Aviano Air Base

In October of 1993, I was part a team of 15 airmen who performed two weeks of active duty for training at Aviano Air Base, Italy. Two of the airmen were airwomen and I had an assistant, Master Sergeant Stephen K. Y. Lee.
Sunday
We flew from San Francisco to Philadelphia where I looked for the AMC counter to provide military assistance. First we looked in Terminal D, then we hauled our bags for 40 minutes to Terminal A, then I picked up the white courtesy phone and called to ask where the AMC folks were and we hauled our bags back to Terminal D. The essence of leadership is to project confidence that you know what you are doing at all times.
Airport food prices were sky-high–$8 for a hamburger–so I ate crackers and peanut butter at the USO inside the terminal.
Monday
From Philadelphia we flew to Lajes Field in the Azores where we were encouraged to stay on the aircraft because of the heavy rain and darkness outside. After a 90-minute stay on the ground, we continued to Aviano where we landed at 0815 and received our work and billeting assignments.
Aviano was a forward deployment base for sorties over Iraq and Kuwait so we had lots of Marine aircraft and lost of Marines sharing facilities with us.
Mildred and Ava were assigned to Tent B-2 and the rest of us to Tents D-3 and D-4, except for Carlos, whose girl friend flew over and rented an off-base villa for the two of them.
Trying to understand the shower tent scheduling gave me a headache–three categories and four shifts for each category. Women, enlisted and officers/senior NCOs were expected to shower at separate times, which I suppose made sense. I wouldn’t want a private staring at my privates.
Rain in northern Italy in October was intermittent day and night.
Tuesday
I bought 94,000 lira for $60 and we went to Tussi’s off base where I spent 30,000 lira for dinner. Carlos introduced me to his girl friend, Wendy, and invited me to join them on off base tours between work shifts. We signed up for a USO day trip to Venice on Saturday and gave ourselves that day off.
Captain LaSheer, base Marine commandant, sent word that he wanted to see me. He informed me that everyone in the Marine compound (tent city, where we were billeted) who wore a flight suit was an officer and told me that "Hey, man" was not an acceptable greeting for an enlisted man to give to an officer and maybe I wanted to talk to SSgt Easter about that.
Aviano was built during World War II as an Axis base for Italian operations and was constructed in two sections. The flight line was about two miles from the main base in order to protect the infrastructure from bombs directed at the operational portion of the base.
Wednesday
Our liaison, SSgt Taylor, issued us a staff vehicle for Senior NCO use. Steve Lee and I drove up the mountain to Pian Cavallo, a ski resort. We had an espresso then drove back down the mountain to Pordenone. We parked in the financial district and walked around. It was like Rodeo Drive. We sat at a table in a restaurant, reviewed the menu and the prices, and quietly left before the waiter came. If I were in the U.S., I would have been embarrassed but I took solace that we were only ignorant foreigners and did not have to live up to Italian expectations.
We stopped at a pizzeria on the way back and I ordered a Calzone–mushrooms, cheese, prosciutto and a big ball of buttermilk curd–Yum! We had cappuccino for dessert and spent 15,000 lira for the meal.
Back at base, the Marines were having a toga party. Pretty scary.
Wednesday
This was picnic day for the 608th Air Logistics Squadron. We wore civilian clothes to attend a Cajun-style affair with some good local wine for those going off duty.
Afterward I went to Verona with Carlos and Wendy. We drove for three hours and arrived at 4:30 pm.
We walked around the Roman arena, still in use for night plays during the summer, and went downtown after dark. Juliette’s balcony was on display, with an opportunity to drop coins into a slot in the wall.
We sat in the Centro and drank cappuccino and returned to Aviano about 10 pm.
Thursday
I borrowed a broom and dust pan from the Billeting Office to clean our tent and signed a hand receipt for it.
SSgt Taylor, Marty, invited me to his house for dinner. I bought a couple of six packs of Heineken to take and a bouquet of carnations for his wife, Elma. Her parents lived with them, Keith and Betty, and people came in and out all evening. Betty cooked corn, butterbeans, potatoes, macaroni, chicken, beef, apple cake, peach cobbler and cherry cheesecake. Marty served a Spanish red wine and drove me back to the tents after dinner.
Saturday
After breakfast at the chow hall, we boarded the bus at 0730 for Venice. Ava and Mildred ran a little late. They were showering when we left the tents for the chow hall so Gary Soriano drove back from the chow hall to pick them up.
We had bright sunshine as we rolled away from base and the Dolomites to the north were peaked with snow.
We met our guide, Michael, at Piazza Roma and took a water taxi to the beginning of the walking tour. Michael took us to the "last truly authentic gondola shop" where the family turns out two boats per year. They showed us tools and materials and explained procedures and history.
