurt it was a very thin book. What i really liked was the illustrations. It was my first exposure to president s and i found the illustrations very funny. For example, there is William Howard taft, very overweight president , who famously got stuck in the bathtub at the white house. When david smalls illustrations did in the book was they showed president taft being lifted out of the bathtub with an industrial crane. So, there is an operator wearing a hard hat lifting taft out of the bathtub while he is holding a champagne glass and turkey leg. Things like that in the book got me interested in president s in general. I have been passionate about it since then and eventually i started visiting president ial burial sites. Brian what got our attention is the fact that you have been to every president ial gravesite in and every Vice President s gravesite. And you say you might be the only human being in the United States that has done that . Kurt i may be the only one who has visited all 66 graves collectively. Brian you could hear someone now saying, why . How did this all start . Kurt i visited my first four president ial burial sites before picking it up as a quest, hobby, however people want to characterize it. I went to the adams sarcophagi. When i first went, in the summer of 2003, i was eight years old. My family came down here for vacation and we visited several sites. We went to mount vernon, where it just so happens George Washington is interred. A few months later, i was watching television on cspan where it detailed the president ial gravesite visits, particularly Richard Norton smith. I did not watch the program but my father then came out of the room and he told me about it. I was nine years old at this point. I had been to four and there were 36 at the time. I asked him, can we do that . He said, what . I said, visit every president ial burial site. That night, he started looking up information on where they were buried, the different pictures. We visited quite a few that year in 2004. Brian one of the things they got our attention is that you used the book that we published. Whos buried in grants tomb . I want to show you, and i know this happened before you were born. This happened in 1993. It was on our program book notes when Richard Norton smith was here. Have you ever seen this . I wnat want to show you how it started for your father. Somebody here told me that they thought you had visited every grave of every former president. Richard i am one of those rare americans that can say that. It was a hobby as a child, a rather unusual hobby, and sometimes an embarrassing hobby. I contracted heatstroke one day while visiting james k. Polk on the grounds of the Tennessee State capital in the middle of august. I would not advise it. I almost got arrested one night about 7 00 at night trying to find Grover Cleveland in a cemetery in princeton, new jersey. Brian which one was the hardest to find . Richard appropriately, i guess, William Henry harrison, who was president for only a month. It helps to die in office. President s who die in office are instantly enshrined and School Children send in their pennies and they build these enormous monuments. He is in north bend, ohio. Brian it is not in this clip, but he started doing this when he was nine years old. What is it about being a nineyearold that intrigued you about going to the gravesites . Kurt im not sure, Perfect Timing i guess. Brian whatd you think of what he said . Kurt what struck me about what he describes with all the different experiences he had. He had sunstroke at polks grave. How he almost got arrested. What i always think of in every single trip i have taken, whether my father and myself or my whole family, is that there is always a different aspect, different story. You are traveling to see a different part of the country. Sometimes youre going to have a good experience, sometimes it is not going to be as much. Everything is a new, different story. Brian the one gravesite that everyone has trouble getting to is the rockefeller gravesite. Kurt nelson rockefeller, Vice President for ford. Brian did you get there . Kurt yes, i did, in may of 2010. Brian how did you do it . Kurt as my father likes to describe it, it is an act of god. So, it is on the Rockefeller Family property in sleepy hollow, new york. Very limited access, but we were able to get to it through what my father described as an act of god, which was a gigantic tree fell and crushed the fence. It was a gigantic tree. My father actually had his picture taken with it for posterity. It adjoins a cemetery next door, where there are several notable people buried. Andrew carnegie, washington irving, Walter Chrysler. My father went to go scout out the best way to get the grave a week before i visited it. We had heard through channels that over the fence, Nelson Rockefellers grave was sort of near the Walter Chrysler mausoleum. My father saw where this gigantic tree had crossed the had crushed the fence and he went in and decided that he would have to get me there fairly quickly after that. We went the next week and i was able to get it. For clarification, my father abstained from going to a different Vice President ial burial site. He also went to Nelson Rockefellers but he did not go to henry wilson. Thats what sets me apart. Brian just for your benefit . So you could be the only one . Kurt it was not intentional at the time. I went there with my mother on the way to a Boston Red Sox game and afterwards it worked out that way. He decided to abstain from going to that one. Brian on your