Friday Smiles 343: Back to the Eisenhower Museum

It's Friday and time once again to join Annie (at A Stitch in Time) and the ladies at Friday Smiles.  I definitely won't be around next Friday because it's the first day of the month, and it's also the start of Art Every Day Month, or AEDM.  This will be my eighth year I have joined this daily event.  Although I normally post every day, I make an effort to create as much art as possible during November every year.

Let's head back to the museum.  We have already seen the introductory gallery, which is where we were last week.  We have yet to see the changing exhibits gallery, the First Lady's gallery, the military gallery, and the presidential gallery.   This week we begin with the changing exhibits gallery.

Eisenhower was quite proud of the fact that he was from the heartland.   As the image shows, he not only came from the heart of America, he also defined it.  Here he is shown at age 16.

Various buildings and places around Abilene, Kansas where he was raised.

The irony is, he wasn't born in Abilene, nor did he die here.  Still, he identified with Abilene and called it his home.

I wish I could have gotten closer, but there were tons of people reading every word and not moving out of the way.

I told everyone I knew I had seen that photo of the family before when I saw it in the Eisenhower home.  You will see it a lot this week!

It's time to meet the brothers.  You can see they were all accomplished in their own right.

The story goes (part of the orientation film) that Ike was a nickname shared by all of the Eisenhower boys.  Edgar, the second born, was “Big Ike” and Dwight, the third born, was “Little Ike.” However, “Little Ike” was the only one of the brothers still using the nickname as an adult.

When it came time for the young men to attend college, “Big Ike” and “Little Ike” created a pact. Because there wasn’t enough money for both to go to college, they would work as a team, alternating years in college with years working so that both could complete their degrees.  Later we'll learn how the plan got derailed.  It was too bad Edgar didn't care for Ike's presidency.

If you are like me and come from a very small town, you can relate to what Ike said: 

It was a good, secure small-town life, and that we wanted for luxuries didn't occur to any of us.

You saw this bible in the boyhood home.  I skimmed it and thought the page was open to Ike's birth.  Not so.  It was open to Paul, the fifth son, who died when he was 10 months old.

I learned that Ida had been orphaned, but came into a small inheritance, which allowed her to attend college, where she met David.  She was also an accomplished pianist.

I also learned that Ike's first name at birth was David, after his father.  Because it was confusing to have two Davids in the household, and Ida didn’t want anyone mistakenly calling her son “junior,” she switched his first and middle names. While we and the world know him as Dwight David, his original birth name of David Dwight remains in both the Eisenhower family Bible and his high school yearbook.

Roy was the fourth born, but I got the photos out of order when I was trying to reach over or between others who were reading the information, too.

Earl was the sixth born and apparently did quite well for himself.

Although Ike said Milton had the brains, I also believe he had the conscience and the moral fortitude, too.  I can see why they were so close and why Milton was also able to work with both Kennedy and Johnson, who were democrats. 

 
I had to wait until the people reading the information were finally gone, to read the fascinating story of prejudice that Ike dispelled. The story goes that Ike attended integrated schools, but when some of his football teammates refused to line up opposite a visiting African American player, Eisenhower volunteered for the position, and shook the player's hand after the game. As a boy from the wrong side of Abilene's class-dividing tracks, Ike knew the minimizing indecencies of prejudice all too well.  This trait served him well his entire life.  As president, he worked hard to desegregate the nation’s capital and fulfilled his predecessor Harry Truman’s order to desegregate the military.   To his credit, Ike made substantial progress in the area of civil rights, more so than any individual president since Abraham Lincoln.  But all that will come later in life!

I think it's a good place to stop.  Remember, I will not be here next Friday, but hope to join you most of November.

I hope you are enjoying this museum as much as I.  Now let's see what others are smiling about this Friday.  Please don't forget to start your weekend off right by visiting Annie for a few Friday Smiles.  We would love to have you join us, too.