We walked through the city, visiting Santa Maria de la Salute, Piazza San Marco and the church of St George of the Greeks and took a gondola ride across the Grand Canal.
Michael took us to his favorite caffe for lunch and we had salad, pasta, bread and wine and I chose a cheese lasagne for entree. Next to us, three tables of Italian men in suits had a great time, singing, cheering, shouting, tables filled with white wine and lobster.
Rain fell after lunch as we walked through the Doges palace courtyard and across the Bridge of Sighs. Inside St Mark’s Basilica, we paid 2,000 lira to view the gold altar screen behind the sepulcher.
The Arsenal was a highlight. It was the first modern application of assembly line techniques and standard parts. The Venetians could build a war galley from keel to completion in four hours, then send it down the canal past the chandlery building and outfit it in six hours and sent it seaward on its mission. Since they used standard parts of the same size, they could be repaired anywhere in the world that had a Venetian base.
At the end of the tour, Michael faded away and disappeared before anyone knew he was leaving.
We waited in front of the Hotel Danieli for the Number One vaporetto to take us back to the bus. As we waited, I strode inside the hotel with purpose and a steely gaze and made my way back to the rest rooms, then out a side door to avoid the doormen.
Back out front, Omar Salvarado mentioned that he needed to use the rest room so I took him inside. We did not fool the doormen a second time–they intercepted us and escorted us back out the front door.
The vaporetto made 14 stops along the Grand Canal before dropping us at Piazza Roma. While Michelle rounded up the bus, we bought hot roasted chestnuts for a little snack.
We arrived back at base about 7:30 pm and drove to the Western Caffe in Aviano for pizza and wine before returning to our tent and going to bed.
Sunday
We slept straight through until the 0500 alarm, showered and headed for work. No one was on duty when we showed up at 0600 because the weekend shift starts at 0700 so we went to breakfast at the chow hall.
Steve Lee mopped our tent and I returned the broom and dust pan to Billeting in return for my hand receipt.
Seven of us took the Suburban to Pordenone for Chinese food. Steve thought he could order for us since he is Chinese but our hosts had been in Italy for a few generations and spoke only Italian. We persevered in our desire to order large portions to share rather than individual dinners and had a wonderful meal. The bill was 161,000 lira, $107, which we split equally after Mildred paid with a traveler’s check.
Monday
Steve and I went to the NCO Club for lunch and it was great–tortellini soup and veal scallopini and a chunk of Gorgonzola for dessert, the best cheese I’ve ever tasted.
Steve and Mildred and "E" (SSGT Easter) and I drove to Trieste after lunch to see Miramare, Maximilian’s castle. I took the car up to 160 kph on the autostrada, stopping for occasional toll booths.
We arrived at the castle at 4:40 pm, forty minutes after it closed, so we walked about the grounds and took photos of the sun sinking into the Adriatic.
We drove into downtown Trieste and parked at the harbor opposite the downtown square and chatted with a young man who gave us some history of Trieste and some of his views about world politics and American policy.
After an espresso on the square, we drove back to Aviano for dinner at Vecchio’s, which is closed on Mondays. We went across the road to Da Genio and I had gnocchi a la Gorgonzola with trout and white wine.
Tuesday
After taking care of Air Force business most of the day, Steve and Mildred and I drove to Austria and had dinner in Villach in the Alps. Snow appeared beside the roadway up higher but no ice.
We ate at the Romantik Restaurant/Hotel–venison in cranberry sauce and mashed potato balls fried in sliced almonds and a soup of sour cream with bits of beef. The town was pretty much closed down for holiday. I asked the maitre’d if it was customary to tip and he said it would be appreciated.
Wednesday
Steve and Mildred and I left Aviano at 1:30 pm and drove two hours to Slovenia. At the Donino toll exit, a carabiniere waved us over and told us that my ID card was not sufficient for driving, I needed a potente internationale. We all nodded vigorously and said okay and he let us proceed.
The Slovenian border guards were reluctant to allow us into their country. Mildred told them we would spend only a couple of hours so they let us pass.
We drove to the tip of the peninsula to Pran and spent an hour or so walking about the waterfront. I found an ATM that converted a 10,000 lira bill into 740 Slovenia somethings. We had an espresso and bought post cards and took photos, then drove to Portorosso after dark.
Steve and Mildred bought candy from a shop on the main street and I bought a piece of hand-painted crystal.
We found a nice waterfront restaurant for dinner, with Italians in the booth on one side of us and Germans on the other. The waitress accommodated all languages presented.
Mildred had scampi, Steve beefsteak and I ordered calamari. First course was fish soup, full of baby calamari, clams, fish and one shrimp. Next was fried calamari stuffed with green pepper followed by fried calamari with butter and garlic. The waitress served us fiery schnapps after dinner with ice cream.
We had no difficulty crossing the border to return and arrived back at Aviano just before 11 pm.