website, you have connections to other websites and there is a picture on there of a fella who is trying to climb the fence at the rockefeller, but he doesnt get in there. Kurt he did not. We were the only ones, we believe at this point, who were willing to go the extra mile. Im interning have an internship with the u. S. Capital historical society, and recently we put on a dinner honoring the house ways and means committee. I had a chance after the dinner to talk with the new Committee Chair paul ryan and i discussed how i was the one to possibly 66it only 66 visit all graves. It came up about rockefeller and he said, it is on private family property, how did you do it . I said that we had the connections. I didnt tell him that it was because the tree connected with the fence but semantics. Brian you have to be careful with the Vice President henry wilson because there are several cemeteries in the area. Kurt there are a few cemeteries on that street. Sometimes it is harder to find certain ones. The president s were all pretty easy. I dont think we had any problems finding a president ial burial site. Vice president s, at times. His is a very small, diminutive grave. It is not even the most prominent one in the plot. His son, next to him, has a better grave with a hat sculpted on top of it. Have skipped, that was probably of all the ones my father could have skipped, that was probably the one to skip. That would probably be my least favorite of the 66. Brian what do you think you have learned . Kurt i think i have learned about the president s as individuals, whether it be their own personal tastes about how they want to be remembered. Sometimes they didnt have a say. Sometimes president s died in office and a lot of those at the have the bigger, grander ones. Sometimes it is a look into how they want to be remembered and sometimes it is a look at how we wanted to or want to remember them. For example, i dont believe lincoln would have been ok with the gigantic monument he has in springfield today. Brian why not . Kurt it is beautiful from an architecture standpoint and whatnot, but i feel for his tastes, simple lincoln, it would have been too ostentatious in a sense. He wouldnt have wanted a memorial to him in that way. Brian let me read you a quote from a former teacher of yours that i found in an article on your website. This man is dennis mendez. And where was he your teacher . Kurt he was my anatomy teacher in 12th grade. Brian he said this is at the end of an article that was about you. Did your classmates see that . Kurt i dont know. It was a very small class. He has a great sense of humor. Brian why dont you reveal this hobby of yours quickly . Kurt sometimes it can put people off a little bit. They think, why do you want to go to cemeteries . Do you have some weird session with death or something or i am weird obsession with death or something or i am morbid in some way. Which im not. Even growing up, just being into history or being into that realm was really offputting for a lot of people my own age. I have a few my friends breanna and kelvis are into history. I now have a few friends who are into history. But it took a while to find people who appreciated or even tolerated having a friend who spent vacations going to cemeteries. Brian we have some video from wpri in rhode island. Set this up. But i want people to see the look on mrs. Clintons face when you walk up to her. What did you do leading up to this . Kurt she was there for a book signing for her book that came out last year. My father waited out overnight and i joined him in the morning. We went up. He was actually the very first person in line and i joined him. I showed her are we waiting to reveal that . Brian well wait to reveal that. Why does your dad do all this . How often has he stood in line for one of these things for you . Kurt twice. Once in april of 2005 when former president bill clinton came to providence. He waited out overnight on a cold street outside a bookstore. He waited out again when former secretary clinton. Brian why does he do it . Kurt he is doing it for me, so he wants me to have a better appearance. He does not want me to look on disheveled. He describes how we looked when we met former president clinton is probably like a homeless man. He wants me to be better, not have bags under my eyes. Be well rested at home. Brian lets watch this video, and i would suggest to our audience that they watch the face of hillary clinton. An unlikely face at the sams club of all places. Former secretary of state hillary clinton, the likely 2016 president ial contender, signed copies of her latest book for those waiting hours for some face time. Kurt my father got here last night and was the very first person in line. He has been here since midnight and hasnt slept for probably 26 hours. Deion, a 19yearold history major, also did something bold, handing clinton a card with a link to his website about his visits to every president ial and Vice President ial gravesite. The secretary was so amazed by the feat kurt she took one for her and one for former president clinton. Brian what did she say to you . Kurt she was amazed that i had been to all the president ial and Vice President ial burial sites, that my father had been willing to wait in line. I had mentioned to her that Richard Norton smith at sign the had signed the guestbook on my website and she obviously knew who he was. But the thing that really got her was the image that was on the back of my Business Card and that is when she said, oh my god. That was amazing. It was great to go home