Truman's "Middle"--TRIP 3 (2012)

Today is the first full day of autumn. Shannon said it was 106 degrees in Phoenix, but with 37 degrees in Chicago, Mom turned her heat on. A deceiving blue sky spread across the horizon of Missouri as we left St. Louis behind this morning and headed across the rolling farmland.
"The sun is bright," said Andy, "but the air is cool." It was 51 degrees.


The mule team adds a touch of realism
to the old street scene of 1919.

Soybeans and corn. That's what they grow in this part of the country. We stopped at a rest area for a quick break. Temperatures hovered in the low 50's.  Travelers would never know it though with a brilliant sun, green trees, and yellow fields of soybeans and dried corn.
The Golden Age passes came in handy at the home of President Harry S. Truman and First Lady Bess in Independence, Missouri, at a rambling frame house on North Delaware Street where they lived for 50 years.
"I found myself right back where I started," Truman said happily, when he returned here after ten years in the U.S. Senate and nearly eight more in the White House.  Always aware of his roots, Truman said, "I tried never to forget who I was and where I'd come from and where I was going back to." The "People's President," who lived a long and surprisingly simple life, moved into the Wallace House in 1919, when he married Bess Wallace and lived here until his death in 1972. During his presidency, 1945-1953,the Wallace House was known as the "Summer White House."

Rambling but unassuming, the Wallace House was home
for Harry Truman for more than fifty years. 

Ranger Jeff led us around the first floor and described the furnishings. "It is really just like Bess left it when she died in 1982, except for the formal dinner plates. Their only child, daughter Margaret, born in 1924, set the table for six. Six never ate here at once. Harry and Bess dressed for dinner and always used china, but they dined alone at this one end of the table," he said. "Truman was conscious of clothes. He dressed very well," explained Jef when one of the visitors asked if the cane was used for fashion or necessity. Jeff pointed out the cozy study off the diningroom with the more than 1,000 books.  "Peek in there one at a time," he said. "That's where they spent their evenings, and I heard Bess couldn't even go in there without emotion the ten years she lived here after he died. Every evening they had relaxed together, with Harry reading biography, history or political studies and Bess reading her favorite mystery."  Ranger Jeff also pointed out the lowered shades through the first floor. "These were private people," he said. "They never got used to all the attention once they returned home."

This unusual structure,
towering over the
surroundings, is the steeple
of a community church.

We looked at all the common things that made Wallace House a home. "Bess even left Harry's coat and hat hanging in the hall," pointed out Ranger Jeff.  "I don't think she changed a thing in ten years; he didn't want to be affected by the presidency and fame, so this was a retreat from the world.  He had a reputation for integrity and hard work and was known for his Midwestern values of honesty, courage and perseverance.  Even the gifts he was given were put in his library rather than returned to Wallace House," he said.

Across the street, the Noland House displayed letters and historical pictures. By coincidence this was the home of Truman's aunt and uncle. He often stayed over night here to save a trip back and forth to his father's Grandview farm on weekends when he came to town to court Bess.

The War memorial
honored deceased
from every U.S. conflict.

The literature explained that Harry knew Bess from Sunday School when he was six and she was five-years old. They met again in 1910 when he returned a cake plate to Madge Wallace across the street at the insistence of his aunt. Bess answered the door and their courtship began, one that lasted nine years until she agreed to marry him on June 28, 1919.  Ranger Jeff reiterated the story, emphasizing the solidarity of the family and their love for each other.
On Lexington Avenue and North River Boulevard, we stopped to photograph The Temple of The Community of Christ. "I thought it was Mormon," said Andy, but nowhere did we see any evidence that the unusual structure belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints.


To get our bearings, we checked in the motel off Route 29 and circled the northern area of the city on Routes 435 and 35.

From this perspective at the Vivion Park fountain,
it is hard to believe that today is the first full day of autumn.

At Vivion Park we strolled among the shade trees and rested at the War Memorial before dinnertime.
"Kansas City is famous for its fountains," said Andy. We found one at the far end of Vivion Park. At least seven couples in formal attire posed for pictures in front of the spewing blue water. 
"Is it a wedding?" asked Andy.
"No," I told him, "a high school dance, I think. Probably Homecoming. Remember those days?"
A group of mothers arranged hair and ties and clicked away as the sun created rainbows with the water and all the world smiled.