From Dictionary.com:
al·le·go·ry
[al-uh-gawr-ee, -gohr-ee]
1. a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another.
Originally I had no intention of thinking of an allegory related to such concrete representations found in the water tower, its steps upward and its casting of shadows, but perhaps there is something to be said concerning two different presidents, the 33rd and the 34th, Truman and Eisenhower, both of which I have given much time to studying their lives, decisions and actions, personal and political. Part of that study now involves visiting their presidential museums and libraries.
Our travel course east initially took us along I-70 and our first planned destination stop was Abilene, Kansas, the home town of Dwight D. Eisenhower, our 34th President (R). Eisenhower became president the year I was born (1953) and he left office shortly after the year I first realized there was a presidential race, that of Nixon and Kennedy (age 6 1/2).
Dad and I pulled into Abilene late in the afternoon of November 2nd only to find its only RV park had closed for the season! So much for lack of advance planning and deciding to travel spontaneously. It does have its drawbacks at times. The nearest RV park was several miles outside of town heading eastward. Just prior to nightfall we arrived at the park and quickly set up camp in the freezing wind, dad was inside trying to get warm and I was outside wishing I was. Age has its privilege. The next morning a decision needed to be made; do we retrace our route hauling the travel trailer behind us (the truck transmission was not working well) or just bypass our first presidential museum and charge ahead of the upcoming winter storm. Dad was ambivalent and acquiesced to my judgement. I chose to go back to Abilene and spend the better part of a day at the site. The campus was quite impressive, or should I say expansive, with a separate building for the library archives, another one for the museum highlighting "Ike's" life of service to a country he dearly loved, the tremendous leadership he provided during World War II, head of the infant organization called NATO, and his work on the development of war-torn Europe during the height of communist Soviet power which threatened western Europe. Also on the campus there was a beautiful chapel where the President and his wife are buried. The central building in the complex was the home in which he was raised with his several brothers, original to the core, as if his parents had just stepped out to go to the store.
Eisenhower was a man whose life was the embodiment of DUTY to country. His was a life started in a small unassuming mid-west plains town, raised in a devout Jehovah's Witness family, although he himself was not very religious, a man who by his mid-fifties was the most loved and most powerful man in the western world, bar none. Eisenhower was a man who, for most of his life, avoided partisan politics and for years denied daily any interest in becoming president, but DUTY finally called him for he felt compelled to run as a point of service to a world in need. Really.
The stop to the visitor's center netted me my next book to read titled, Eisenhower, Soldier and President, by Stephen E. Ambrose. (Last year I read an excellent book on Truman by David McCullough) I am about half way through the 570 page book and I am enjoying the read in quiet morning and evening hours.
Three pictures, one of my father in front of the graves and two of the tablets in the chapel surrounding those graves, words of Eisenhower
Signing off now but will return to finish Abilene and go to Independence Missouri and Mr. Truman, citizen. I also I have a story or two to tell about a man I met who met Truman at the barber shop.
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