FIFTY years ago, this was Jerry Ford’s week. Richard Nixon had resigned as president, and Chief Justice Warren Burger came rushing from The Hague to Washington. He interrupted his vacation in Holland to install a new president. Gerald Ford. Jerry. The president from Durgerdam.
Ford was a descendant of the Vanderburgh and Janszen families nicknamed Schubber, fish cleaners at Durgerdam, a coastal village near Amsterdam. His family tree is filled with cozy Dutch names: Van Kleeck, Ter Bosch, Buys, Lubbertse, Gardenier. Mama Ford’s name was Dorothy Gardner. She ran away from her husband two weeks after giving birth because he said he wanted to stab her and the baby with a knife.
Jerry grew up as Lesley King, father’s name, but he later changed it to the name of the stepfather who raised him, the man Dorothy remarried. Gerald Ford.
“Finally our long national nightmare is over,” Ford said as soon as he was sworn in, referring to the Watergate scandals. He was right.
Today is not the first time America is divided. It was then as well, and it was high time for someone to get things back together. Ford turned out to be the lifesaver, a Hans Brinker. He put a finger in the dike before it could break. Jerry Ford from Durgerdam saved the dam. And America calmed down.
