December 23, 2012

December 23, 2012

Aimee and I saw the movie Groundhog Day last week. Both of us think it is a pretty cute movie. So we took a nice Sunday afternoon drive with Aimee’s mom to Punxsutawney, PA for a late lunch. Well, not to the real town, but the fake movie one. The far northwest suburb of Woodstock, IL played the part because it was more like the small winter town of our imagination. Woodstock got the nod because it has a rather large central town square with two gazebos and lots of little shops on the periphery. After lunch in the family diner, where Bill Murray often ate, we strolled the stores checking out scenes from the movie. On the way out of town, I ended up circling the square a couple times till my GPS gave good directions. On the second circuit, Aimee, ever the comedian, felt like she was reliving Groundhog Day.

December 18, 2012

December 18, 2012

We crossed into Missouri this morning. Our first stop is the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. I read they give money away to every visitor. Jobless we need to take advantage of every opportunity.  After passing through security they hand us each a bag of cash.  Unfortunately it is all shredded.  It is going to take us a long time to paste the bills back together.  I may not be buying Aimee’s Christmas present till Spring!  While at the bank we decide to run through the Money Museum.  It is mildly interesting.  The best part is the window overlooking the cash operations.  There they sort and clean pallets of paper money filtering out counterfeit and torn bills.  A guard tells us that most of the money they get back is filthy.

The main reason we are in town is to visit the National World War I Museum across the street. The museum is relatively new and was built beneath an old WWI memorial that looks like a fat Washington Monument. WWI is kind of an enigma to me. I never understood why it started or why the US got involved. I thought this was a great opportunity to learn more about it. Apparently I am not the only one scratching my head. The introductory movie starts off saying historians to this day are also not sure why it started. An assassination in Serbia of an Austrian prince was merely a spark that lit a powder keg. Considering this was a war that nobody could clearly explain, the consequences were devastating. Europe was bankrupted, and almost ten million died, most slaughtered by the newly invented machine gun that could mow down thousands in mere minutes. A recount of the war is pretty monotonous. Most battles on the Western Front occurred back and forth over the same small stretch of northern France.

Even the American entry into the war is unclear. The best I could piece together was that our leaders were irritated that German U-boats were interfering with American business profits on sales to France and Britain. The US went “over there” late into the war when both sides were exhausted and starving. Our troops spent more time touring France and having a good time, than they did fighting. After the armistice we even organized an Olympic competition in Paris while waiting for troop ships to take our soldiers back. Our soldiers learned to drink French wine but discovered to their horror that Prohibition was passed while they were gone.

In the end we have to zoom through the big museum because we still have a long drive ahead. We arrive in Godfrey, IL long after sundown.

December 17, 2012

December 17, 2012

It is December. That means it is time for us to travel to colder climes to make us remember why we live in Tucson. It is not snowing yet, so after spending the night in Tucumcari, NM we decide to take the northern route, heading northeast along back roads across the panhandle of Oklahoma. This area, once known as "No Mans" land, because it wasn’t part of any state or territory, was the subject of a recent PBS show on the Dust bowl of the 1930’s. The panhandle was the epicenter of that southern plains disaster. Caused by drought and poor agricultural practices it added greatly to the distress of the Great Depression. Many “Okies” migrated to California in search of relief. Fortunately the ones who stayed learned to quit growing wheat in a semi-desert.

Crossing the border into Kansas we take a short break in the town of Liberal to see Kansas’ most famous residents, Dorothy and Toto. We see her house but it is not the one that landed on the wicked witch of Oz. Besides several statues of Dorothy, Liberal also has a statue of the Spaniard Francisco Coronado. What is he doing here? He seems out of place 1000 miles from Arizona. In his search for gold in the American Southwest, Coronado traveled all the way here before he realized he was being conned by his Indian guides.

December 14, 2012

December 14, 2012

After renting dozens of movies lately, Aimee and I were beginning to believe Hollywood no longer made films worth watching. Much to my pleasant surprise we went to the movies twice this last month and saw two great ones; Argo and Lincoln. What I find fascinating is that both films were historical accounts where we knew the ending. Despite the lack of real surprise, both movies were so well made that we were on pins and needles to learn the outcome of each film.

Argo was about the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis. A small group of Americans avoided capture that first day and hid out in the Canadian embassy. Incredibly they were rescued by a CIA agent who hatched an impossible scheme. He flew to Iran, picked them up in a mini-van, and they all pretended to scout potential locations for a fictitious Hollywood sci-fi movie. Incredibly they all flew out on a commercial flight. The story is too crazy to make up.

Lincoln on the other hand takes place in 1865 near the end of the Civil War and focuses on the passage of the 13th amendment outlawing slavery. History only records the moment as a passing fact like it was a foregone conclusion. That couldn’t have been farther from the truth. Lincoln apparently did a lot of ugly political horse-trading to overcome stiff Democrat resistance to the bill. While the amendment is the central story, the true theme running in the background is the leadership of Lincoln and all the critical decisions he had to make and the stress he had to endure while President during a Civil War. It would have killed a lesser man. Yet he endured and didn’t lose hope even while his personal life was also in chaos. Oh to have a president today with a fraction of Lincoln’s talent!