History | Down Home Traveler

President George H.W. Bush (or Daddy Bush) was President of the United States from 1989 to 1993. It seems that some of the more recent President’s have established Presidential Libraries throughout the US. The George H.W. Bush Presidential Library was established in 1997.

Come to find out the “Library” is more of a museum than a library (who would’ve thought). As you walk through the museum we follow President Bush’s life, we get to know his family and learn where he found his values and what his parents were like, his childhood, his military career, how he met his wife, his family, and his career in politics. He now lives in Kennebunkport, Maine with his wife Barbara. (As a child, we vacationed in Maine yearly and I remember one year driving by his home and having the secret service tell us to turn around, kind of cool.)

The main purpose of our trip to College Station, Texas was to see the President Bush Presidential Library. Here are some highlights of our trip.

Upon arriving at the Library you will see how beautiful the building is itself…

“The Beast” may be the most classified car you may ever see…

… equipped with bullet proof windows (as thick as telephone books) and bullet proof tires where if they are shot the car can keep traveling. It also comes with a remote car starter with a bomb detector (I have one of these on my car too), self healing fuel tank, extra oxygen, and layered with kevlar throughout.

(Coming to a dealership near you in 2025).

A huge baseball lover, President Bush played baseball at Yale and even kept a glove in the top drawer of his desk while in office.

In 1947, the Bush’s bought this car for just under $1,700.00 and moved their family from Connecticut to Texas.

I made it just in time, the White House was expecting me. Little did I know I had a full day ahead…

A speech had to be made…(I think my point came across)…

… followed by a very important black tie dinner (my dress was cut out of the picture at the right)…

…unfortunately my dinner was cut short due to a very urgent top secret meeting I had to attend…

Back to the “library”, we were able to see President Bush’s office…

and reflect on his achievements…

This is part of the Berlin Wall which came down in 1989. This was remarkable to see.

We then found the library…children’s books.

You will also be able to see momentous from his year in the military, letters he sent home after his plane was shot down, family memories, the Gulf War, life in the White House and post White House. We even got to sit in a replica of his desk in the Oval Office and experience his love for sky diving. There is so much information, it is truly remarkable.

Finally, here is my favorite picture from the museum…

I think this was the highlight of his career!

Check it out – it is part of your history.

For More Info: http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/
To see if a Presidential Library is near you: http://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/visit/

(Source)

I attended a small private four-year college in Burlington, VT. We didn’t have athletic teams however it was a small community, everyone pretty much knew everyone and I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything in the world.

Then we come to the South. The South loves their big (huge) schools and has the best school spirit I’ve ever seen. Everyone goes to the games and everyone wears the school colors. Case in point – A&M. A&M is a huge engineering and agriculture school located in College Station, Texas. The students are known as “Aggies” and they all wear maroon. All of them.

We arrived at A&M and I immediately felt like a small fish in a big ole pond. A&M is enormous, massive, too big for this Vermonter. All I could think was that I could never go to school here. For starters, I would need a moped to get to class. Everyone wears maroon, and if its not maroon it says A&M. You really need to admire the schools pride, we just called our school “Camp Champ”, haha. (It was a good place.)

A&M has so much pride, its admirable. Everyone shows up for the football games, everyone knows the schools cheer, its a community. There is a lot of tradition, a lot. Each year, A&M builds their infamous bonfire. In November 1999, tragedy struck the engineering students who were constructing the bonfire. 12 students died, coincidentally enough as A&M is known for having the 12th man.

A Memorial has been built in remembrance of those twelve students and to honor the tradition that A&M stands for. The Memorial consists of three elements:

1. The Traditional Plaza: This is the entrance of the memorial. Here sits a vertical wall which serves as a barrier between the outside world and the memorial. The wall is engraved with The Last Corps Trip which is recited each year before the bonfire lighting.

2. The History Walk signifies the 90 years of the bonfire tradition before the tragedy in 1999. 89 stones compromise the timeline, beginning in 1909. Each stone consists of an amber light which signifies the lighting of the bonfire each November, except in 1963 when JFK was assassinated (signified with a black slab). There are also three other bonfire related deaths which occurred in 1955, 1982 and 1996 which are also acknowledged in the walk.

3. The Spirit Ring. The ring signifies the students who lost their life as well as those who were injured in the collapse. The ring itself has a 170 foot diameter (the same distance that is erected around the Bonfire stack annually) consisting of twenty-seven granite blocks which recognizes those injured in the collapse. Surrounding the ring are twelve portals, representing the students who lost their lives on that tragic day. Each portal holds a students portrait, his / her signature and a written reflection. Each portal is extending from the center of the ring towards his / her hometown.

The inside of the spirit ring sits a black-granite marker which represents the center pole of the bonfire. The marker is engraved with the date and exact time that the bonfire collapsed.