In Missouri 70 west is rolling hills of crops and pastures with evergreen trees as wind barriers. At 0959 it is 42 degrees with showers and 12 mph winds. We passed a pickup truck with a tarp covering the bed and Daddy called it a "covered wagon" heading west. Our destination is Independence, Missouri just outside Kansas City. Independence was the jump off spot for the families going west in the covered wagons and the three main trails were the Oregon trail, California trail and Sante Fe trail, we will visit several of the spots tomorrow that try to characterize the life and times of this period in our history.
Once we found Truman's Library we rode around the parking lot to find the spaces RVs are allowed to park. Harry Truman grew up in Independence, Missouri alongside of Bess Wallace. She was born into a prominent family that were part owners of the Queen Pantry Flour Company and lived in a large house at 219 N. Delaware Street which her Grandfather Gates built around the time Lincoln was assassinated. It is very Victorian-looking with the gingerbread trim around the porches. But Harry was born into a farming family. He had extremely bad vision so he avoided the playground to prevent his glasses from breaking. Instead he spent that time at the library reading biographies and history books.
At graduation Harry's family had no money for college, so he worked on the family farm for at least 11 years. His first job outside of the farm was in Clinton's Drug store where he made $3.00 a week. We walked in this drug store and signed our names in their book, added a thumb tac for the city we live in and bought ice cream cones. Next to this is a store called, "Wild about Harry" which had ecletic paraphenalia, antiques and trinkets about Truman. The owner remembered attending Harry Truman's funeral. He said Harry and Bess still lived in the same house even when they left the White House and were still down to earth unpretentious people. He walked all over the town and didn't want the Secret Service around him. When WWI broke out he entered the Army and to his surprise he did really well as an artillery captain. Once the war was over Harry and his friend, Jacob, from Kansas City opened a dry goods font made from shell casings from WWII by a Korean.
On arrival in Independence, Mo the first thing we did was go to the Truman Library. Truman was a very important president in our history and many of the decisions he made still impact our lives today. We spent over 3 hours looking at his exhibits and films on his life because this is his story and his body is buried in the courtyard.
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