In eighteen days a load of folks on a tour bus can see and experience many things: an Irish pub in Omaha; Truman Library in Independence, MO; the Arch and the Budweiser Brewery in St. Louis; the Hermitage (Andrew Jackson’s home) and Nashville city tour; Stone Mountain in Atlanta; Pres. Carter National Historic Site in Plains, GA; Georgia Agrirama; Disney World; MGM Studios; Epcot Center; Sea World; Arabian Knights dinner theater; Kennedy Space Center; Dayton Beach Speedway; St. Augustine with its museums, old buildings, Spanish fort, museums, and Fountain of Youth; Great Smoky Mountains; Ripley’s Aquarium in Pigeon Forge, TN; Black Bear Jamboree; John Deere plant tour in Moline, IL; Redlin Art Center in Watertown, SD; etc.
Historical sites always rest highest on my list of attractions. I believe our stop at the Truman Library was my fourth, but each time I see and remember something different. This time it was the brief, simple note in a display case which Truman hand wrote approving of the use of the atom bomb. I confess to feeling a bit emotionally overwhelmed and had to linger in front of that world-changing decision scrawled on a yellowing piece of paper; such a simply worded note had unleashed so much destructive power. With each visit, I find humor with his mother-in-law’s thinking that Truman was not good enough for her daughter to marry.
Truman’s humble beginnings are matched by Jimmy Carter’s. A tour of his boyhood farm home and the town where he was raised proves that point to me. And, even after rising to the top, he has never forgotten his roots since he still resides in Plains. Local residents told us he spends 75-80 percent of his time there and said the day before our arrival he had ridden his bicycle downtown to eat lunch. He was scheduled to teach Sunday school the next day. I kept looking down the street hoping he would ride in again.
I got an entirely different feeling at Andrew Jackson’s home. While I have little or no knowledge of Jackson’s boyhood beginnings, the Hermitage and its grounds spoke of wealth. In a history book, I found this passage regarding him, “Jackson was a land speculator, merchant, slave trader, and the most aggressive enemy of the Indians in early American history.”
The same author, Howard Zinn, also said, “Jackson was the first President to master the liberal rhetoric — to speak for the common man.” At any rate, he did permit the burial of his favorite slave near, but not in, the Jackson family plot.
(Florida trip - part 3 to follow)
