Tippe Point

I noticed recently at Sangediver's house that the run of U.S. Presidential dollar coins has made it at least as far as John Tyler. His wife (Sangediver's, not John Tyler's) is a bit of a presidential trivia buff, and I asked her, "he's the one that filled in for William Henry Harrison, right?" (Harrison being the president who famously died after only a month in office.)

But even before she could answer, I remembered that I actually knew the answer thanks to my grandfather. On a few scattered occasions, I'd heard him mention "Tippecanoe and Tyler too." It wasn't like a catch phrase or anything, but it's an oddball enough thing that it sticks in your mind, you know? I suppose at the time, I might have thought is was some lyric to an older song I'd never heard, but I once was curious enough to research it and learn the true origin. Yes, it was a song... but it was actually the campaign song for President Harrison (hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe) and his running mate, John Tyler.

This was in 1840, by the way. This means that even if my grandfather heard this bizarre "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" phrase from his grandfather, there's no way that he was actually around to have heard it at the time, either. Just how many generations did this pass through to get to me? What do you suppose the guy who wrote it would have thought to know that his little jingle was still going to be known (if not widely) nearly two centuries later?

And perhaps most importantly of all: why is any of this taking up space in my brain?