The 2017-2018 lineup, back in 2009.

I remember a time when we didn't have any living ex-presidents.

I was a kid, and, in quick order, Eisenhower (March 1969), Truman (December 1972) and LBJ (January 1973) all died. Obviously JFK and FDR were dead, too, and the dudes before FDR (Hoover: 1964; Coolidge: 1933), so we were left with no living ex-presidents, just one living president: President Fucking Nixon. 

Then our roster of exes began to grow:

• 1974: Nixon
• 1977: Ford
• 1981: Carter
• 1989: Reagan
• 1993: H.W. Bush

At this point we had five. In ‘94, Nixon took the dirt nap. That left four. But in 2001, we added Clinton to bring the team back to five.  

During W.’s terms we lost two more: Reagan in 2004 and Ford in 2006. That left us with three:

Carter, H.W. Bush, Clinton

W. was added in 2009, Obama in 2017, and H.W. left us at the tail end of last year. The current roster:

Carter, Clinton, W. Bush, Obama

What's startling is that since that moment when I was 10 when we had no ex-presidents, no Democratic ex-president has died. Meaning the roster of exes is mostly Dems. 

And in the news today?

Trump just claimed that former PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES have privately told him that he's doing things they should have done re: the border. Seems highly unlikely this ever happened and should be pretty easy to verify.

— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) January 4, 2019

As it was. Another lie. Shocking. 

Anyway, it's nice to have ex-presidents. I hope we get to add to the list soon. Like this year. Or this month. Or this week. Or yesterday.