that day and see that there was the footage of the reaction to the image. Brian what is the image . Kurt the image on the back of my Business Card is probably the most important photo that i have been in in my whole life. It is a recreation with a super soaker for satirical purposes of the Pulitzer Prizewinning photograph of Lee Harvey Oswalds shooting by jack ruby. The reason why it is so important is that i am actually handcuffed in the image to james leavelle. In a few weeks, he will be 95 years old. He was the individual, for those familiar with the original picture, in the lightcolored suit, handcuffed to oswald. Brian that is your father in that picture . Kurt yes, dressed up as jack ruby with the super soaker. That is the exact same model hat. We were trying to be very accurate. My father has a bigger head, in more ways than one, probably. But its the exact same model hat. We were actually down there in texas to visit my last president ial burial site. That was april of 2012 which was my senior year in high school. I found out that mr. Leavelle was still alive and living in the area and he was also at pearl harbor when it was bombed. I decided that i needed to interview him for my website. The super soaker shot is actually an additional tackon to that. My father and i had been working on a Television Program for satirical purposes, because there are all these laws that why are they on the books . For example, it is illegal to go whaling in kansas. Kansas is landlocked. Nobody is going to go whaling there. I would be the more responsible person in this crew. Myself, my father, and our band of wacky friends, would go out to these different places and satirize these different laws, rules, and regulations that we dont think need to be taking up legislators time. Or be enforced or whatnot. We do it in the most absurd way possible, whether it be with props, costumes, etc. The reason behind that shot was because in 2012, at the Republican National convention in tampa, they wanted to ban guns in the surrounding area for safety purposes. However, for various circumstances, guns were not banned. However, the mayor of tampa then banned super soakers. But it was going to be ok to be carrying around a real gun, but supposedly you were going to get arrested if you were carrying around a super soaker, which we thought was a little bit absurd, so id already arranged with mr. Leavelle to go down and interview him during my senior year when we were down in texas. My father decided it was a onceinalifetime opportunity. What if we could get mr. Leavelle to recreate one of the most famous photographs in history with us and a super soaker . And even though mr. Leavelle is a gun rights advocate, he could still see the absurdity of arresting someone carrying a super soaker. He was willing to take that shot with us. Brian he didnt know you were going to do this. How did you get the photograph taken . Kurt my family, my mother and my sister, were supposed to come with us. My mother had gotten ill and they were unable to come with us, so we had to get a photographer, which was no easy task. But he was able to take the shot. Brian did you bring him with you in the room . Kurt what happened was, we had originally planned to interview mr. Leavelle, kind of have to warm up to us, and then give our request. However, because he had to switch days because he had a medical scare, and then our photographer we hired he said he would do it for free if mr. Leavelle sat for a portrait. He was nice enough to do that for us. But he had a commitment so we had to switch and do the super soaker photo first. We had to go in, meet mr. Leavelle and his wife, and go into the elevator pitch on scofflaws. The name of our satirical program. We had to do that right away and then to the interview after. We did the recreation and then our photographer left and my father set up the camera. We recorded. Brian heres an excerpt. It was a 55 minute interview. Kurt it was april, 2012. Brian lets watch a minute. Kurt mr. Leavelle here was handcuffed to Lee Harvey Oswald and oswald was then shot during the transfer by a local nightclub owner named jack ruby. The instance was captured and in the famous Pulitzer Prize winning photograph by robert jackson. Mr. Leavelle when i walked out, all of the flood lights came on. They blinded me temporarily, but i could look down underneath the lights. I could see from here down. Ruby was standing in the middle of that driveway with the pistol in his hand. I saw this. That is why i jerked back on him. That is the reason he was kind of hunched over. I was trying to pull him behind me. I didnt have any leverage. I just turned his body enough that instead of hitting him dead center, it hit him about four inches to the left. Brian the program scofflaws, can anybody see that . Kurt no, it is just a concept right now. We actually have a lot of photographs, other ones of us in wacky costumes Walking Around in providence that show a taste of what could be. We had a Production Company involved, didnt work out so we are working on finding another one. We have several episodes written up with different laws, rules, regulations. Brian is your dad as big a historian as you are . Kurt he is very much into history. I would say that going to the different sites with me really stepped it up for him. So, he is into history as well. Obviously, if he is willing to accompany me on all these travels. Hes big into world war ii history. Brian how many of these trips did you take where you had to go just to the grave site and back . What were the circumstances . If i read it right, there is only one year you dont have a stop, which is 2011 . 