Putting a Stamp on History

This is a great week. There is Lincoln stuff going on 24/7. It's pretty fun to be right in the middle of it. Yesterday morning I went to Springfield for the First Day Issue of the new Lincoln stamps. I was one of the first people to line up outside of the Old State Capitol Building, and at 9:00 they opened the gate and allowed the crowd to go inside and purchase items featuring the First Day Issue cancellation. Then it was time for the official stamp unveiling with the U. S. Postmaster General. My favorite part of the whole program was when the 114th Illinois Volunteers (a Civil War reenactment group) presented the colors. They started out downstairs at the Old State Capitol, and you could hear their drummer echoing through the whole building. Then they started playing "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" as they entered the House chamber. It was really cool. There were about a million people there, so I headed out as quickly as I could after the stamp unveiling. It was getting pretty warm (and smelly) in there with all of those people. After the stamp ceremony, I walked over to the Lincoln home, then I met with the director of a company called Springfield Tours. I am going to be a tour guide for them over the summer which should be very fun. The tour I'll be conducting is called "Mr. Lincoln's Springfield Bicentennial Walk." It will take place on Friday and Saturday evenings. It should be a fun way to earn some extra cash.

For the last two evenings Greg and I have been able to attend some special Bicentennial lectures at the Lincoln Museum. Last night we saw for the first time the totally awesome "Bicentennial Bike" which is on display in the museum lobby. It's so cool! Yes, that's solid copper on the wheels.

Last night we heard Richard Carwardine speak. He is from England and wrote the book Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power. He gave a very interesting presentation about Lincoln's perception of the world, and the world's perception of Lincoln. I even got a book signed by him! Tonight we heard a really cool lecture by Daniel Epstein who wrote the book Portrait of a Marriage about Abraham and Mary. It was very refreshing to hear a respected author talk about how much the Lincoln's loved each other. Lately it has seemed that everyone is talking about how Mary was crazy and made Abraham miserable and how he always wished that he had been able to marry Ann Rutledge. I've never bought into that idea, and I was glad to hear Epstein's presentation tonight. Greg is a good sport to go along with all of this Lincoln stuff ;-)

Lily just walked into the room dragging the belt from my bath robe. How did she get that? We had to buy some baby-proofing things for our doorknobs because somehow she's figured out how to open doors. She's so funny!