I Like (to Visit) Ike

I've been spending the last few days visiting my family in Manhattan, Kansas celebrating the Fourth of July and hanging out. Today, I had the chance to drive to Abilene, Kansas the boyhood home of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. It's incredible how much the world changed during Ike's life. He was born in 1890 and died in 1969, living through World Wars I and II and the beginning of the Cold War. He lived through the Great Depression and by the time he was in office, color television had been invented! I've had the chance to visit the Presidential Center before, but I didn't really know what I was looking at or who President Eisenhower was in the first place so it was really interesting to see everything with an understanding of what was going on in the world at the time.

I had the chance to tour President Eisenhower's childhood home which was a really interesting thing to tour. Ike only lived there for a few years, but his mom lived there until she died. It's a tiny house for 6 boys and their parents. With only 4 bedrooms, I three boys shared one room, two another and the third tiny bedroom was reserved for Ike's oldest brother. I can't seem to wrap my head around how small houses were back during the late 1800s compared with houses today. Running water wasn't even installed in the house until Ike was 18 years old! How crazy is that? 

The Eisenhower Museum was also an interesting experience. There is a really cool exhibit going on from 2013-2016 that is about World War II which I found to be fascinating. I've always found WWII to be one of the most interesting parts of history to study so this exhibit spoke right to me. The best thing that I got to experience from this special exhibit was that there was a man who had really served in WWII and had actually met President Eisenhower when he was in command of the Allied troops in Europe that was touring the museum. He was telling stories to those of us that were around him and it was a really cool experience to hear some of it right from someone who lived it. I also had the chance to interact with with a man who had friends that had fought in WWII and was telling me stories that his friends had told him about liberating Death Camps. I loved this experience. 

There was also a wall that talked about Japanese Internment Camps in the United States during WWII which I thought was a really interesting read. 

Something I found to be interesting about Ike during WWII was that he had prepared a statement for if the D-Day invasion were to have failed. I hadn't given any thought to the chance that the invasion could have been a huge disaster. By no means was it an extraordinary victory, but the fact that General Eisenhower wrote a statement taking full responsibility for the failure brought a new light to the D-Day invasion.

There was a section of the museum about the election of President Eisenhower. My brother actually enjoyed looking through the various election materials and the I LIKE IKE buttons. 

I even got to visit President Eisenhower's final resting place. He's buried in what is called the Place of Meditation. It's like a small church, where Dwight, Mamie and their first son Doud are buried. There's a small fountain and it's a really peaceful place. 

Overall, I had an awesome time vising the Eisenhower Presidential Center. It's a beautiful campus to check out if you're interested! There's also the Presidential Library for research related to President Eisenhower's papers from his presidency. I would love to look through them some day!