Thursday
This was the last duty day for day shift. Swing got off Wednesday night and planned to go to Austria.
Carlos’ car was broken into Wednesday at Miramonte and Wendy’s passport was stolen. They planned to go to Milano Friday to get another.
Captain Carver gave us a certificate of appreciation for our two weeks of work, a rare honor, and several people were singled out for individual recognition.
We hosted a dinner at Tussi’s for our active duty counterparts. Tussi began with misciotti, a five-sauce pasta, then barbecued ribs, chicken and sausages. The final course was a glass of grappa, very smooth. Carlos treated everyone to flaming Sambucco.
We went afterward to the NCO Club and celebrated our superior rating with champagne and cognac.
Friday
Steve, Mildred, Stanley John, John Foster and I had breakfast at the chow hall and took off for San Marino. I had the great idea of avoiding toll stations by taking scenic Route 309 south from Mestre through Ravenna. The truckers prefer that route also so we spent several hours breathing Diesel smoke. We arrived at San Marino at noon, the beginning of siesta.
The country is 24 square miles, rising to a mountainous peak in the center. That is the site of three towers and the old city, built in the 13th Century. We parked near the top and walked about for several hours.
When siesta ended, we paid 3,000 lira to tour Tower One and admired the view of the Adriatic Sea and the Dalmatian coast, which we could not see because of the haze.
We left about 4 pm and took the autostrada back through Bologna and Ferrara. We stopped at an Auto Grill for sandwiches.
Traffic through Bologna was stop and go approaching the toll plazas. We finally got back to Aviano at 8:00 pm and went to Vecchio’s for pizza and gelato.
Saturday
We took a bus to Marco Polo airport in Venice and flew to San Francisco through Frankfort where security was very tight. In fact, they concentrated so hard on what might be in our baggage that they lost track of where it was supposed to go. We arrived in San Francisco 24 hours before our duffel bags did.
So that was that. Another successful annual tour, working hard and earning the gratitude of the active duty folks for helping them fulfill the Air Force mission.

Anacapa Island

Fourteen miles west of Ventura Harbor, Anacapa Island rose from heaving waters like the peg end of a thole pin–straight up-and-down cliffs with no place to dock. Timing the ocean’s surge in the tiny landing cove, our captain placed the nose of his boat against the rock and rammed the engines forward full thrust.
Crew people shouted at us to hurry, one at a time, over the bow onto the flooding steps of a rusty ladder and up to safety, a platform constructed on a rocky ledge just above the tops of the breaking waves. Mrs. Davis thought this was quite thrilling.
After a moment to catch our breath, we climbed a combination of ladder rungs and concrete steps to the top, the grassy plain that makes up the surface of the island.
Our voyage from Ventura Harbor took just over an hour and we arrived at 10:30 a.m., escorted by a pod of dolphins surfing in the bow wake.
Atop the island, we walked past noisy throngs of nesting seagulls to the headquarters building and met Dave Begun, a volunteer naturalist, part of a group of about 30 who assist the park service. Dave briefed us on Anacapa’s natural history, beginning with the intriguing observation that the Channel islands are so important as nesting habitat that "There would be virtually no sea birds in Southern California if it were not for these islands."
Anacapa is three islands, East, Middle and West. Boats are allowed to land at two of them; West Anacapa is off limits to the public. It is home to the largest known breeding colony of California brown pelicans, about 8,000 couples, and they require solitude in order to nest.
East island, where we landed, consists of about 100 acres and is the breeding site for 10,000 Western gulls. They come in March and stay until September. The female lays 2-3 eggs and the chicks hatch in May. Within six weeks they're the same size as their parents but they are a different color–a dirty brown–until they reach full plumage in about four years.
Gulls mate for life and share duties raising their chicks. One sits on the nest while the other one hunts and brings food back to the nest. The red spot on the parents’ beak is called the pecking target. When chicks peck at it, the parents know they are hungry and regurgitate food for them.
Anacapa and Santa Barbara are the west coast’s primary bird breeding islands because neither has fresh water; hence, no predators. Gulls get most of their water from their food source. A secondary source is salt water because they can excrete salt through glands. In a pinch, they can also fly to the mainland for a drink.
Dave gave us a primer on island life as we walked west toward Inspiration Point.
Most of Channel Islands National Park is under water. Two major ocean streams meet here and generate more diversity of sea animals in Santa Barbara channel than anywhere else in the world. The confluence of cold and warm currents causes a churning and stirring up of nutrients that enriches the water with food for birds and sea animals. Blue and humpback whales feed in the channel all summer long. A total of 28 species of whales and dolphins inhabit the area and Dave told us that we were liable to see a whale at any time.
The north side of Anacapa is closed to fishing and the south side is open, under the theory that north side nurseries will replenish the south side fishing area, and that seems to work.
