28-Plastic Lincoln

     The plastic Lincoln never makes mistakes, never has a cross word and never, never passes gas.  He is the original Marble Man.   The museum in Springfield portrays the quintessential plastic Lincoln.  All his words are good, righteous and true.  All his detractors speak from the dark side.  If the plastic Lincoln is successful, we might also be covered in plastic.  We might enter a two-dimensional world where all decisions are easy and obvious. 

     The 'historic' Lincoln beats the 'plastic' Lincoln hands down.  He is found a mile south, on 8th Street, in the only home he ever owned. The historic Lincoln is incomplete, totally human and very shrewd.  You can imagine him rising in the morning and shaving in his little wall mirror, set to his 6'4" frame.  You can see him on the floor of his family room wrestling with his sons.  You can eavesdrop on the strategy talks in his front room.

     I choose history over Hollywood, wall mirrors over marble giants and outhouses over massive memorials!

                Mr. Lincoln's Outhouse

     

 

     

               

27-New Salem

  Lincoln arrived in New Salem in 1831.  The town began two years before when a saw and grist mill opened on the Sangamon River.  Lincoln was a store keeper, a postmaster, a rail splitter and a state legislator.  New Salem was certain it would be the county seat.  A county election decided otherwise.  In the last half of the 1830's, most of New Salem moved to Petersburg.  Lincoln left in 1837.  

     Lincoln and a partner ran a dry goods store from this cabin.

26-Herbert Hoover Birthplace

          They were so different!  One was patrician, the other common; one had a political background, the other engineering; one was beaming and confident, the other just completed four disastrous years as President! 
     

        

     Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover were inside the open car, driving down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Inauguration.  The New Yorker magazine was going to put a cartoon on the it's cover showing the contrast.  At the last minute the cartoon was dropped because it was too scandalous! It was the most famous cartoon that never graced the cover of the New Yorker!

     Roosevelt was part of the Hudson Valley Roosevelt's, prominent in New York society for four centuries.  Hoover was the first President born west of the Mississippi River.  Roosevelt's father had a weak heart.  The son learned discretion in the presence of the father.  Hoover's father was a 'replacement' blacksmith.  The Civil War transformed the American farm.  Many tools could be manufactured and shipped for less than the cost of making it locally.  Hoover's father saw the changing market.  He sold his blacksmith shop and opened a tool supply store.  But Hoover was only six when his father died.

     Roosevelt was baptized in fire in New York politics and the crippling effects of polio.  Hoover was baptized defending foreign nationals in China's Boxer Rebellion and feeding refugees in Belgium.  Roosevelt learned patience and timing.  Hoover learned logistics and volunteerism.  Neither had the tools necessary to solve the problem!  

     

     

25-Mid-State Fair

Welcome to the California Mid-State Fair

         Where excess is honored,

 

...foibles are forgiven,

                                      ...and wallets are lightened!

 

24-Getting Ready

     Five years ago T-shirts were $20, $15 on sale.  Three years ago  San Luis Obispo had no T-shirts available.  Two years ago I found out why.  Walmart in Arroyo Grande was selling them for $5.  I went to buy more T-shirts today.  
                                              
                                   $3.58!

       I thought about calling a buddy in the 'Anti-Human Trafficking' movement to see if slave labor was involved...  Instead, I got ten shirts!

   

23-Bye-bye Green!

     We are gearing up for our Mid-West Mystery Tour; last minute instructions for our son, last minute 'blogging' advice from our son.  With all the hubbub, I knew a decision had to be made about the yard.  

     I love my yard!  My glass-topped table on the patio has the umbrella that keeps warmth in, brightness out.  The green is spectacular!  Built-up, rearranged, nursed and coddled, I take wonderful pleasure in a world of lush, moist surroundings.
     Now I am entering a season where pleasure is denied!  The water crises is creeping into San Luis Obisipo.  Slowly it comes, like moving molten lava; slow and devastating!  It first crept in over Facebook.  I have a highly respected relative, a PhD scientist.  She blogged that brown is the new green.  She is proudly converting her front lawn to desert wasteland.  
     We just said goodbye to two house guests from the Valley.  They said they were doing laundry for a neighbor whose well water ran dry.  Now I know the Coast and the Valley feed from different water tables.  But how about a little SOLIDARITY!  
     To top it off, Lady Gaga had a front page article telling us not to shower! (or at least not alone!!)
     Man is resourceful, but only God makes rain.  If you believe that, you must believe only God withholds rain.  He did it in the past, and He is doing it now!  I have been following a 65 year old paradigm that says 'more green, more fun!'  Now I am turning off my lawn sprinklers.  At the tender age of 65, I begin the search for a new paradigm, wondering  which comes first; a new paradigm or the latter rain?