What are the only three Constitutional qualifications to serve as President of the United States?

By JACK BAGLEY
didyouknowcolumn@gmail.com
I made it.
Fifty years ago this week, I stepped onto the stage at the Three Arts Theater in Columbus, Georgia, to accept my diploma as a graduate of William H. Spencer High School.
I was 16 years old and had no idea of what awaited me in the cold, cruel world I had been educated to face.  The years since then have had their ups and downs, and fortunately I am able to say that I’ve had far more ups than downs.
Those downs, however, were really low.
Nevertheless, I made it to my 50-year high school anniversary, with the attendant reunion coming up soon. And I know what I’m going to think when I meet up with the SHS Class of 1975, too:
“Where did all these old people come from?”
Whilst I get ready for the reunion, you enjoy some trivia, okay?
Did you know …
… Tide™ detergent is sometimes used as currency when purchasing illegal drugs? It has relative stability of value and is a recognizable brand, and is a favorite among those who indulge in heroin and crystal meth. It is so popular that some retailers now put alarms on packages of Tide to help prevent it being stolen. (What they do with it after they get it, I couldn’t tell you. I can guess what they don’t do with it, though.)
… statistically, the safest age of life is 10 years old? (Strange how it didn’t feel that way when I was 10.)
… you may be fatiloquent? No need to panic if you are, though. Fatiloquent is an archaic term for someone who is prophetic. (You might have foreseen this one.)
… one of the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church had been a member of the Hitler Youth? Pope Benedict XVI (born Joseph Ratzinger, 1927-2022) was conscripted into the Hitlerjugend, the Nazi boys’ youth group in 1941, when he was 14. His family members were bitter opponents of the Nazis, but the law in Germany at the time was that all young men at age 14 had to join the Hitler Youth. (Girls joined the Bund Deutshcer Madel, or German Girls’ League.) Ratzinger refused to attend meetings of the organization, and later was drafted into the German army during the waning days of World War II.
… humans share 50% of their DNA with bananas? (Which makes a monkey out of me.)
… the popular tourist attraction in Rome, the Colosseum, was commissioned in the first century AD? Roman Emperor Vespasian (9 AD-79 AD) gave the go-ahead for the massive stadium, though he did not live to see it in use. The Colosseum opened in 80 AD, during the first year of rule by his son, Titus (39 AD-81 AD). (Let the games begin!)
… a person only has to meet three constitutional qualifications to be elected president? In Article II, Section 1, paragraph 5 of the Constitution, it is set forth that a person seeking to serve as President of the United States must be: at least 35 years old; a natural-born citizen of the United States; a resident of the United States for the previous 14 years. That’s it. And the second qualification was, of necessity, waived for eight of the first nine men to hold the office, because there wasn’t a United States for them to have been a natural citizen of at the time of their birth. Additional trivia note: the first man to serve as president who qualified under all three constitutional qualifications was Martin Van Buren (1782-1862), eighth president. The first seven, along with the ninth (William Henry Harrison, 1773-1841), were all born in the British American colonies.
… during the Cold War, America used bears to test ejection seats in supersonic jets? (They could bear the stress, it seems. I’ll show myself out.)
… a tortoise adopted by naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882) outlived him just a little bit? Darwin brought back a tortoise he named Harriet from the Galapagos Islands, where he began formulating his Theory of Evolution. Harriet passed away in 2006 at the age of 176 years, having outlived her original owner by 124 years. (They even age slowly.)
… a term exists for a duel that takes place between three people? It’s called a truel. (And that’s the truel-th.)
… you spend a lot of time at red lights? According to the National Association of City Transportation Officials, the average person spends six months of their life waiting for red lights to turn green. (Changing that statistic makes you a target for traffic cops.)
… you may know a colporteur? You might even be one yourself and not know it. A colporteur is a person who sells books, newspapers, or other literature. The term is used most (when it’s used at all) to describe someone selling religious literature. (Funny how plain old “bookseller” works for most of us.)
… the man who invented the saxophone didn’t stop there? Adolphe Sax (1814-1894) also invented the saxotromba, the saxhorn, and the saxtuba. He himself played the flute and the clarinet. (And, presumably, the sax-whatever.)
… Vermont was the first state admitted to the United States? Sure, you know all about the original 13 colonies which became states, but once the Revolutionary War was settled and American independence was recognized, the first state to be added to the newly-independent United States of America was Vermont, which became the 14th state in 1791.
… waterbeds used to be a major thing? According to Mental Floss, in 1988 about 15% of U.S. households had waterbeds. The industry made $2 billion annually. Their popularity fell off sharply around the turn of the 21st Century, but you can still find them. (You know what a waterbed in my house would be called? The Dead Sea.)
Now … you know!
Copyright © 2025 Jack Bagley