Mice, lizards and salamanders are the only animal species native to Anacapa but this was not always the case. Naturalists have found mammoth remains in sandy areas of the channel islands that are 4-5 feet high. Dave told us that the isolated breeding area of islands causes small species to grow larger and large species to grow smaller, so you eventually have pygmy mammoths and dwarf elephants. Taken to extremes, he said that at one time, on the Komodo islands, large lizards ate dwarf elephants.
Man’s intrusion has changed island ecology in extreme ways. Since 1600, the Age of Exploration, 60 to 70 per cent of the world’s species extinctions have occurred on islands and were caused by rats escaping from ships.
Anacapa has no trees and most of the island is covered by non-native plant species. In a mistake that compounded itself, the Coast Guard brought rabbits to the island in the 1930s. After the rabbits ate the vegetation, ice plant was brought in to control erosion. We have now discovered that ice plant poisons the soil by injecting salt from the air so it is being systematically eradicated.
Buena High School students from Ventura come to the island to pull out non-native plants as part of an ongoing science project. They dry the ice plant and spread it on trails for dust control.
Santa Cruz buckwheat is one of about 150 native plants found on the islands that occur nowhere else on earth.
Anacapa’s most famous plant, Coreopsis, normally blooms from mid-March to mid-April. We missed it this year, however. Early rain the previous October was followed by a spell of warm weather that fooled the six-foot plants. They bloomed and peaked in February and went dormant early. When they are in full bloom, the golden glow is visible from the mainland.
The oldest North American human remains discovered so far were found on the Channel Islands, a 13,000-year old female femur. Peak population on the islands was 2,000 spread among several dozen villages going back at least 9,000 years. The Chumash people left the islands in 1820 and joined the mission system where 90 per cent of them died of disease.
Anacapa lighthouse, completed in 1932 was the last lighthouse built on the west coast. Only two residences remain on the island now–housing a park ranger and a full time maintenance man. Rangers work a week on and a week off, changing out every Wednesday.
Since there is no natural fresh water on Anacapa; two 55,000 gallon redwood tanks store the island’s supply of water. They are refilled about every two years by a tanker ship. Solar panels charge batteries that are converted to AC power and the maintenance tractor runs on recycled vegetable oil.
The island has lots of solitude and sometimes people react in peculiar ways. Dave told us that the strangest incident occurred several years ago. A female ranger noticed that a camper was acting strangely and she was frightened enough that she locked herself into the visitors center overnight. The camper was gone in the morning. He had completely vanished and was never seen again.
Dave ended his tour at Inspiration Point, the west end of the island which has views of Middle and Western Anacapa. Gail and I walked around the north perimeter and back to the campground in the middle of the island where we had a picnic on one of the tables, serenaded by several hundred hungry gulls.
After lunch, we walked to the lighthouse at the east end, then back to the small museum in the headquarters building and looked at the exhibits there. By the time we had traversed all the walking paths on the island, we logged just under four miles.
It was time to leave then, and we boarded the boat much as we had disembarked in the morning–closely following crew instructions and timing our scrambles over the bow to the flow of the waves crashing into the cliff.
A pair of humpback whales escorted us partway back to Ventura Harbor, breaching and blowing and sounding as the sun set behind them. We felt as if we received more than our money’s worth for the day’s trip.
INFORMATION BOX: The Channel Islands are a National Park (http://www.nps.gov/chis/homepage). Island Packers (http://www.blogger.com/(http://www.islandpackers.com/anacapa.html) operates the transportation concession to Anacapa. Cost is $38-42 per person for day trips that allow up to five hours on East Anacapa. Other trips, including whale watching and overnight camping support, are available–telephone 805-642-1393.

The Blue Haired Ladies of Branson

October 21, 2007
Sunday
We rested.
Monday
We left Pleasant Hill in a pouring rain and drove south to Shell Knob, new home to Gail’s brother David Walters and his lovely bride, Diann.
Dave drove us into Arkansas to see the sights. We toured Berryville and Eureka Springs, home of the historic Crescent Hotel, built in 1886. Eureka Springs is a fabulous village, built around hot springs on tree-covered Ozark hillsides. It was Monday in late October and we did not see a single vacant parking space on the streets.
Tuesday
Dave drove us through Mark Twain National Forest past Shepherd of the Hills Historic Homestead and Observation Tower to Branson. The town was packed, though David said that summers are even more crowded.
Theatre after theatre, hotel after hotel–Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede across the street from Dick Clark’s American Bandstand.
Observing billboards and marquees answered the question, "Where have all theold rock and rollers gone?"
We visited the Bass Pro Shop and White River Promenade. Imagine a store large enough to contain trees, a fishing stream, a salt water aquarium and a four-story waterfall. Three thousand fishing rods and enough guns to outfit Blackwater. More outdoor clothing than REI.
