Windy Harry

Its May 15th and no, Harry Truman was no more windy than any other president.  Somewhat less, as a matter of fact.  It was windy and pretty chilly in Independence MO, though; that kind of wet, windy cold that chills even though its not that cold by the thermometer.

Early up and off to see the Truman exhibits in the area.  I guess the main thing to say about Truman is the same thing that forms a part of the park service narrative -- an uncommon common man.  We started at the Truman Visitor's Center on the square in Independence.  It appears to be an old fire station renovated into a small ticket, slide show and tourist sales center.  Very nice folks running the place.

If they had high tech anything, it was pretty well hidden -- maybe the register and the slide show, but that was all that was obvious. 

Next stop was the Truman's home which turned out not to have belonged to Harry and Bess until very late in their lives.  The house became theirs when her mother died while they were in the White House.  Ann commented that living in his mother in law's home may have polished his diplomatic skills, and there may be something to that.  Whomever owned it, the family always returned here.

The downtown area is straight out of a Back to the Future movie set.  Its beautiful in its own sparse way and led to an hypothesis:  that for some reason city government has an adverse effect on greenery.  Many small towns we've come to are surrounded by housing with a lot of trees and shrubs, but the center is paved over with at best small trees.  We'll keep looking as we go along, but look around your own area and let us know how true it might be.

We also drove by the Truman boyhood home just a few blocks from the family home.  If you hurry you can buy it.

The Truman Library had quite a few informative exhibits, this one a replica of the Oval Office as it was in the 50s.

The main impression I took from the stop was that of a very complex and capable man chosen to take the Presidency when it was apparently clear to some that President Roosevelt, a shoo in for a fourth term, would not live long.  If it was a selection, then it says a lot about those not chosen, Vice President Wallace in particular. There were a lot of details leading to this observation, but true or not, its a great plot for a novel. 

And with that it was time to make for Independence KS.  The weather seemed to be following us with ceilings at about 2200 ft and the freezing level not much above that.  We filed for 4000 ft, . . .  

 

. . . and yes, that is much the same view as yesterday, and equally boring.  We eventually outran the weather and made it to Independence KS.  

For the record, here is a picture of an area of downtown Independence which is also surrounded by tree-lined residential areas.  In fact, if you drive around the town a bit, you'll find some beautiful homes, a very nice park, immaculately maintained ball field, a zoo . . . and I can't actually say we saw it all.  A very nice town.  

Tomorrow is the Cessna factory tour.