2003 all the way up till now. Kurt it is different each time. So, early on, when we started, it was more of just the gravesites. If there was an accompanying house or library, it was good that we did that well, but sometimes the other places would fall as casualties. Now, that is something we started going back later and redoing some of the things. Sometimes it was just grave, grave, grave, grave. I wanted to go and get the full experience. Early on, it was more just the graves. But we did, for example, in 2004, when i was nine, we did go to the lincolns house, which was a great experience because they actually invited us to put our hands on the railing as he we went up and use the actual railing that president lincoln used in the only house he ever owned. That is what is great about going to the places in addition to the burial sites. The places the president s lived and experienced themselves Walking Around the neighborhood in independence, missouri, just like harry truman used to do. Its great. Brian there are pictures on the website of all the stops, thomas jefferson, you say you squeezed through the gate. Brian the thing with the president ial grave visits is that, for the best picture, we think you have to get as close as possible. Some president ial graves, like calvin coolidges, you can just walk right up. Some, there are a few perimeters. I am reluctant sometimes. However, my father is a force of nature and he will egg me on. For jefferson, there is a gate there. I was young and thin enough at the time to slip through the bars of the cemetery and get to the obelisk and get a better shot. Brian jackson is one of the president s with a fence. Did that deter you . Kurt no, because my father pushed me to jump over the fence at jacksons. Of goke, and i can sort along with this you have to think about who the president is and what was their personality. At Lyndon Johnsons president ial burial site, the final one i visited at 17, it is the Johnson Family cemetery. They dont really let the public in there, but it is kind of far away picture wise, so we wanted to get a better photograph. We hopped over the wall and actually got yelled at by an employee there who we gave the seinfeldesque nickname of mowerguy. We got yelled at and told to leave. Which was kind of a damper on the 38th and at this moment final president ial burial site. Sometimes you need to hop the fence for the better picture. We can justify because we know that we are not desecrating it in any way. We not going to do the great any harm. Brian there was a situation at one of the gravesites where they were closing it and you convince convinced them to leave you in the cemetery and that you would get out some way. Kurt i had never been locked in a cemetery before. We went on this one 7day trip in april of 2010 that we called the michigan trip because our prime target was president fords grave. In that sevenday period, we got locked in three cemeteries. The cemetery Frederick Douglass is buried in. We got locked in Lexington Cemetery in kentucky where henry clay is buried. We were mainly getting Vice President breckenridge there. On the last leg of our trip, it was in paterson, new jersey, trying to get Vice President garret hobart, mckinleys first Vice President who died in office. The employee there was actually exporting escorting a family out and she was escorting them out because they were closing. My fathers point of view a lot of times is that we are here, we have to do it now. He convinced her son how to lock us in a cemetery and this was a cemetery that had a fairly high wall with barb wire on top. He said dont worry about us, we will get out. He parked our car half of the sidewalk outside and we went in. She didnt even know where garret hobarts cemetery site was. We found his and then my dad always says, you have to look for the weakest link. So we went around and we saw there was a point where the barbed wire that was keeping a thin was sagging and there was a tree. We climbed the tree, grabbed onto the branches, ourselves over and onto the outside. Brian what did your dad do for a living . Kurt he had his own business for a while. He was a toy dealer, dealing in a lot of nostalgic character items such as dick tracy. He would sell it to people who wanted to recapture their youths. The way back machine, a reference to one of his favorite shows from his childhood, sherman and peabody. Ebay actually kind of shut down his company because it kind of kills that way of life because no longer did they need middlemen. People could just sell their toys and collectibles on ebay. They could sell it directly, people could buy them directly, and it put demand way low and supply way high. Meanwhile, we have been working on Different Things such as scofflaws, and Additional Television idea we kind of put on the back burner, and we are also working on fake foam muscle arms. Just like the foam finger but muscle arms so you can have your hotdog at the game. Pump fakes, which is a double meaning. Working on that. Brian are there others in your family . Kurt my mother lynn and my sister olivia. Brian what does she think of all this . Kurt she doesnt really care for it, but she is a longsuffering sibling in that regard. I will give credit to her that she was willing to put up with visiting president ial burial sites on vacation. I remember there was one time that we were at James Buchanans grave in lancaster, pennsylvania, and my dad turned the camera on her. He said, would you rather