May16 - Clinton Presidential Center and Park

May16
We have been looking forward to visiting the Clinton Presidential Center and Park in Little Rock. We walked in right as they we starting a docent led tour. She led us through the museum and gave us an excellent overview of what we could explore further on our own. We followed the tour with a film on Clinton, of course excellent, and then an audio guide took us back to see the displays on our own. They have reconstructed the White House Cabinet Room and also the Oval Office. These rooms are exactly like the “real thing.” The cabinet table was made by the same company that made the original. Our docent told us that Clinton will still come down from his pent house apartment to the Oval Office to sit and read after hours. If he notices that something is not in quite the right place, he will set things straight. He was very “hands on” in the building of the museum and felt something wasn’t quite right in the Oval Office. He realized it was that the ceiling was too low by a couple of inches. Sure enough, he was right and it was remedied. The second floor has the theater, Oval Office and displays on his presidency. Fourteen alcoves line the sides of the room with each multimedia exhibit focusing on a significant policy area during his eight years in office with titles such as “Putting People First.” Down the middle is a timeline for each year that has a display with key events and highlights. Under the displays are notebooks holding his schedule for each and every day of that year. I found the schedule for May 16, 2000, and it was a bit mind boggling. It was hard for me to imagine having to focus on so many different things in one day and continually be at the top of your game. Archival boxes holding non critical papers are at the ends of each alcove. It was a very moving experience for us. Any democrat would love it! The audio tour was all told by Clinton. He shared his thoughts with us on what was important to him, what he accomplished, what he didn’t, and what his hopes are for us nationally as well as globally. The third floor has the Oval Office, displays on his growing up years and life in the White House. There is also a display with some of the gifts he and Hillary received. We certainly could have spent more time here but we wanted to see Little Rock Central High School and the Visitor Center before it closed. Luckily they had a restaurant downstairs at the Clinton Museum so we didn’t starve.

White House Cabinet Room

Oval Office

Timeline Displays for Each Year in Office

The museum itself is a sleek modern design with a penthouse on the roof. All Presidential Libraries are built and maintained without government funds. The land the library was built on was a wasteland and a dangerous place to be at night. It has brought about a renewal in the surrounding area. A park surrounds the building and a 15 mile loop trail begins at the bridge that crosses the Arkansas River. It is a “green” building and won the platinum rating. We were impressed all the way around.

Clinton Presidential Center and Park

At the end of the day we only had 30 minutes in the Visitor Center at Little Rock Central High School. Students were still on the street after school and it struck me as pretty amazing to be standing here seeing black and white students enjoying each others company. In 1957, this very street was the scene of such powerful hatred, horrendous mobs hurling objects and spitting in the faces of black people and reporters. Governor Faubus ordered the National Guard to stop the nine black students from entering the building. Finally soldiers ordered by President Eisenhower escorted the nine students into the building. Day after day each of the “The Little Rock Nine” had to find their own way to keep going in the face of unrelenting verbal and physical harassment by some of their white classmates. At the end of the year, these courageous students looking for a decent education brought us closer to providing equal rights to all. We were able to listen to a couple of the student’s recorded comments in the museum. It’s amazing that they survived their high school experience, went onto college and had fulfilling careers. They have stayed in contact with each other and remained very close. I could go on and on with things I have learned.

Little Rock Central High School

Norm and Wes had been on the phone trying to figure out how to get together. Wes was in Little Rock spending time visiting a close friend in the hospital and didn’t know if he would be able to meet up with us. What a great surprise when he was at the end of the second floor at the Clinton museum waving his hand to get Norm’s attention! Norm and Christy had a chance to catch up with him and found out that he and his wife are hoping to move out to the northwest They love the rain! He is quite a guy. I think he probably has a good story on just about any topic. I’m pretty sure we will see them in Washington. What a nice reunion even if it was standing in an alcove at the Clinton Museum.

May 17
We had a beautiful drive north on the scenic Hwy 7 to Eureka Springs near the Missouri border. The drive took us through the Ozark National Forest with trees for miles and miles in every direction. We stopped for lunch at a local café on the square in the town of Harrison. We are staying at a KOA west of town with a pool. With the temperature at 87 degrees we actually put on our suits and had a swim! We enjoyed sitting by the pool staying nice and cool reading. The downside was that I ended up being a snack for a tick. It must have been on the chaise lounge and crawled onto my leg. YIKES! Norm checked on the computer as to how to get it OFF my leg. The prescribed method is to crab it with tweezers and gently pull. It worked! All in all, I still enjoyed the pool.