Compare And Contrast Essay On Gerald Ford And The 70's

"Do you know anything about Gerald Ford? I need to write an essay for school," I, a fifth grader at the time, asked my Grandmother.
Take a seat," she excitedly replied. Her blue eyes lit up and she spilled forth information; she paused only to breathe, then to allow me to write, and she'd begin again, " He ran in the presidential election against Jimmy Carter in 1976..."
This just began the introduction of a five hour discussion regarding Gerald Ford, and the 70's. The conversation started with the election between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, but morphed to a lengthy explanation of why she didn't vote for Ford, but rather why she voted for Carter. Then she moved to 70's culture, and the after effects of Carter, why Ford was popular, and then
She drove us to her mother's old house, now an office with the original front facing window and old stone covering the outside walls, and told me about her mother taking her to the elementary school in Tuba City on the Hopi Reservation where she worked as a teacher. She explained how she found her interest in reading and learning through her mother's books in the classroom - and explained the "who, what, when, where, and why" of every question. She told of the five Babbitt brothers who founded Flagstaff, which Verkamp sister each married, which of the five brothers is my great-great-great grandfather - David Babbitt - why they came from Cincinnati, Ohio to Arizona, which of her mother's sisters stayed in Flagstaff, left, and where they went. She showed me her mother and father's lives through pictures, and learning the history of my hometown and asking about it was (and still is) an interesting subject I can learn, as well as wishing to learn further about the traditional school subjects than the little extent of material provided to me during elementary