When I met Zach Hoke — two presidents ago — he was just getting over a presidential disappointment.
It was 2007, the POTUS was visiting Omaha, and the third-grader and his dad, Eric, were going to meet him.
“I still remember that,†the high school senior said last week. “It was really overwhelming to be able to think, ‘Oh, my god, I’m going to meet the president face to face.’â€
Then, the night before the big day, the phone rang at dinnertime
Tacos, as Zach recalls.
George W. Bush’s plans changed, and Zach, a boy who had a thing for our country’s leaders, got axed from the list.
“It was like, ‘Wow. That’s a slap in the face, and then life goes on.’â€
Life went on through Mickle Middle School and Lincoln Northeast High School and soon, the journey will continue at Nebraska Wesleyan University, where Zach will study history.
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I looked Zach up in honor of Presidents Day 2017. I wanted to see what had become of an 8-year-old who went trick-or-treating as Abraham Lincoln and loved George Washington and had an affinity for Zachary Taylor — for reasons that should be clear to anyone who understands the mind of a third-grader.
I tracked him down through his dad, who had also been invited to meet the president that day nearly a decade ago, and did end up driving a support vehicle filled with Secret Service agents through Omaha to the health clinic where Bush-the-Younger had a date to read to children. (Zach was deleted from the list because the president’s people decided he would meet only with pediatric patients and Zach was just a random kid.)
But his son never wavered in his love for presidents, Eric said.
Zach’s mom agreed.
“Ask him a question about who was president when or whatever and he knows,†said Kim Hoke. “He watches the news — world news and current stuff going on. He’s kept up with all the presidential stuff lately.â€
I met Zach at home last week, his presidential library on the dining room table. A stack of 50-page books on American leaders, from George Washington to JFK to Richard Nixon.
Folders filled with commemorative presidential coins and a letter from William Jefferson Clinton and a packet of photos from No. 43 — George and Laura and the twins, Barney the Scottish terrier, along with a box of Air Force One M&Ms, still unopened.
There are more books, one of them aimed at a more middle school Zach: “Chasing Lincoln’s Killer.â€
“Every book report I have to do, I do that,†he says.
Zach’s mom isn’t sure how her son developed such an affinity for presidents, but she remembers his middle school trip to Washington, D.C., with his classmates.
“He said it was his best vacation ever.â€
Zach isn’t a one-trick presidential pony. He played tennis through high school. He loves Husker sports and every single Boston professional team. He’s into woodworking — tables and benches and bowls — and he helped build two houses as part of a construction class at Northeast.
He loves history in general, too, from the Middle Ages to the Black Plague to the Revolutionary War to the Emancipation Proclamation to the Civil Rights Movement.
He’s not sure what historical niche he’ll gravitate toward in college; maybe he’ll be a history teacher. It’s too soon to know.
As far as presidential trivia goes, he can tell you George Clooney and Tom Hanks are distant relatives of Abraham Lincoln (his favorite president). And that doctors tried to cure an ailing George Washington by draining his blood (“Probably didn’t help GW muchâ€). And that Teddy Roosevelt was the first president to leave the country during his term. (He visited the Panama Canal.)
He can also tell you he thought Barack Obama was a pretty good president and that he’s not as sure about his successor. (“That’s a different story.â€)
America celebrates Presidents Day on Monday.
Ten years ago, the kid who dressed up as Honest Abe on Halloween got the day off from school to commemorate the holiday.
He still does. He'll get the day off from his classes at Northeast, a final semester, which includes, fittingly enough, a class on government and politics.
And he might find a way to celebrate; maybe a documentary or two on Netflix.
He watched a good one the other day, Zach says.
“It was called something like, ‘How to become president of the United States.’â€
A job for which the 17-year-old fan of presidents has no interest.