When we heard of the death of Florence Green, the final surviving veteran of World War I, many people stopped and thought about the old people who are our living links to history. Robert Krulwich at NPR has a list of people and stories that span a lot of years, like the guy he met in 1973 who recalled living near Rasputin, the mad monk of Imperial Russia.
Other stories involve an eyewitness to the Lincoln assassination who appeared on television, Civil War widows who saw the 21st century, and the man who met both President John Quincy Adams and President John Kennedy. Link -via Breakfast Links
How could somebody talking to me in a diner on 7th Avenue have also talked to somebody that ancient? It just didn't seem possible. Yet the old guy said, "Rasputin and my dad were friends. He used to come over for tea."
I thought about it. Rasputin was assassinated in 1916. A 70-year-old man in 1973 would have been 13 when Rasputin was alive. It was not inconceivable that this guy had actually met Rasputin.
Other stories involve an eyewitness to the Lincoln assassination who appeared on television, Civil War widows who saw the 21st century, and the man who met both President John Quincy Adams and President John Kennedy. Link -via Breakfast Links
For example the number of people who will tell you that they saw The Who play at Leeds University on the 14th of February 1970 far exceeds the capacity of the hall where the gig took place.
Likewise 26,000 people saw Llanelli beat the All Blacks on the 31st of October 1972, but several times that number of Welshmen will tell you they were there.
http://lisawallerrogers.wordpress.com/2009/10/18/queen-elizabeth-with-12-u-s-presidents/
This man had lived quite a life...considering he was a small-town Illinois farmer.