Bass Pro has forty-three stores nationwide and twelve more under construction, under the sole ownership of Johnny Morris of Springfield MO. No stockholders, no board of directors. Even California has one, in Cucamonga, and two more a-building in Bakersfield and Manteca.
Dave took us to lunch at Devils Pool Restaurant in Big Cedar. Johnny Morris owns that too. Not just the restaurant, but the cottages, lodges, marina, golf course, stables, spa and sauna.
On a Tuesday afternoon in late October, Falls Lodge did not have a vacant room.
After lunch, we drove back to Shell Knob and inspected the S.S. Dianna, Dave and Diann’s tri-pontoon pleasure boat. They dock at a marina that is a short golf-cart drive from the Walters estate on Table Rock Lake, 43,000 acres, 745 miles of shoreline,.
Wednesday
Gail and I got on the road at 0200 and drove a thousand miles to Gallup.
Thursday
On the road again at 0300. West of Needles, we passed a convoy of Arizona fire engines on their way to Southern California.
Barstow was full of smoke from the wild fires and so was Bakersfield but we didn’t slow down. Eight hundred miles today and home in time for supper.

Happy Cows Make Blue Cheese

October 19, 2007
Friday
Our first Toyota driver on Thursday, Martin, who delivered us to the Lincoln Museum, was so intrigued by our story about Maytag Blue Cheese that he called me later in the day on my mobile phone with an urgent message. He had two passengers with him, Mr and Mrs Griggsby, who make cheese upstate near Nauvoo.
Martin put Mr Griggsby on the line and Mr Griggsby told me that he had worked with the University of Iowa team when they perfected the method of making blue cheese out of cow’s milk, the methodology that launched the Maytag Dairy Farm into the cheese business.
Mr Griggsby was well acquainted with the Maytag Dairy Farm and he wanted us to come visit his place so he put Mrs Griggsby on the telephone to give us directions. She did not quite do that, giving me just a list of towns they were near and her telephone number if we want to call again for directions.
She also said that their children are trying to get them to move to California so it may be that it is already too late for us to plan a visit to their farm.
Today we drove across Illinois and Iowa to Newton and the Maytag Dairy Farm and filled up out bags with wheels of cheese.
Then we drove south to Kansas City and on to Pleasant Hill to the home of Anne and Steve Busch, family members through marriage, to spend the weekend. Uncle Tim joined us from Fort Smith.
Saturday
Steve drove us to Liberty and we went past the Jesse James Bank Museum, where Frank and Jesse James and the Younger brothers performed the first daytime bank robbery in the United States in 1866.
Then we drove to the James farm, now a county park preserving the farm and cabin where the James family grew up.
The cabin was built in 1822 and purchased by Robert and Zerelda James in 1845. Robert went to California in 1850 and died in Placerville. Zerelda lost the home, remarried a couple of times and eventually moved back into the farmhouse with both her old and her new families.
Hired by the railroad to stop the incessant robberies of their baggage cars, Pinkerton agents tried first to infiltrate the gang. Clay county was still full of southern sympathizers who protected the James family and two of the agents turned up dead, one of them eaten by hogs.
A group of agents attacked the farm in 1875 and threw a firebomb through a window. The explosion killed Jesse’s younger half-brother and severed Zerelda’s arm. This incident turned public sympathy in favor of the James-Younger gang members with interesting results.
The railroad that hired the Pinkertons negotiated with Zerelda and finally gave her a lifetime pass. She used it as often as she could and rounded up as many people as she could to accompany her for free passage. When she died, she was on the train and our guide believes Zerelda would have been delighted that she put one last spur into railroad management.
The other result was that the Missouri legislature came within a few votes of passing a bill that praised the gang members and would have given them amnesty.
Zerelda lived in the house until she died in 1911, 29 years after Jesse was murdered "by a traitor and coward whose name is not worthy to appear here," part of the inscription that she engraved on his tombstone.
Frank inherited the house and lived in it until he died in 1915. Both Zerelda and Frank ran the farm as a tourist attraction. Jesse was buried in the front yard where Zerelda could keep an eye on the grave and tombstone to prevent souvenir hunters from defiling it while she maintained a trove of souvenirs to sell.
Frank’s wife continued to live in the house until she died in 1944. Jesse’s grandchildren then inherited the house and lived in it until 1970 when they sold the farm to Clay County. Jesse’s great-grandchildren are still alive.
We went to the Westport Flea Market for Kansas City’s Best Hamburger, a ten-ounce patty cooked to order and "dressed the way you like it," washed down with a cold draft Boulevard beer.
We then visited the National World War I Museum and Liberty Memorial of Kansas City. The Liberty Memorial Tower is 217 feet high. We took the elevator to the top and walked around the observation deck and observed Kansas City below.
Inside the Museum we passed through exhibits commemorating the war.
