Friday Smiles 371: Another trip to the Eisenhower Museum

This is the post I had ready to publish last week before I pulled the plug on it due to my getting sick.  I'm sharing it in its entirety below.  I'll be by to visit everyone but it may take me awhile, since I'm still not able to sit too long at the computer. 

Today we're heading back to the Eisenhower Museum.  Let's join Annie (at A Stitch in Time) and the wonderful ladies at Friday Smiles and discover more of the museum.

Gosh, it's been so long I've forgotten where we left off.  Mamie and Ike are now in Paris where he was assigned to General John J. Pershing’s Battle Monuments Commission.

Ike's job was to create a guide to the American WWI battlefields in Europe. It was a complete history, battle by battle, of the American war on the western front.  Above are memorabilia from the time they spent in Paris.

When the job was completed, Ike was the best informed officer in the Army on strategy and battle tactics.

I'm sure you can read that Mamie was influential in the decision to move to Paris.

While in Paris, the two enjoyed touring Europe and learning about other cultures.  Ike, Mamie, and John (their son) enjoyed their time there.

Ike set out to explore Paris on foot. After three months of daily instruction, he became proficient at reading and writing French, but the spoken word eluded him.

As you can see, Ike was assigned to the American Battle Monuments Commission under General Pershing. It was during this time he produced a guide to American battlefields in Europe.

It's hard to read, but this shows how Ike and Mamie took a plush apartment about a mile from the Eiffel Tower.  The apartment was on the 1st floor or the 2nd floor as we in the states call it.  The Eisenhowers soon became the social center for their friends in Paris and guests visiting France. Because of exchange rates, Paris was then very inexpensive for Americans, and the apartment was far more elegant than the Eisenhowers could have afforded on his salary in the states.

Ike developed an M-Day Plan unlike any that had been created before.  This one was for American industry to follow in case of war.

Ike, Mamie, and John in Paris.

Upon his return to the states, Ike was assigned to the Office of Assistant Secretary of War, where, as mentioned above, he prepared plans for the mobilization of American industry and manpower in case of a future war.

In 1933, Ike graduated from the Army Industrial College first of 245 in his class.

Once again, back home, Mamie made their apartment in The Wyoming, a place for people to visit.  Mamie's father helped them financially during the depression, as you can read.

In 1929, while helping General Pershing compile his memoirs, Ike met MacArthur.  It was during this time that Ike became General MacArthur's personal assistant.  

A few items were shown side by side, but several years apart, such as the farewell dinner given to Ike and Mamie when they left Paris.

Directly next to it is the invitation to attend a garden party at the White House in 1935.

And next to that shows where Ike worked with MacArthur to train and equip the Philippine Military and won a distinguished service award in 1939.

Ike went to the Philippines with MacArthur to help the Filipino Army in their fight for independence.  Mamie stayed home in Denver with her parents for a year.  Although she eventually joined Ike, Mamie disliked the Philippines’ paternalistic culture, despite her Victorian values.

Ike carried this bamboo house

back to the states when he returned from the Philippines.  Per the sign above, he gave it to Mamie as a reminder of their time in Manila.

We've covered many years, 12 in fact, in this latest visit to the museum.  I think it's a good time to let you go for this week.  Some of you will be saying YES, others I believe will enjoy this museum as much as I have.

And finally, here are a few Friday Funnies:

A policeman pulled a female driver over and asked to see her license.

After looking it over, he said to her, “Lady, it stipulates here on your license that you should be wearing glasses.”

“Well, I have contacts,” the woman replied.

“Look lady, I don’t care who you know,” snapped the officer. “You’re getting a ticket.”

Little 2 1/2-year-old Kelli went with a neighbor girl to church for First Communion practice. To demonstrate the process, the pastor has the children cup their hands, and when he gives them the “Host” (in this case, a piece of bread) he says: “God be with you.”

Apparently this made quite an impression on Kelli. She came home and told her mother to cup her hands and bend down. Kelli tore a piece of bread from her sandwich, placed it in her mother’s hands, and whispered, in her most angelic voice: “God will get you.”


And since so many of you seem to love Dr. Seuss, what would happen if Dr. Seuss wrote technical manuals?

If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
And the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
And the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
Then the socket packet pocket has an error to report!

If your cursor finds a menu item followed by a dash,
And the double-clicking icons put your window in the trash,
And your data is corrupted ’cause the index doesn’t hash,
Then your situation’s hopeless, and your system’s gonna crash!

If the label on your cable on the gable at your house,
Says the network is connected to the button on your mouse,
But your packets want to tunnel to another protocol,
That’s repeatedly rejected by the printer down the hall.

And your screen is all distorted by the side effects of gauss,
So your icons in the window are as wavy as a souse,
Then you may as well reboot and go out with a bang,
‘Cause as sure as I’m a poet, the sucker’s gonna hang!

When the copy of your floppy’s getting sloppy on the disk,
And the microcode instructions cause unnecessary RISC,
Then you have to flash your memory and you’ll want to RAM your ROM,
Quickly turn off your computer and be sure to tell your mom!

Thanks so much for visiting today.  Now let's head over to Annie's to 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. She will welcome you just as she did me many years ago.