I wanted to share something interesting with anyone who happens upon my website. My father, John Collison, was an actor and playwright. One of his outstanding creations was a one man show in which he played Abraham Lincoln on the last night of his life. In 1961, when plans were made to reenact Lincoln's first inaugural, my dad was selected to play Lincoln. Since I was about the right age, I was chosen to play Tad Lincoln. If you look very closely at the following newsreel clip, you will see me at age 12. Look at the seconds counter on the bottom of the screen. The clip is 1 minute and 14 seconds long; at one minute and 7 seconds if you pause the clip you can see me in the background just to the left of the furthest left person on the inaugural stand. I'm the gawky kid with the long black 1861 period coat and the bowl haircut. It was a very exciting day; about 20,000 folks attended the 1961 reenactment, about twice that number who were there in 1861. The other two highlights: meeting the great American poet, Carl Sandberg and seeing my first color television!

When my son, Gabriel and I attended Barack Obama's inauguration all the memories of that day 48 years ago came flooding back to me. My son is about the same age I was then; I hope his memories will be as special as mine are.

Thanks to my brother Dan Collison (http://www.longhaulpro.org/) for finding this clip and posting it on you tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX5gc71Ua6s