Thursday, June 25
We piled in the car for a short trip down from Louisville to Lincoln's Knob Creek Farm. In trying to find it, we landed in the little town of Hodgenville, KY.
Everything is Lincoln in these parts. It's the Lincoln bank, the Lincoln HIghway, Lincoln school... There was a little Lincoln museum where the volunteer's lecture to the kids (to not touch anything) was longer than the trip through the museum. There were many Abraham Lincoln wax figures (the same wax figure actually. They were all made from the same mold). The Lincolns were then placed in different situations and periods through his life. Imagine the youthful teenage Lincoln chopping wood, only weathered and over 40 and made of wax.
There were some statues outside in the main square. A bronze statue of Lincoln sat elegantly. There was also a touching bronze of Lincoln as a young boy. He sat on a log, reading and staring up at Lincoln as a statesman, with a dog at his side. Tom and I both remarked at the care taken with the piece and how hard it would be to get the accuracy of the gaze of the eyes. Cole and George walked around the base of the statue and climbed on it. Tom caught sight of a name at the base. "You won't believe this!" Tom said. I looked... there were several names and then, Jonah Hendrickson... Jonah is a friend from Berkeley, CA. Wow! To think that this statue will likely be there for a thousand years.
We stopped for lunch in the park at Lincoln's Knob Creek Farm. It's the farm he lived on from 3 to 7 (before his family had to move on to Indiana due to getting evicted from their lease). The backdrop was lush green grass with large hay rolls, a creek and dawdling split log fence. We met two women from nearby Louisville who were down for the day. One woman took some lovely shots of us. My good camera managed to be working for that stop. The kids had "Lincoln soldier fights" and when George put Cole in jail, Adeline freed him. Pictured here:
Our final stop was the Sinking Spring Farm birthplace memorial, about 10 minutes from Knob Creek. It's an odd concept: a marble Greek temple (with 56 stairs leading up to it, as Lincoln was 56 when he died) and inside, instead of a gilt statue of Athena, is an old log cabin. Until about 5 years ago it was believed to be the cabin where Lincoln was born and where he lived until he was 3. It even went on tour across the country as such. It had been found on the Sinking Spring Farms property, but with wood dating, scientists determined about five years ago that its logs were from 1848 (not 1809 when Lincoln was born). Nevertheless, it is similar to the one in which Lincoln would have been born. It's quite beautiful with the white and dark wood and complimentary mud (really).
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I tried to take a photo, but my camera managed to stop working once inside and I hadn't brought the camera Sheri loaned me up the stairs. I would have gone to fetch it but Tom was deeply engrossed in Lincoln talk with the well-informed Park Ranger, and Cole had currently thrown off his shoes and was now running circles around the cabin, screaming with delight, and threatening to cross the chain across the entrance and go in. Adeline was already on the other side of the chain silently inspecting the craftsmanship of the windows, and George, like Elvis, had left the building.
Tom took us down to the source of the Sinking Spring at the base of the steps. Young green ferns grew along the walls, and the water poured down through layers of earth. The spring is a weird geologic formation wherein the spring is a direct source of water from under the Earth. There is an opening in the shale exposing the aquafer. I can't help but thinking of the parenting movements towards organic food and chemical free living. People look for enriched eggs and vitamin fortified milk for children. We don't seem to know if we want it "pure " and "simple" (fewer ingredients on the package if we have to have a package) or all of the extra fortifications to make sure that our children are the brightest, the strongest, the biggest... At least, I struggle with it all. Anyway, I couldn't help thinking about the fact that there must be something in this water. We could bottle it - Honest Abe Water - How to Become Brilliant. Many people say that a child is formed by two years of age. A perfect selling point for my HAW.
Tom speculated instead about how Lincoln's childhood understanding of what was under the ground - shade, spray, refreshment - was the exact opposite of what preachers he heard would have suggested - fire, brimstone, agony. Could this incongruity explain Lincoln's lifelong skepticism?
We drove back through Louisville and stopped at Zachary Taylor's home in a Louisville neighborhood. It was very upper class neighborhood known as Springfield (there had formally been a lot of land owned by the family that is now, I suppose, the neighborhood). His house is a private home with an historical marker out front. A lovely white brick home with blue, I think, shutters and manicured lawns. It is the house you think you're supposed to have. It's a house that no one can criticize you for, anyway. I was a little afraid to open my car door because one of the perfect neighbors might see the clutter in my front seat. When I did open the back door to let Cole out (who peed on their lawn before I could stop him), stickers, books, DVDs, and sippy cups spilled out. Diapers from the latest diaper fight between Cole and George were casualties on the lawn. At least they were clean. I changed Adeline and we moved on to Ohio... possibly leaving tire tracks on the grass.
Much water and many additional pee breaks later (the Clyde boys are legend among the gravel shoulders of highways all over the Midwest), we landed in North Bend Ohio.
Oh and by the way, we saw this sign next to an auto shop on the way to Hodgenville... "Free oil changes for single mothers on June 27." We didn't know whether to think that was happy or sad.
Renee and Tom, I love the updates of your latest journey. I googled the lincoln statute and it looks like it was just unveiled last year, here is a link to the announcement. Jonah and his group have done some really cool stuff.
http://www.kylincoln.org/NR/rdonlyres/19F41D11-42E7-49D9-B9B5-351FE21B6D2F/166270/KALBC_May08_News.pdf
Posted by: Sandy | June 30, 2009 at 06:55 AM