Between 1914 and 1919, 65 million soldiers fought and nine million of them died. After the first two years of warfare, one-third of the men on each side had been killed. World War I killed one-third of French males between the ages of 18 and 31.
In 1917, Germany’s foreign minister sent a secret telegram to the German ambassador in Mexico instructing him to propose that Mexico join Germany in a military alliance against the United States. British agents intercepted this telegram and turned it over to their American cousins. This, combined with Germany’s resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare against non-combatant merchant ships, persuaded Woodrow Wilson to ask Congress for a declaration of war.
American intervention turned the tide and changed the world and American boys ("How will you keep them down on the farm after they’ve seen Paree?") forever. An unexpected event, however, was that, after spending time in France and Paris, American soldiers returned home and found out they could no longer buy a drink in their own country.
We had dinner in a gas station in Kansas, at a place called Oklahoma Joe’s. People lined up out the door for piles of pork and beef and beans and slaw served on paper towels and a tray.
It isn’t really a gas station any more but you couldn’t tell that until you drove into the parking lot and smelled the glorious scent of barbecued meat. Management has preserved as much of the interior of the service station as possible while adding a kitchen and a serving counter and a blackboard listing combinations of ribs, chicken, sausages and beef. Confronted with irresistible temptation, we ate again.

Land of Lincoln

October 18, 2007
Thursday
We entered the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum shortly after 9:00 and went to the Grant Theater and saw a presentation, The Ghosts of Lincoln. This was an exploration of the place that history has in our lives and why historians have preserved Lincoln memorabilia.
In the Union Theater we saw Lincoln’s Eyes, a study of how the events in his life shaped his face and his eyes. A mask imprint of his face in 1865 looked more like a death mask than a life mask, a marked difference from the laugh lines that marked his face in 1861.
The Museum provides Mrs. Lincoln’s Attic as a playhouse for children, but lacks a means for locking them inside.
We watched a Tim Russert coverage of the candidates and issues of the 1860 Presidential campaign, concluding that the campaign issues were inconclusive. I was reminded of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s assertion that Lincoln positioned himself at the 1860 Republican convention to be, not anyone’s first choice, but everyone’s second choice. When the delegates deadlocked on the initial votes for the Republican Presidential candidate, Lincoln became the obvious choice.
The cafeteria listed on its menu food items named after characters in Lincoln’s lifetime. My favorite was the George McClellan Chicken Sandwich.
We watched a map of the United States that represented the Civil War in four minutes, one week equals one second. Week by week, battle by battle, the casualties mounted up to more than 1.3 million American men killed, wounded or imprisoned.
Major Henry Abbott wrote a letter to his mother in April 1864 and he quoted from a conversation that he had with General Meade–"among other things, Uncle Abe is tender-hearted about shooting a deserter but that he was perfectly willing to sacrifice a thousand brave men in a useless fight." Politicians want to be generals and generals want to be politicians.
At the time Lincoln took office, one in seven Americans were slaves. Lincoln always went back to the Declaration of Independence for inspiration as to what constituted a democracy, that "all men are created equal..." and to him that meant that slavery could not stand in a democracy. He was opposed to slavery from childhood, to the point of exclaiming that when he heard a man support the institution, his reaction was that that man should be the first enslaved. This is an ignoble sentiment out of character for Mr Lincoln and I take that as an indication of his deep feeling for the matter.
Slavery, though, was not the casus belli. It was union, whether any State had the right to break away from the country, and it was this issue that ignited men’s passions to fight a war. Lincoln recognized that, even though the war began over dissolution, slavery was the root cause and the great evil that prevented the two sides from living together. He knew that eventually the country would come to see that as he did. He was willing to lead the country away from slavery but he had to wait until the people were ready to be led. And that epiphany, like any change, was dramatically difficult for people to accept.
So difficult was the subject that Lincoln had to walk a fine line between the Abolitionists who demanded an end to slavery and the great majority of people who did not see the need. At the beginning, he used the Constitution for political cover, justifying the war on the basis of the compact agreed upon by all the States and dodging the morality of the slavery question by referring to its Constitutional roots and his obligation as Chief Executive to uphold the Constitution. He had faith that, eventually, as the war deepened, public opinion would come around to match his own, and he was right.
The President labored for more than a year over the words and timing of his Emancipation Proclamation. He received good advice from his cabinet and followed it. Surprising as it may seem, public reaction was mixed–some said it went too far, others not far enough. Frederick Douglass said that Lincoln didn’t free any slaves, that he had no power to free slaves in the Southern states; that the Northern states had no slaves; and that he exempted the border states of Missouri, Kentucky, Delaware and Maryland for fear of alienating those citizens to the Union cause.
In the end, Mr Lincoln got his way. Congress passed the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery in 1865, just before the end of the war.
