Hooray for IHPA and Teddy Roosevelt

FINALLY! Illinois is slowly but surely recovering from the damages done by the evil dictator Blago. Yesterday my friend Linda started back to work with IHPA, and today the Dana-Thomas House, one of Springfield's biggest attractions, reopened. Click here to read about the big celebration. And here is a link to an excellent article Mom found in the Chicago Tribune: "State Historic Sites to Reopen Next Week." I still can't believe that the historic sites were ever shut down. I have only been at the Lincoln Home for a few weeks, and I can't tell you how many visitors have expressed disappointment and dismay that the governor would have ever closed the sites. Thankfully that will change now. Even the smaller sites, like the Pierre Menard Home in the southern part of the state, will be reopening. They are still trying to hire staff back, so the opening date for the other sites has yet to be determined, but at least the reopening process has begun.

Today was another busy day at work, but at least I have once again made it to my weekend. I also had one especially fun tour today--there were some people from Thailand! I told them that my sister spent some time there, so my family loves their country; and when I said, "Sawatdeekah," they were so excited. They all wanted to have their picture taken with me after the tour :-)

I have a new dilemma to figure out at work: what to do with Teddy Roosevelt. There is a Theodore Roosevelt re-enactor named Gib who wants to come do something at the Lincoln Home. The Chief of Interpretation handed the situation off to me and said that having Teddy come to the site would be a good idea, but I need to figure out why a Teddy Roosevelt program would be relevant to the Lincoln Home. Well, they are both on Mount Rushmore . . . . I know I could round up an Abe Lincoln re-enactor, but then I'd have to find Thomas Jefferson and George Washington too. Hmmmm. One of the other perplexing assignments I've been given is figuring out something to do to commemorate Constitution Day in September. Maybe I could have Teddy Roosevelt come for Constitution Day? That would kill two birds with one stone. I love Teddy Roosevelt. In fact, one of my favorite Mississippi adventures was when I stumbled across the town where the Teddy Bear was born: Onward, Mississippi. It was there that Theodore Roosevelt went bear hunting, and some people he was with chained up a bear so that he could shoot it. He refused, however, to shoot a chained bear and had it released. Cartoons about the incident evolved into the creation of the Teddy Bear. It was in Onward, Mississippi that I had the most delicious sweet potato fries I have ever tasted. But there aren't any bears in downtown Springfield--or sweet potato fries that I know of. So, I'll have to figure out something to do with Teddy Roosevelt--if they will ever give me time to work on things! We have been so busy with tours that there hasn't been time for anything else. Tours are good though. I love telling people about Abraham Lincoln.