be a James Buchanans grave or disney world . She said disney world and he said you are not normal. Brian you note that at the James Buchanan website, you went back again and found that they had improved the site. Kurt sometimes the surrounding areas arent as nice. The only one that was really that bad at the time of my first visit in july of 2005 was James Buchanan. His greater it was nice, but some of the surrounding grades were toppled over, not in good condition. It really wasnt in a good section of town either. I went back on a subsequent trip a couple of years ago. If it was nice to see that the area had improved a little bit. I dont want to see any graves toppled over. Brian martin buchanan, you said there was nobody there but you. Kurt Martin Van Buren. Brian i mean, Martin Van Buren. Kurt that would be probably even fewer people at martin buchanans grave. I have been there a few times and every time, nobody was at Martin Van Burens grave. It is kind of hidden away a little bit in kinderhook. Brian how Much Research did you do before going to each gravesite . Kurt a lot of them are not that difficult to find, especially in the age of the internet and books. It is not that difficult to find somebody as notable as a president. A lot of times, with the president s, there are signs. Vice president s are a bit more difficult. Brian it is not that unusual for young people sometimes to get into this history business. 15 years ago, we ran this video on our morning show. It is a young man and his father is taking the video of him. He is three and a half years old. I wanted to show you a little bit of what he was doing at the time. [video clip] can you tell them to me . Sometimes you say them kind of fast. You have to say that kind of slow and kind of loud. Can you say them loud and slow . George washington, john adams, jefferson, madison, John Quincy Adams, henry, harrison, tyler, paul, taylor, buchanan, lincoln, andrew johnson, harrison, mckinley, taylor, wilson, harding, hoover, franklin roosevelt, eisenhower, kennedy, lyndon johnson, ford, carter, reagan, bush, clinton. Brian could you do that now . Kurt yes, i could. Brian you are going to Bryant University . How many students . Kurt approximately 3600. Brian how many know about this now . Kurt i am part of a tightknit Community Organization called the commuter connection. There is about maybe 2530 regular members in that. At least 20 of them probably know that im into president ial history and president ial graves. Brian what if you changed your mind about in the history part of it . Kurt well brian are you political . kurt i am. I would say, a little bit. I tried to stay away from being political in my website. I think most people have political, philosophical opinions. I tried to stay away from it. When i have my facts on the website. Sometimes what i tried to do is more stay with the personal lives of the president s. How are they like us, how are they different . Versus some of their policies which may be more wellknown. Historywise, it is great to go to all the different homes and learn all of the different history aspects and put some of the information that i have learned their on my website. That is something i didnt have the website when i first started out when i was eight or nine. I put the website up in 2009, so i took greater appreciation and it was just easier being older. I had each visit when i went along to the different graves. And put it on the website and pay more attention to the historical aspects and the things that we learned of the different prices different places. Brian there is a picture of you at the Henry Wallace Vice President ial gravesite in des moines. What time was that . Kurt probably after midnight. Brian how cold was it . Kurt it was very cold. there was a point where i was literally thinking i was going to lose my hand. I had gloves on, but i was thinking this must be what frostbite is. It was a very interesting one. I have been to president ial greats at night. I have been to president ial graves in the snow. That was interesting. There was a snowstorm going on, a very intense snowstorm. We were driving down the highway when there were no lights on the highway. We couldnt see more than 10 feet in front of us. But then when we went by, you can see cars spun out on the side and we just kept plugging along. We went to the cemetery and i just wanted to drive by it. Turns out that the gate was open. It was supposed to be shut several hours before hand. We tried driving the rental car of one of the hill and we actually couldnt make it with the car and it started going down backwards fairly fast and we couldnt stop. We didnt know where the grave was situated, so to try and find it at the night when it was snowing was going to be tough. We went to the hotel, went on the computer, found out where the exact location was. We parked the car outside the cemetery and i think we got to the great after midnight and it was very cold. Brian in a number of pictures, you are wearing a tshirt with the president on the tshirt but it is not the same president. How many times did you buy the tshirts . Kurt the specific tshirt . Brian the different ones. I made note here you are wearing a Rutherford Hayes tshirt when you went to the william wheeler. Kurt that is just a coincidence that he was hayess Vice President. We get a bunch. I like to always come away with some kind of souvenir at a president ial home or library if i can. Shirts are big because it can promote what i into are interested in. The hayes shirt actually get a lot of comments. A lot