Lincoln’s funeral train carried him from Washington back to Springfield starting April 21st and finishing May 3rd, 1865. The route covered over 1,700 miles and stopped for twelve major funeral processions in different cities. The trip took fifteen days. By the time it was over Lincoln was seen by more people as a dead president than he had been as a live candidate.
We walked through an exhibit exploring the question, "Was Mary Todd Lincoln Insane?" Mary Todd’s mother died when she was six and her father immediately married a stepmother who favored her own children over Mr. Todd’s.
Her second son, Eddie, died when he was three. Her third son, Willie, died when he was twelve. Her husband was assassinated as he sat beside her at Ford’s Theater on the happiest day of their lives. Her fourth son, Tad, died as they returned from Europe after being forced out of Germany by the 1870 Franco-Prussian War.
She was vilified by the American press during her tenure as First Lady for faults that they found with her behavior, never paying attention to the improvements she made to the White House or to Washington society.
When she exhibited inappropriate and dangerous behavior to herself, her first son Robert took her to court to protect her by having her declared insane so that he could place her into a private institution. After four months, she made her way out of the institution and tried to regain her physical and mental health in Europe. She became physically incapacitated and returned to the United States to live with her sister until she died.
Ryan picked us up after lunch to drive us back to Toyota where we had the Sienna serviced. Ryan was excited that we were from California because it is his dream to move to California. It is also his dream to have a house in Colorado where he can look out the back window at trees.
Ryan asked if we had ever been to Orange County because he heard that all the roofs in Orange County are the same color. I told him I believed that is true in Irvine but I did not know about the rest of Orange County.
Ryan asked if it is legal to run neon car lights in California. He said that you can install different colored neon lights underneath your car frame, red, green, yellow, any color you want, but if you light them up while driving in Illinois, you get a ticket. He heard that in exotic states like California and Texas you can drive with your neon lights on. I confessed ignorance about this issue.
Ryan told us that he had a car wreck recently when he was driving his car at 140 mph and a truck pulled out in front of him and he hit the back and flew off the road and totaled his car. He thinks he won’t do that again, and especially when he is driving customers to the Toyota dealership. I surmised that he must have been wearing his seat belt when he flew his car into the bayou since he had no bandages or casts, or none that we could see.
After retrieving our van, we went to Lincoln’s house on Jackson. The National Park Service operates the house and still honors Robert Todd Lincoln’s stipulation that the public should never be charged a fee to visit the house. NPS has purchased and refurbished neighborhood houses to represent the view that Lincoln would have had of his neighbors in 1860.
Springfield is full of Lincoln ghosts. His presence is everywhere. A few blocks from the residence is the Lincoln-Herndon Law Office, across the street from the Capitol building. Lincoln spent a lot of time in the building, as an elected representative of the people, as a paid employee of the State and as a barrister practicing before the State Supreme Court. He ran his campaign for the Republican Presidential nomination from the Governor’s reception room on the second floor. He debated Stephen Douglas in the house chamber and there gave the speech that made him a national figure in 1858, that a house divided against itself cannot stand.
And, in the end, he returned to Springfield and to the Capitol building. During the 24-hour period when Lincoln lay in state at the Springfield Capitol building, the guards counted 75,000 visitors and they estimated that another 25,000 waiting in line at the end of the viewing period. This was at a time when the population of Springfield was 16,000.
Who is buried in Lincoln’s Tomb? We drove to the Oak Ridge Cemetery to find out. It was closed for the day, but we already knew the answer–Abraham, Mary, Eddie, Willie and Tad. Their eldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln, is buried in Chicago, where he made his career and his fortune.
Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, born in 1904, died without issue on December 25, 1985, the last living Lincoln descendant, thus ending the Lincoln line.

New York and Ohio and Illinois

October 15, 2007
Monday
We drove to Watkins Glen State Park, in Watkins Glen at the foot of Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes district of New York. Watkins Glen is a 1 ½ mile gorge cut through limestone by Glen Creek over the course of 12,000 years.
Morvalden Ells started charging visitors to walk through the gorge in 1836. The government of New York resented private encroachment on public enjoyment and took over the attraction in 1906.
The gorge rises 500 feet during the course of its ascent on 800 stone stair steps. Gail and I walked about a half mile, perhaps 200 stair steps, and, deciding that discretion is the better part of valor, valorously returned to the park and had a picnic lunch on a bench beside Glen Creek.
We drove up the east side of Seneca Lake and visited wineries, seduced occasionally by signs saying that local wines had won gold medals. We were fooled twice, then bypassed the rest until we arrived at Lamoreaux Landing, which we knew from a previous visit produces superior wines.
We finally rolled into Geneva and checked into our hotel there, in spite of road work that reduced the entry to a graveled street leading to an iron plated ramp into the driveway next to a transient bus station.
