I like Ike... and Mamie too

Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower's farm is in Gettysburg, PA-- about a mile away from me as the crow flies.  Wanting to be a good neighbor, I thought I'd drop in this morning to give my Christmas greetings.

I would have liked to just walk over the field to their house, but with security as it is these days I thought I better take the shuttle bus like everyone else.  That meant I had to drive to the Gettysburg Battlefield Visitor's Center.  Here I go across the battlefield to get there...

When I got there I found that the Green Police had been busy.  I've never seen signs like this before.  Seriously?  I felt discriminated against.  I didn't think it was illegal to drive a car that runs on gas.

Some of  you may remember that Abe Lincoln visited Gettysburg, but he didn't have a Gettysburg address like Ike did (so to speak).

My friend, Joy, and I bought our tickets and hopped onto the shuttle to go back out to the farm.  We drove up the lane which is flanked by trees which were originally from each of the 50 states. This is how the entrance looked last summer.

We pulled up to the site to see the green/gray barn.  Ike himself mixed the unique color of paint.  You'd think he'd be sick of green after all those years in the army, but maybe he was comfortable with that.

Ike had been stationed at Camp Colt in Gettysburg in his early years and had fond memories of the area.  He bought the farm here in 1950 to have a place to spend his retirement.  General Eisenhower was one of very few 5-star generals the country has had, and he didn't realize at the time that he would be elected President of the United States in two years.

He and Mamie had the old farmhouse extensively renovated.  Much of the structure was torn down and replaced as a lot of deterioration had occurred.

The formal living room was filled with lovely portraits of Mamie and Ike as well as treasures which had been gifted to the Eisenhowers or collected by them over the years.  This portrait of Mamie shows her wearing the pink gown made for Ike's first inaugural ball.

The odd "pouf" below was probably quite fashionable at the time.  The General didn't really like it.

The marble fireplace was an anniversary gift from White House staff.  It had been removed from the White House by President Grant during redecorating many years before.

The living room and dining room were the two most formal rooms of the house.  The rest of the decor was very homey and ordinary 1950s decor.  I would have felt very comfortable visiting them on this sunporch if only they had been home when I stopped in.

The dining room was lovely.  Unfortunately I couldn't stay to eat-- I had other lunch plans.  I was expected at Subway.

While living in Gettysburg, Mamie heard that Stuckey's (a gas/convenience store/restaurant chain popular in the 50s and 60s with the memorable slogan of "eat here and get gas") was selling a souvenir plate with their picture on it.  She sent a Secret Service agent out to pick one up for them.  My friend, Joy, along with many other local residents, remembers Mamie shopping in local stores.

Mamie's favorite color of pink even extended to the lighting fixtures in the hall.  Everything was bathed in a rosy glow.

Since the Eisenhower's moved so frequently with Ike's army career (I think some 40 times), Mamie had selected a color palette of pink, green and cream which she used in every home.  It enabled them to feel "at home" in new surroundings much more quickly.  Even their White House bedroom was decorated with the same colors.

Mamie's bathroom was covered in pink.

The kitchen looked very typical for the 1950s as well.  After Mamie died in 1979 the house was immediately made ready for tourists.  About 6 months later, tourists were filing through.  The Eisenhower's had given the property to the Park Service before either of them died, with the agreement that they would live there until they both were deceased.

Ike spent a lot of time in his study.  Pink seemed to be banished from this room.

I couldn't get any good pictures of the outside.  The house was obscured by scaffolding from an unfinished paint job.

The old milking parlor connected to the barn was converted into offices for the Secret Service.

Thanks for the visit, General and Mrs. Eisenhower!  I enjoyed it.  You have a lovely home.

Finishing stuff: a presidential mission

A son died from getting a blister on his toe while playing tennis.
One was caught skinny dipping before going to work.
One would throw a napkin over his wife's face when she would have a seizure during a dinner party.
His wife ran his business after he was permanently disabled by a stroke.
He slept in a pink bedroom.
A son was hit and killed by a train.
His kids brought a pony into the house.

What am I talking about?  I'm talking about the President of the United States.

