RUSH: There was a young girl on the phone Friday during Open Line Friday that, apparently, we didn’t get to. She’s 13. She was on hold for most of the program. Her name is Olivia. She’s in San Antonio, Texas. Olivia, first, I’m sorry you held on for so long Friday, but I’m very gratified that you did. I’m very grateful, and I’m glad you’re back here today. We got her number. Her parents graciously allowed us to call her back. So here you are, Olivia. Thank you so much. How are you doing?
CALLER: Good. How are you?
RUSH: I’m great. Great to have you, and it’s great to know that you’re out there.
CALLER: I just wanted to say, I love — well, my whole family loves — your Rush Revere series. We think that Liberty is our favorite character.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: We just love you and Liberty together. It’s hilarious, and my family went on a history trip in the fall, and we listened to your books, and then we went and saw the famous sites that you talked about in your books.
RUSH: You did? How long did that take you? Did you go to all of them? Did I understand you correctly?
CALLER: Yes. We went up the East Coast, and it took seven weeks.
RUSH: Seven weeks! You took a seven-week trip to visit every historical place we wrote about in the Rush Revere books?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Holy cow, seven weeks! Did you do them all back-to-back, or did you do a week here and then a week there? You just devoted seven weeks —
CALLER: We did them all back-to-back. We drove and drove and drove. (chuckles)
RUSH: I am… (chuckles) I’m floored. Tell me, how many in your family?
CALLER: Five of us went. My grandparents, my sister, my mom, and then me.
RUSH: Well, what did you think? Okay. So you’d listened. You said you listened to the books. You listened to the audio version or did you read them too?
CALLER: I haven’t read them. I listened to them.
RUSH: Okay. Well, that’s good because you get to hear me read them, and that’s as good as reading them. You can’t do better than that. So, what did you think of all those places? You heard about them in the books, and then you see them. Were your expectations met? Were you glad you did this?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Did you have a favorite place or a most meaningful place?
CALLER: I think I liked the… I actually got to stand on the spot where the Boston Massacre took place.
RUSH: Yeah, Boston. There’s so many spots in Boston that we wrote about. That’s the old church, the Revere locations. They’re just… I’m so happy that you did that. I’ve had some calls from people that went to a couple. They take a week here, a couple weeks there, go to certain places, but you did all of them — and your family with you. That is just above and beyond. You say your favorite character is Liberty.
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: Well, the whole Revere operation, we’ve got a whole goody bag full of exciting, really good stuff that somebody like you would love to have if you are that into these books, which is just great. (chuckles) I’m floored that you had the time, your family took the time to do this. We put a lot of time into writing these books, and we wanted to get them as historically accurate as possible.
You know, we believe, Olivia, that if more people actually knew — if they were taught — the really unique and great aspects of American history, that we wouldn’t have as many problems in the country as we have today because there wouldn’t be so many misunderstandings about what kind of country we are and what our founders intended it to be. So I’m just so moved (chuckles) to learn that you did this.
CALLER: We tell everyone about the books that we read. We tell them all about our history trip and we tell them about your books.
RUSH: Well, I can’t… That’s even better that you’re doing that. It’s too bad you didn’t have a stash of them to give away as you were telling everybody about them. Maybe we could do something about that. Look, Olivia, thank you so much. Now, don’t hang up, because we need to get a mailing address for you where we can send you the Liberty/Revere goody package and some other surprises in there. ‘Cause this is really above and beyond the call what you’ve done here. You’ve really gotten so into it. The reason we did this… You have epitomized the reason that we did these books.
CALLER: I would love that. Thank you so much.
RUSH: I can’t thank you enough, Olivia. Thank you so much. Remember, don’t hang up. A nice man, Mr. Snerdley, will be with you in mere moments to get your mailing address. Boy, folks, imagine! That kind of feedback… Pshew! Seven weeks to visit all the spots. Her family took her, five of them.
That’s just… Ah, it’s amazing. Flat-out amazing. Thank you again, Olivia and Olivia’s parents. They’re from San Antonio, Texas, and she was on hold. It was Open Line Friday. She was on hold a long time Friday, and I made the mistake of not getting to her. So she let us call her back.