Tuesday
We drove from Geneva to North Canton, Ohio. We arrived at Harry London Chocolate, home of the Chocolate Hall of Fame, in time for the 2:00 tour and found out that 1-800-FLOWERS now owns Harry London.
We paid three dollars for the tour and received a two dollar discount in the candy store afterward, a solid blow for capitalism.
Afterward we found our hotel in Canton, checked in and prepared for a long drive the next day, into a new time zone.
Wednesday
We drove to Springfield, Illinois, stopping for gasoline in Rantoul, former home of Chanute Air Force Base where I spent my 21st birthday and corresponded with my future bride, Gail.
As we drove through town, we passed a brick building that displayed two signs, "Cold Beer" and "Open for Breakfast." A fantastic combination.
We checked into the Statehouse Clarion and the desk clerk gave us certificates for free drinks at their bar. That was a nice treat, to show their appreciation for all the trouble we went to to arrive in Springfield.
After cocktails, we ordered Pizza Surprise from Papa John’s for room delivery and that was the end of our day.

Where It All Began

October 14, 2007
Sunday
An 1868 employment ad displayed in the Hall of Fame said, "Notice to First Basemen–the National Club of Washington are looking for a first baseman about here. They have been to Brooklyn, but they were not successful in obtaining one. Terms–First rate position in the Treasury Department: must work in the Department until three o’clock, and then practice at base ball until dark. ‘No Irish Need Apply.’"
Cooperstown was founded by and named after Judge William Cooper, the father of author James Fenimore Cooper. The Village of Cooperstown was established in 1786 and incorporated as the "Village of Otsego" on April 3, 1807; the name was legally changed to "Village of Cooperstown" in 1812.
Baseball is the name of the game in Cooperstown. The streets are lined with souvenir shops, baseball card shops, a wax museum, DiMaggio’s hot dog stand, The National Pastime, Cooperstown Cards and the Where It All Began Bat Company.
Gail and I were first in line at 9:00 to enter the hallowed halls of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
The Special Baseball Commission, in 1908, after three years of studying the matter, stated that Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown in 1839. This was based partially on a letter from Abner Graves, who claimed to be present when Abner Doubleday invented the game 70 years earlier.
In 1934 an antique baseball was found in an attic in a trunk believed to have belonged to Abner Graves. This became known as the Doubleday Baseball and was put on exhibit in Cooperstown.
In 1936, Ty Cobb received more votes than Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Honus Wagner and Babe Ruth to lead the first class of inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The National Baseball Museum opened its doors in 1938 and was dedicated in 1939. By that time 25 members had been elected to the Hall of Fame. The eleven still living traveled to Cooperstown to attend the dedication.
In an exhibit entitled "3,000/3,000 Club," we discovered that Rogers Hornsby, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams did not hit 3,000 career base hits. Cy Young, Christy Mathewson and Warren Spahn did not throw 3,000 career strikeouts.
Twenty-seven men have hit 3,000 or more base hits. Fifteen pitchers have struck out 3,000 or more batters.
Heading the list of hitters is Pete Rose with 4,256; second is Ty Cobb at 4,191.
Nolan Ryan has 5,714 strikeouts, more than a thousand more than second-place Roger Clemens.
Every team has retired uniform number 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson.
As my friend Wayne Wegner probably knows, David Wells and Don Larsen, who have pitched the Yankees’ only two perfect games, both attended Point Loma High School in San Diego.
The official team histories say that the Atlanta Braves were founded in 1871 as the Boston Red Stockings, making them the oldest major league baseball team. I thought the Cincinnati Red Legs were the oldest team but evidently I was mistaken so I checked Google.
According to Google, the Cincinnati Red Stockings were America’s first professional baseball team, beginning March 15, 1869. After an undefeated season, 65-0, and going on to win 130 consecutive games, they finally lost to the Brooklyn Atlantics in 1870. Cincinnati fans immediately stopped coming to their games (I thought New York was tough) and the team moved to Boston where they became the Boston Red Stockings in 1871. Cincinnati got another team in 1882, also named the Red Stockings and currently known as the Reds.
So that’s the rest of the story. You guess which team came first.
After spending the morning at the Hall of Fame, we visited the Ommegang Brewery and tasted Belgian ales. They were good.
Then we drove to the Cooperstown Brewery and tasted American ales. They were also good.
Back at the Tunnicliff Inn, we met Frank, the owner, in the lobby and chatted with him a while. The inn was built in 1802 and does not have a level surface. We set our suitcases in the center of our room on the night that we checked in and watched them slowly roll to the far wall. Frank bought the place in 1992. He says his next project is to upgrade the furniture.
Downstairs, below ground level, is the Pit, a lively restaurant that attracts local families and serves beer by the pitcher and beef by the pound.
After dinner, we went to our room, watched our suitcases roll and prepared for bed.