more than you would think. Brian you say that the Ronald Reagan site is what do you . You made a note on your website. Kurt i think that the view from reagans grave is the best view of any president ial burial site. It is positioned looking out at simi valley and it is absolutely gorgeous there. He picked a very good location to have the library and to be buried. Brian the Richard Nixon website, you say has the best quote of any. Kurt is my favorite quote of all time is that the greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker, which is something i have tried to live by my life, not necessarily because nixon said it. Being a little political here, not necessarily the biggest nixon fan. But i think those are important words. Brian what about the James Garfield site . Kurt that is my favorite president ial burial site. I visit that in june of 2005 in cleveland. It is monstrous. 180 feet tall i believe in it has a giant marble statue. Stainedglass windows, chandeliers. He is not really even interred, he is in a crypt in the basement. He is the only president where you can see their actual coffin. He had mrs. Garfield are laid out and his ahs the American Flag on it but it is enclosed in a kind of cage. But we were actually able to get in there. Brian how many Vice President s have died in office . Kurt i believe perhaps seven or eight. Brian i think it is seven. You noted that Thomas Hendricks was the fifth. That was at the Crown Hill Cemetery in annapolis. What did you find that that cemetery . Kurt our main intent in going there with Benjamin Harrisons grave, which was my 15th president ial burial site. It just so happened there were three other Vice President s buried there. Hendrix, fairbanks, and marshall. And also do John Dillinger is buried there also. I wasnt actually intent on going to Vice President ial burial sites. It wasnt really until 2009 with Charles Curtiss grave when we were out in kansas that i decided that i might as well start doing all the Vice President s. I already have a lot of because there is a bit of overlap. Brian do you know anybody that has followed your website and tried to do the same thing . Kurt there are quite a few people who go to the president ial burial sites. Probably fewer who go to president s and Vice President s. I have had people who have contacted me who say they are doing the same thing. There are a couple people who are actually younger than i am who have not contacted me who have now contacted me saying, i am doing that to. Someone recently contacted me saying he has been to all of the president s. Brian there is a young lady, i believe about five years old, and her name is mason hensley. She appeared several times on the Ellen Degeneres show because she has a big interest in president s. Here is a video clip of this fiveyearold in may of this year at the Ronald Reagan library. [video clip] is this marine one . It smells like old people in here. [laughter] the oval office. Jfk. Can i play hide and seek . Sure. Surprise i heard there is an air force one plane here. Do you know who the first president was to fly on this airplane . No. Richard nixon. He lied about watergate. [laughter] is this an old computer . Brian what are some of the things you have learned about president s i going to the by going to the libraries and going to the birthplaces and the gravesites . Kurt again, with the president ial burial sites or Vice President ial burial sites, it is insight on may how they want to be remembered. With the different homes or libraries, you get to see how they lived, whether they were kind of thought of themselves may be more high and mighty or whether they were for example, Martin Van Buren was really into innovation and technology, something people dont necessarily know. As i went back on a tour not too long ago, they said that if you if he were around today he would have had the latest ipad. He was big on indoor plumbing and whatnot. He was big on technology for what it was at the time. Seeing the different artifacts, too. Sometimes you learn Different Things such as president trumans famous the buck stops here sign was made in a prison. Its about learning different fun facts may be different aspects of their lives. Brian i have something on the table something you give away to people. It says on here Kurt Alexander deion, bone up on history. And then was and then what does it say, gravehunter. Tv. Kurt i mentioned before the tv concept my father and i were presently working on. The first idea was gravehunter, where we would start at the grave site and maybe work backwards in their life. There were some aspects about it that i wasnt a fan of and one of the rare times that my father and i butted heads. Grave hunting is very personal to me and there were some things he wanted to tweak about it to make it more tvworthy that i wasnt a fan of. So i decided to put this on the back earner at least for now and pursue scofflaws instead. Brian a little bit of a close up here. There is a podium and you are standing behind it . Kurt that was actually at a gravestone. We had a photographer friend come with us, so that is at a burial site i believe it is in providence, rhode island. Brian there is a note on your website about a couple that often visited Hubert Humphreys grave site in minneapolis. They found a medallion on his grave site. Is that what this was . Kurt yes, it is. We have the coin, which was an aspect i liked, where it is tradition in certain cultures to leave something for example, in the jewish faith living a leaving a stone on the burial site. And sometimes