# Quote — Bill Bryson, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

> On April 3, 1956, according to news reports, a Mrs. Julia Chase of Hagerstown, Maryland, while on a tour of the White House, slipped away from her tour group and vanished into the heart of the building. For four and a half hours, Mrs. Chase, who was described later as “dishevelled, vague and not quite lucid,” wandered through the White House, setting small fires—five in all. That’s how tight security was in those days: a not-quite-lucid woman was able to roam unnoticed through the executive mansion for more than half a working day.

- Author: [Bill Bryson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson.md)
- Book: [The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson/the-life-and-times-of-the-thunderbolt-kid.md)
- Page: 62
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bill_Bryson#The_Life_And_Times_of_the_Thunderbolt_Kid_(2006)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson/the-life-and-times-of-the-thunderbolt-kid/on-april-3-1956

## More from this book

> He hit the water—impacted really is the word for it—at over six hundred miles an hour, with a report so loud that it made birds fly out of trees up to three miles away. At such a speed water effectively becomes a solid. I don’t believe Mr. Milton penetrated it at all, but just bounced off it about fifteen feet, limbs suddenly very loose, and then lay on top of it, still, like an autumn leaf, spinning gently.

p. 78 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson/the-life-and-times-of-the-thunderbolt-kid/he-hit-the.md)

> Nearly a quarter of American men were in the Armed forces [in 1968]. The rest were in school, in prison, or were George W. Bush.

p. 193 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson/the-life-and-times-of-the-thunderbolt-kid/nearly-a-quarter.md)

> The makers of sneakers also thoughtfully pocked the soles with numberless crevices, craters, chevrons, mazes, crop circles, and other rubbery hieroglyphs, so that when you stepped in a moist pile of dog shit, as you most assuredly did within three bounds of leaving the house, they provided additional absorbing hours of pastime while you cleaned them out with a stick, gagging quietly but oddly content.

p. 34 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson/the-life-and-times-of-the-thunderbolt-kid/the-makers-of-sneakers.md)