A few days ago I wrote a post about my quest to "finish stuff."  Well, a number of years ago I began the arduous task of reading a biography about each one of our 44 U.S. Presidents (actually there weren't that many when I started this endeavor).  I don't know how long ago it's been, but it all started because I read "John Adams" by David McCollough which was published in 2002. I think it was a pretty recent book when I read it, so I'll say I started in 2003.  David McCollough is a fabulous writer-- apparently quite inspiring actually!  Not all of the other biographies I've read have been quite that good.

After John Adams (our second President), I went back and read one about George Washington then worked my way forward through presidential biographies which I checked out of our local library.  Oddly enough, they don't have a biography for every president.  Some were missing, so I just read short pieces about those presidents from books that had write-ups on all the presidents.

The trivia I shared at the beginning of the blog is all true.  Calvin Coolidge's 16-year-old son didn't wear socks when playing on the White House tennis courts, developed a blister which got infected and he died because antibiotics were not available then.  The Coolidge's were never the same after that.

Apparently several presidents were known to skinny dip in the Potomac.  There were some embarrassing situations that came about as a result.  John Quincy Adams was the first.

William McKinley's wife, Ida, had epilepsy.  If she had a seizure during state dinners, the president would just drop a napkin over her face and when the seizure subsided, he would remove the napkin and just keep going as though nothing happened.

Woodrow Wilson had a severe stroke while in office, and his wife essentially ran the country while concealing the fact that he was completely incapacitated.  The whole story of Woodrow and his women is fascinating.  And yes, I do read about the history and politics too.  But the human interest stories are very engaging!

Mamie Eisenhower's favorite color was pink, so Ike got to sleep in a pink bedroom, not only at the White House but also at their home in Gettysburg.

Dwight and Mamie's bedroom in Gettysburg

In 1853, Franklin Pierce's last surviving child, 11-year-old Benny, was crushed by a train which rolled down an embankment-- after Pierce was elected but before his inauguration.  Mrs. Pierce became a recluse and President Pierce struggled with the presidency.

The Teddy Roosevelt family had quite a menagerie of children and pets.  The pony, Algonquin was allowed free reign of the children's bedroom and was often brought upstairs on an elevator.

Well, I digress.  You see why I like reading biographies!  Truth is stranger than fiction.  I have digressed quite frequently when reading presidential biographies because sometimes I feel the need to read a biography of the first lady too:  the Adams wives, Dolley Madison, Mary Lincoln, Julia Grant... to name a few.  Fascinating!

I had gotten the whole way from George Washington up to John F. Kennedy.  I never thought I'd bog down in his biography, but I did.  A couple of years ago.  I kept renewing the book at the library and just couldn't finish it.  But now that I'm "finishing stuff," I decided to get back to it.  I chose a JFK biography by a different author and just started over.  There's nothing boring about JFKs life, so I must have gotten stuck on the Cuban Missile Crisis or something before.  But I am going to finish this one.  Then it's on to LBJ!

And by the way, speaking of finishing stuff, isn't it great that God always finishes stuff?  Including the work He's doing on me!

"Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6

Walking Pickett's Charge: Gettysburg Battlefield

Since we live in Gettysburg, we usually don't pay any attention to the historical significance of the landmarks around us.  We drive past amazing monuments and through battlefields that are still visited by military personnel this day to learn from what happened here 150 years ago.

One particular portion of the vast battlefield, which covers a good bit of the country on all sides of town, is famous for being the location of Pickett's Charge.  A last-ditch, all-out effort by the Confederates to defeat Union troops in their own backyard.  Many thousands of lives were lost that day on both sides.

On a day off, we decided to play tourist and do something we have never done before-- walk the famed one-mile of ground covered by the Confederates on July 3, 1863.  This somber day in October was still and quiet, but we felt the effect of what happened here so long ago.  This is what we saw.

Part of the "Lee" monument at the top of Seminary Ridge.

I'm really glad the cannons are empty these days!

The Pennsylvania Monument

The next several pictures were taken from the vantage point of the top of the Pennsylvania monument.