people leave coins. One aspect that my dad introduced was that you should have your own coin. I liked that idea, so we have the coin and sometimes i leave it at more notable burial sites, like when i have gone back to a couple of the president graves subsequently. I subsequently left coins that al capones grave and that other ones. Sometimes, people take them. Brian do you always need a medallion . Kurt not always. We only had so many that we ordered. Brian how many did you order . Kurt i dont know. There was actually a whole big snafu situation. Maybe 100 or 200. I dont exactly recall. Brian how many did you have framed like this . Kurt three, actually four. There was that one. One was sent to Richard Norton smith. One was sent to the now treasurer of rhode island, seth magaziner. And the other was given indirectly to president bill clinton. Brian if someone says they want to do this, what would you warn them about . And how many total did you go to . Kurt 66 president ial and Vice President ial. As far as all the famous graves, probably over 300. I would say, be prepared to invest the time and the money. Sometimes, going on the trips if you have a rental car and are staying in hotels, you have to eat. It is going to cost some money. And time and patience because sometimes things are not going to go the way you intend for them to go. Sometimes you will get locked in cemeteries and you have to Call Security or you have to climb over the barbed wire. Brian what stories have we missed that were particularly interesting to you . Kurt i think what of the better one of the Better Stories was the time i met bill clinton. Thats a fantastic story. Again, my dad waited outside overnight holding my place. He was actually around eight in line at the time. In the morning, we met president bill clinton. It was a long wait in line. Once they started letting us in, it was a long wait. Brian i remember you said it was 10 30 a. M. That he was supposed to be there but he didnt get there. Kurt it was a long wait. I had a book to read, not to get him to sign it. He was only supposed to sign copies of his autobiography at. E time, my life i was 10 years old, april 2005, and i just want to read it. Several event employees kept coming up and said we have to take that book. He is not allowed to sign anything else. My father and i explained, we just want to read it in line. We are not going to ask president clinton to sign the book. Also, we werent allowed to take pictures. However, we skirted around that with a disposable camera, which president clinton was more than happy to oblige us with actually, two photos. Brian you have to tell the story how you got the camera in. Kurt i always try to be as honest as possible so he decided to sneak it in with me. Being that i was only 10 years old. When the secret service was talking to us, they acted by they asked if i had anything in my pockets and instinctively, i looked at my father and he knew exactly what i was going to do so he just looked away. Eventually, as we got farther in line, he took the camera from the head as he was introducing me to president clinton, he kind of snuck it out of his pocket and he is probably lucky he wasnt tasered or anything. What is my favorite part of this story is that they wanted to take away the book i was reading in line and that we were not going to ask president clinton to sign. After he already signed his copy of his autobiography and we were walking away, he asked, do you want me to sign your other book for you . All these people were saying is not going to sign his book and then he offers on his own. Honestly, he is the most charismatic person i have ever met. He puts his arm around you, says your name. It is exactly what you say, in that he makes you feel like youre the only person in the room. So charismatic. Brian what did you work on this summer at the Capitol Hill Historical Society . Kurt they have a fact a day calendar, where he stayed there where each a day there is an historical fact. Mainly i worked on the 1818 calendar. It is 1818 facts. It is set back 200 years. James monroe did this on this day, John Quincy Adams did this. That is mainly what i did. It has been great doing other projects. I am presently working with the ohio society of washington dc trying to get a marker at the assassination site of president garfield here in washington dc. It is the only one that isnt marked. Brian where is it . Kurt the building was at what is now the National Gallery of art. The exact spot is in the middle of constitution avenue there so we are looking to get something maybe on the sidewalk on the opposite side. It has been great to work not only on the calendar but on the other side projects. Brian what is your website address . Kurt kurtshistoricsites. Com. Brian what is your goal after you graduate . Kurt i have a lot of possibilities, i think. Im thinking of graduate school. Im also trying to pursue scofflaws. Maybe just some writing or traveling on my own as a job. I think there is a lot of possibilities in store. Brian kurt says he is the only person in america who has been to all president ial and Vice President ial gravesites. In spite of climing over the fence at the rockefeller gravesites. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] for free transcripts were to give us your comments about this program, visit us at q a. Org. Asgrams are also available cspan podcast. If you enjoy this weeks q a interview, here are some other programs you might like. Our 2014 interview with the with historian Richard Norton smith on his biography on his n