Blackie and Danny Go To See The President (Cont.)
Screen 4 of 5Those beautiful grounds were covered by several acres of rolling Kentucky "blue" grass (actually its color is a bluish green) and a variety of trees, mostly oaks, maples and sycamores. On a high place near the center of the area was a huge white stone building constructed some years earlier to surround and protect the very small cabin in which Lincoln was born.
We could not get in to see the cabin when we first arrived, because so many people were already in the stone building. But Gooch and I had a good time running up and down the broad stone steps leading up to it. Blackie and Danny joined us in the running, but they did not always follow us. Apparently, they wanted to explore the grounds on their own. A dog annoyed by their scampering tried to catch Danny but was unsuccessful because Danny outsmarted him by running under the loosely hung door to the ladies' rest room. There was just enough room for Danny but not enough for the dog. As I stood outside the door waiting for Danny, I heard several screams from inside. The ladies in there must have thought Danny was a rat. In a few minutes, after the dog had gone away, he came out cautiously and I picked him up and put him in my pocket. All this time, Gooch was holding Blackie so he wouldn't run away.
Finally??about 1:30??the President arrived. He was riding in a big open car--the biggest one I had ever seen. Its heavy cloth top was neatly folded back behind the rear seat. A man standing next to "Nelle" who said he knew a lot about automobiles told us it was an "Oldsmobile Limited," first built in 1910. But another man close by said no; he was sure it was a "Stanley Steamer," first built in 1911. Of course, I didn't know which one was right; but since I had been born in 1911, I decided to call it a "Stanley Steamer." I remember though, that when I heard that word "steamer" I wondered if it would blow out nasty cinders like the "steam" train had done earlier that day. I certainly hoped not, and it didn't.
When the presidential car came through the gate to the grounds, Mr. Wilson was seated in the back seat next to Mrs. Wilson, his second wife of less than a year, the former Edith Bolling Galt. (The first Mrs. Wilson had died about two years before.) Mother had already told me about all this, and she was glad to be able to see the President's present wife. When I saw this Mrs. Wilson, I leaned over to Gooch and told him she was wearing a funny looking, floppy, broad-brimmed panama hat just like the one we had taken out of "Nelle's" hat box the night before. Just at that time Mrs. Wilson smiled at us, and I wondered if she had heard me talking about her funny hat. I hoped not.
When the President saw all the people waiting for him inside the gate, he stood up and began smiling and waving. We were very close to his car at that time. ("Nelle" had said if we got close to the gate we would have the best chance of seeing him.) So I waved to him, and he waved back to me??directly to me. Then Gooch and I held Danny and Blackie up high over our 8 heads. They didn't seem to look at Mr. Wilson, but he waved at them anyway. "Nelle" was not too far behind us, but I'm sure she saw him and Mrs. Wilson also. Quite often when the three of us were out together, Mother would allow us--even urge us--to go ahead of her and do things on our own, without holding her hand all the time. But I remember she was always close by, so we could run back to her if we became frightened, or even if we just wanted to come back. I did not realize then that she did all this on purpose, but it was fun and I liked it. (A friend of mine who lived next door to us in Bowling Green was six years old, and he could never get away from his mother. She always made him hold onto her hand when they were out together, saying he might get lost or run over by a horse and buggy. I told Gooch one time I was glad she was not our mother.)
Well, that was as close to President Wilson as I got all day. But he had waved directly to me, and I will never forget that.
Later, he stood on the highest of those stone steps leading up to the Memorial Building and made a speech. I don't remember exactly what he said, but he kept insisting he wanted peace and that our country should not enter "the war." It seemed to get hotter and more crowded while he talked. I could not see him, and neither could Blackie and Danny. "Nelle" had been right about that. But all of us had seen him very well when he came through the gate. So I did not try to get another look at him. Gooch did try by climbing up into the lower limbs of a big sycamore tree by the running brook, but he slipped and fell out before he could see Mr. Wilson. It did not hurt him but he did not try it again.
While the speech was going on--it seemed like a very long time to me--I took Blackie into the big stone building so we could see Lincoln's cabin. I remember thinking how small it was. How could a whole family live together in that small space? No wonder, I thought, that Abe's father took them all to Indiana to live when the boy was just seven. They just didn't have enough room here. As I was thinking about all this, a guard shouted to me that Blackie (the guard called him "your rat") had run under the rope and into the log cabin itself, where no one was supposed to go! So without thinking, I, too, ran into the cabin and caught Blackie just as he was climbing up the leg of a small table. Another guard then came to get us both. He seemed angry, and I thought he would surely spank us, but he didn't. He was very kind, and I wondered if perhaps he had a pet guinea pig at home. He took me by the hand rather firmly, led me to the door of the big building and then insisted that Blackie and I go back to our mother. I didn't mean to be sassy, but I told him Blackie's mother was not there. It was during all this trouble that I must have lost my sweater. I think I dropped it when I began chasing Blackie into the cabin; but when I went back later to look for it it was not there.
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