Dick cleverly suggested that we set our clocks ahead before
we went to bed last night so that when we got up on Central time, the clock
said 7:00 not 6:00 as we then drove 60 miles to get to Kansas and the Central
time zone. Today focused on a long drive
across the state of Kansas. We drove
nearly another 500 miles and enjoyed the easy driving now on Interstate
70. As we drove we watched the land
change from the arid grasslands of Eastern Colorado and Western Kansas to
irrigated farmlands to rolling green hills of Central Kansas. We passed from what had been the native
short-grass prairies to the native tall-grass prairies. The tall-grass prairies, often over 6’ high,
were almost totally plowed under by the early white settlers. Dick is
fascinated by the change of the land and the countryside and what was possible
for people because of the differences in land.
Our first stop midafternoon was at the first of our
Presidential Libraries….this is one of our new themes or projects. Over the years we have done a number of
these: visiting all 21 of the California Missions, finding the former Japanese-American
Internment Camps, All of the Bridges of Madison County (Iowa), and we traveled
to all 50 states. We don’t believe that
“if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.”
We have now set a goal to visit all of the US Presidential
Libraries, around 13 of them in the country.
Last summer we made it to the Lincoln Library in Springfield IL. Why visit these libraries? It can be best summed up by a quote from a
book Patti found about a guy who went to all of these museums in two months,
David Cross. (We are reading about his experiences with each library as we are driving to them). He wrote:
“I took a journey to visit each of the Presidential
Libraries, not because I am a historian, but because I am an American.”
Today we visited the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library and Museum
in Abilene, Kansas. Eisenhower was the
Commanding General of not only the US forces but all of the Allied forces in
Europe in World War II. He was president
for 8 years from 1952-1960. The museum
had a huge focus on the history of World War II, but not glorifying his role,
rather that of so many, from so many different countries, who worked together
to defeat Hitler.
Patti was especially
touched by the section focused on what had happened in Denmark with the Nazi
occupation. There was a great little
photo of Danish soldiers guarding a building that, after the Nazi had left, was
“closed due to happiness.” Indeed. We were again struck by what it would be like
to have your home, city or country filled with enemy soldiers. We know that many people around the world do not have to imagine what this would be like, but have lived it.
The museum also focused on what was happening in the country
during the 1950’s. It was a time mostly
of peace, and prosperity for the US, as well as a time of change. Eisenhower was a military guy through and
through, one of the very few 5 star generals in the US Army. He was big on giving and enforcing
orders. He was also a man of his
times. So that while many Civil Rights
advances and battles happened during his presidency, he was more of an enforcer
rather than providing moral leadership.
We will be visiting both the Civil Right sites in Topeka KS, following
the Brown V Board of Education (which established that "separate but equal"
education doesn’t fly here), and the site of the Little Rock 9 in Arkansas
where Eisenhower sent in the National Guard to allow the black children to
attend the formerly all-white schools.
So we will learn much more about these events that happened during “The Eisenhower
Years.”
He was a popular president who then seemed to go out of
fashion, as dull and uninspiring, especially as compared to John F. Kennedy.
When he was running for office, his campaign slogan was “I like Ike” (referring
to his nickname).
In several places Eisenhower was referred to as a “decent
man.” And we remarked that the country
could use a few more decent men (or women) as leaders.
The second stop, about an hour down the road, was The Oz Museum
in Wamego, KS. This was dedicated to all
things OZ. Not too many genuine
artifacts from the movie, but lots of fun photos opportunities. We learned some
fascinating things about the author, L. Frank Baum, but also lots of trivia
about making the movie and all of the actors and participants. Dick especially enjoyed the looping version
of the movie playing in a little movie theatre in the back. We got to see Dorothy throw the water on the
Wicked Witch of the West….Classic! After the Wizard of Oz book came out in 1900, and was so popular that the public demanded more. Baum wrote 13 more books in that series. It was the Harry Potter book series of his
time. Baum married a woman whose mother was a major Women’s Right’s leader,
Matilda Jocelyn Gage. Some say that
Dorothy was the first popular feminist movie hero. All in all, kind of a cheesy
place, but for sure worth a stop.
Next door to the museum was Toto’s Tacoz.
You had to drive on the "Road to Oz Highway" to get to the town. They
pumped the Kansas connection with the Wizard of Oz for all it’s worth. There is
even a little Yellow Brick Road pathway leading to a restaurant.We felt that we had a real visit to the Land of OZ, and then returned back to Kansas because "There's no place like home."
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