Grumpa Joe's Place

One reason I write on my Weblog (BLOG) is because I like to brag about myself. That makes me a narcissist doesn’t it? Who else do you recognize as a narcissist? Anyway, in my lifetime I have had the distinct pleasure and opportunity to visit five presidential libraries. The most recent one being the best of the five. Earlier this month I also had the extreme pleasure of attending my grand-daughter Abbey’s graduation from high school. Her event also coincided with her little brother’s matriculation from grammar school to high school, and her big sister’s matriculation from the University of Texas to the School of Pharmacy at Texas A&M University.  How would you like that tuition bill?

Abbey wanted to show her grandparents her new school, so the entire family took a drive to College Station, Texas to visit the campus of Texas A & M. The A & M stands for Agriculture and Mining. The family was large enough to need two cars, and included two sets of grandparents and her parents and sister. Her little brother stayed home to take finals at his grammar school. A bonus feature of the Texas A&M campus is the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.

When G.H.W. Bush became President he was a relatively obscure person to me so I read his biography.  This man truly served his country. He had so many positions in government the Presidency was nearly the last one left to serve. His life story unfolds in the museum exhibits and I felt like I was re-reading his life story except with photos.

The museum seems small in the vastness of the campus but once inside it feels immense. In the grand hall atrium lies a carpet that easily covers the footprint of an average home.  A woman named  Jo Carol greeted us with a graciousness I have never experienced before. I teasingly said “You have to be from South Texas with a name like Jo Carol?” She corrected me and said she was from the South, the south of Italy. “What town would that be,” I asked? “Napoli,” she replied. Without blinking, she continued on her introduction to the museum. A few feet beyond we met another gracious lady named Joan who gave us special hearing devices which allowed us to listen to narrative at the various exhibits throughout the museum. She noticed my Texas Grandpa hat and told me to wear it proudly, even though I was in the middle of enemy territory of Texas A&M. It turns out that she is an alumnus of UT. I told her that later in the day the family would have an official ceremony to transfer my UT hat for a Texas A&M hat.

We easily spent two hours walking through the exhibits to look at the photographs and reliving the history of America during the 1989-1993 era. I took only a few photos since I left my camera home and had only a cell phone camera. I took photos of a few signs that I considered significant to me, like the quote on the U.N. and another quote on the President’s definition of success.

The most fun we had as a family occurred in the Oval Office and the Situation Room. We took pictures sitting behind the desk and around the big table in the Situation Room in front of ancient computer screens. Please witness my grand-daughter Dana as the first Woman president of the USA, her little sister is Vice President, and Grumpa Joe is Secretary of Defense. President Dana eliminated all ineffective and needless bureaucracies like Homeland Security, Education, EPA, by Executive Order.

At the end of the museum a rather tall gray-haired man handed me a letter from the First Lady answering my question.

Notice, I remembered the names of the Ladies whom I met along the way but I can only describe the one man by his physical features. He also told me a great story about the Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) Library in Austin.  LBJ wanted his library to have a greater attendance than the JFK Museum in Boston. LBJ used his influence to put the Federal Government in charge of maintaining his library. He built the library across from the football stadium on the University of Texas campus.  Evidently the University does not have enough money to upgrade the stadium restroom facilities so they send people to the Library across the street. Entry into the Library is free and everyone who walks through the doors counts as a visitor. Genius isn’t it. You and I pay to stroke LBJ’s ego for the rest of the life of this country.

Take a hint from me, if you are a history buff or just a good citizen, visit the presidential libraries, in particular visit the G. H.W.Bush Library in College Station, Texas. You will not regret it. While you are there say “hi” to Joan for me.

I almost forgot, the libraries I visited are: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Harold S. Truman, Herbert Hoover,  Richard M. Nixon, and George Herbert Walker Bush. I only have seven more to go, and there is one yet to be built which I will never visit even if they build it next door to me.

Filed under: Biography, Conservative, Education, family, Government, Memories, politics | Tagged: College Station, George H W Bush, Graduation, Grand-parents, Library, Texas A & M University, University of Texas | Leave a comment »