historical weekend

With all these years since our high school graduations, I doubt my husband and I could pass an American History test, but we certainly renewed our interest after a weekend trip to San Antonio, Texas.
We went because my husband had never been to the Alamo. We dragged along a trio of granddaughters because we had extra room in the van and resort.
They missed the audio book on the lives of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Their role in the social and political changes is still seen today: the support systems necessary to maintain women’s role in the work place; equal pay for equal work, day cares and simplifying the work at home; the integration of the races in the military and in the work force and the needs of the returning soldiers.
After polio crippled him, Franklin Roosevelt trained Eleanor Roosevelt to be his eyes and legs. When he needed an on-site inspection of an institution, she went and returned with her notes and the menu for the day.
“Did you go into the kitchen, lift up the lids and look at the meal cooking?” Franklin asked. Without that visual verification of the food actually being cooked, the menu did him no good.
Eleanor learned and traveled widely visiting wounded soldiers, the factories and the day care centers. She also had issues that concerned her and presented them to Franklin – who frequently brushed them aside – only to turn to an aide a couple weeks later and say, “Check it out.”
Before listening to this biography, I did not understand the impact of the provision of weapons and equipment through the Lend-Lease program. FDR developed the idea as a means to support Great Britain at a time when the U.S. was ill prepared to join the war. Lend-Lease kicked up the production of military equipment necessary for the ultimate Allied victory.
Visiting the Alamo and seeing the I-Max portrayal of the overwhelming odds against which the volunteers fought, help me visualize the Roosevelt book’s description of the endless supply of the equipment and trained soldiers the U.S. provided for D-day and the stark realization on the German soldier’s faces watching the invasion land on the beach.
In the dioramas and I-Max, masses of Mexican soldiers swarm up the ladder around the fort at the Alamo. The advancing army outnumbered the men inside the Alamo about 10 to 1, but defending the fort to their own death, they killed a third of the Mexican soldiers.
Once inside the Alamo, the youngest grandchild’s first impulse was to ask, “Can we go now?”
I assured her we could not. She slumped around until she found some guns to study.
After the Alamo, my first impulse was to ask, “What good did it do? Why not just fade away in the night and return to fight another day with a bigger army?” But their decision to stand – and the battle cry of “Remember the Alamo” became a pivotal point that lead to adding Texas and, ultimately, the states in the southwest region of the United States.
From the Interstate we saw the night lights highlighting the state capitol of Texas. The youngest said, “I’ve never been there.”
We determined to stop long enough to snap a picture of the grandchildren standing in front of their state capitol.
We stopped and we stayed – a long time. Exploring the empty corridors, climbing the massive steps and scanning the information on the $200 million remodeling, refurbishing and expansion done in the 1990s, took a while. The man in the treasurer’s office said it took the determination of a lieutenant governor – who knew he would not run for office again- to open state coffers and supply the funds necessary for the massive project.
We topped off our history weekend, with an inadequate, 45 minute stop at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum.
We didn’t read anything in the library – that was off limits – four floors of red file boxes with gold seals behind glass walls – but we did hear Lady Bird Johnson and others tell Johnson’s story.
The 7/8 scale replica of the Oval Office in Washington D.C. during the Johnson era, caught my traveling historian’s eye. He studied the room from every angle possible because, “I have been to the White House a number of times, but I have never been in the Oval Office.”
The granddaughters studied the gowns of first ladies and the corridor relating the race to the moon, Johnson’s project as vice-president.
A driven man and natural leader, President Johnson labored from early morning to late at night every day. Johnson began his career as a teacher in a school for children of Mexican descent many came to school hungry, without breakfast. As president, he worked tirelessly for anti-poverty legislation to change things for the children of his former students. In the tumultuous 1960s he exerted his influence against segregation but found no easy solution.
Ignoring political differences, our history weekend focused my attention on the individuals’ driven spirits, dedication and willingness to push beyond the easy answers and the comfort zone of lounge chair politics. Those who have the guts to go out of their way to do something without worrying about the consequences accomplish much. Or as Eleanor Roosevelt summarized it, “Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be criticized anyway.” History records the stories of men and women who did just that and changed their worlds.
(Joan Hershberger is a reporter at the News-Times. E-mail her at jhershberger@eldoradonews.com.)