Of the Presidential Libraries we have visited so far, the Truman Library is definitely well done. We've seen the Clinton Library (ho hum, no blue dress), the Hoover Library (homespun, Iowa farm boy), Lincoln's Museum (just a bit too much detail), and the Reagan Library (not enough detail). The Truman Museum is just right, tracing the life of an honest, responsible, but definitely liberal, farm boy from horse and buggy days to the atom bomb. Talk about culture shock!
President Truman was in office during some of the most tumultuous times in our history. One of the most famous memories is the plaque on his desk. President Truman's office in the White House is recreated in the Museum, and the plaque is on display.
When President Truman left office, the law did not provide for a presidential pension or Secret Service protection. President Eisenhower proposed and supported a change that raised Mr. Truman's retirement pension from $13,000 annually (from his military retirement as a Lt. Colonel) to $75,000, a substantial sum in those days. After the assassination of President Kennedy, Secret Service protection was provided for all Presidents and their families, a service that President Truman heartily despised. He was known to play tricks on the Secret Service people by sneaking out for a walk with a friend and leaving them to catch up.
But I digress. President Truman was called upon to make one of the most horrendous decisions a president can face: the deaths of thousands of the enemy in time of war, or the deaths of thousands of Americans. History believes that he made the correct decision.
After the war ended, the economy went into high gear trying to satisfy the pent up demand for goods and services that had been denied for so many war years. This euphoria lasted well into 1948, but not everyone was pleased with the post-war Marshall Plan, the rebuilding of Japan, and the start of the Cold War. Public opinion was running against President Truman when the election rolled around, but a "Whistle Stop" tour of the country turned the tide, resulting in one of the most memorable newspaper goofs of all time.
Now that he had won a presidential election on his own merits, President Truman embarked upon the most thorough and complete renovation of the White House ever seen. The entire building was gutted, new steel beams and columns installed in the interior, and a new wing was added. President Truman mandated that none of the exterior walls were to be removed, so everything from bulldozers to dump trucks were dismantled and reassembled inside the structure. During the remodel, most of the original wood structure was removed because of deterioration. A section of the original structure is on display on the Truman Museum showing not only mortise and tenon construction, but soot marks from the burning of the White House by the British in 1812.
Mr. Truman lived in a time that led him from buggies to bombs; from farm work to the Presidency; from a soda fountain at Independence Square to the Berlin Airlift. A simple man with enduring values, he has left a mark on the course of the history of the United States. After he left Washington, he worked out of an office in the Library Building, one that remains exactly as he left it the day he died. Just a stone's throw away from the office is the burial site of Harry S Truman, his beloved wife Bess, and their daughter Margaret and her husband. Mr. Truman dictated in his instructions that he wanted to be buried there because "he didn't want to have to walk very far to attend the services". He also directed that Bess be buried on his right side, because she was his "right hand man", instead of the conventional practice of placing the wife on the left.
The American Legion has placed an eternal flame in the courtyard of the Museum near President Truman's grave. This was done to honer his service during WWI, when he was sent to Europe to lead an artillery group.
Saddend, but with a whole new perspective on President Truman, we left the Library and Museum, glad that we came back to see it.
We shot over to Independence Square, the starting point for wagon trains heading west in the 1800's, and checked out the original courthouse of those days:
And then……
We set out to find dinner. Now, you can't go to Kansas City without eating BBQ. It is almost a law. There are three restaurants that claim to be The Best, Arthur Bryants in downtown KC (where Mr. Obama ate yesterday on a fundraising trip), Gates, in Independence (yelps good, but a lot of unneeded salt), so we decided on Oklahoma Joe's, because it had come highly recommended. We had a bit of a time finding the place, circling the block three times unsuccessfully. Each time our GPS located the restaurant in a gas station, so we knew that couldn't be right! Were we wrong!
Located in an operating gas station, the restaurant serves hundreds if not thousands of meals a day. When we arrived the line was only 10 feet out the door, but by the time we had reached our table with trays of food the line stretched to the end of the parking lot, a couple of hundred feet away. Anyway, turns out that the original owner of the building opened the service station with a chicken restaurant next door. Tiring of the food business, he sold the chicken restaurant area to the current owner of Oklahoma Joe's, which soon overwhelmed the whole building. Now the cash register of the gas station is in a small corner, and the rest of the building is restaurant! Anthony Bourdain reflected some years ago that "the proximity to petroleum products in no way detracts from the quality of the food". And he was entirely correct.
A half rack of ribs and the burnt ends special with sides of spicy slaw, creamy slaw, and red beans and rice had us scrambling for the to-go boxes.
A good end to a good day. Thank you, Kansas City, Kansas, and Independence, Missouri.
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