"Race Relations"

Aaaaarghhhhhh. I must vent for a moment so that my head does not explode from frustration. This morning we had our monthly all-staff meeting at the Lincoln Home. Said meetings usually involve reports from all divisions, a message from the superintendent, and a short safety presentation. Today's meeting, however, featured a "special guest" invited to the park by none other than Jason Boyd--the tyrant ranger whose reign of fear and unfairness nearly ruined about three months of my life. (Though Jason is no longer our direct supervisor--thank heavens!--he is still the park's "Outreach Coordinator," meaning he can come to work and leave whenever he wants and not do anything all day.) So someone made the mistake of allowing Jason to schedule a guest speaker for this morning's meeting. The speaker, an African-American gentleman, got up in front of our entire staff and said he was going to speak about "race relations" in Springfield. He proceeded to, for the next 45 minutes, basically chide us for all being racists and not doing more to promote African-Americans at the Lincoln Home. He said that Springfield is the most racist city in the country. Are you kidding me? This guy was off his rocker. He said (I'm not kidding--this is his exact quote): "Black people have always been and are still denied any power and privilege in the United States." WHAT? Has he looked outside lately and seen who is President? If that's not power and privilege, I don't know what is. How many millions of dollars do African-American football and basketball players make each year? And has this guy heard of Oprah? Then he said, "You all don't do enough to incorporate African- Americans into the story of Abraham Lincoln." We tell people why he was assassinated--which, in a nutshell, was because of his idea that black people should have freedom! And I know that none of the rangers here sugar coat the issue of slavery. Slavery was very bad, but it was stopped, and Abraham Lincoln and 620,000 soldiers died in the process. If you ask me, it is people like our guest speaker this morning who cause racial problems in our country today. Okay, I feel better now after getting all of that out.

On a happier note, today is a beautiful fall-like day! We have a high of 75 and a nice, cool breeze outside. If only the weather could stay like this forever.

Chiefs and Lumberkings

Yesterday Greg and I had a really fun time going to our first-ever Peoria Chiefs baseball game! The Peoria Chiefs are a Minor League affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. They were playing the Clinton (Iowa) Lumberkings--those Minor League teams certainly have some funny mascots. It had rained earlier in the day, so we were hoping it would let up for the game. The sun literally came out right as they were getting ready to start.

Greg and I strategically got autographs from almost everyone on both teams. Before the game, I went over to the Lumberjacks dugout and Greg stationed himself at the Chiefs'. We both got a lot of autographs--including the two Chiefs managers! One of them was a catcher for the Cubs, and the other won the World Series with the Detroit Tigers. So it was a fun and fruitful evening. Right as the sixth inning was coming to a close it started to rain. Greg and I didn't want to get home too late, so we took off. It was good we did because they ended up delaying the game for a while, waiting for the rain to let up, and the Chiefs ended up losing. But it was still a really fun game!

Recreating History

Today we made history at the Lincoln Home! On August 8, 1860 (150 years + 20 days ago today), a photograph was taken of a political rally in front of the Lincoln Home. If you click on the picture on the left to make it larger, you'll see Lincoln sporting his white suit standing near the front door of the home. You can also see Mary Lincoln in the far left window on the first floor. The parade included a float of 33 women dressed in white (representing the 33 United States in 1860). Following behind the float was a buggy carrying a single woman, dressed in white, carrying a sign that said "Won't you let me in? -Kansas," representing the plight of Kansas to join the Union as a free state. The original photograph, taken from the second floor of the Brown home (no longer standing) captured a single, exciting moment of Abraham Lincoln's rise to the Presidency.

In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's Presidential campaign, we decided to recreate the photograph today at the Lincoln Home. Visitors at the Lincoln Home this morning thought it was really cool that they were able to be a part of this historic event. We had many volunteers and employees in Living History clothing, along with some re-enactors from other states (and, of course, Fritz Klein as Abraham Lincoln), but what really made the photo was the general public. They weren't wearing the same types of clothes as those in the original picture, but their excitement helped create an atmosphere that captured the spirit of the event.

Unfortunately we didn't have a parade float for the picture. Also, the Lincoln Home windows are now painted shut, so we couldn't have people hanging out the windows. But, we did have a Mary Lincoln inside the left first floor window. However, the trees that have grown in the neighborhood since 1860 are blocking said window! So, our picture today looks pretty different from the original, but it's a neat blend of history and modernity. Oh, and since the Brown home is no longer standing in the neighborhood, the man who took today's photo was standing atop a giant fork lift. It is kind of hard to pick out individual people (except for Lincoln), but I'm in the photo wearing a black bonnet. It was a fun and exciting morning! Has it only been one week since the Stanley Cup was at the Lincoln Home? That seems like about a month ago--it's been a long week.

When Tiffy Met Stanley

Usually when I write about something involving "Stanley," it is in reference to my arch nemesis--Stanley Thayne. You may remember some of my previous musings about how Stanley Thayne has been one-upping me ever since our first encounter in college. And the worst part is that he and I look alike (see photos)! He is my evil clone. Just kidding. But today I got to meet THE Stanley--Stanley Cup, that is.

Bright and early this morning the Stanley Cup--the holy grail of hockey--paid a visit to the Lincoln Home! The Cup was on its way to the State Fair, since it is currently in the possession of the Chicago Blackhawks who won the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals. As you can see, it was a pretty big deal. The Springfield Police Department was in the neighborhood, along with our law enforcement rangers. At about 8:15, this big, black SUV rolled into the neighborhood, and out came the Stanley Cup.

While it was publicized that the Cup would be at the State Fair, its photo-op stops at the Lincoln Tomb and Lincoln Home were kept "secret." Here is today's staff with the Stanley Cup in front of the home. It was a pretty amazing opportunity to be so close to the historic, iconic Stanley Cup. And, I suppose the Stanley Cup sort of has a connection to Lincoln, since the Blackhawks won the Cup this year, and Lincoln fought in the Blackhawk War? Okay, that's quite a stretch. But it did feel very historic to see the Cup at the home.

The Stanley Cup is different than other sports trophies. If you win the Super Bowl or the World Series, your team gets its own trophy--so a new one is made every year. But there is only one Stanley Cup--it is the same year-after-year. Whichever NHL team wins the Stanley Cup gets to keep it until another team wins it; and each team that wins the Cup has an engraved silver plate added to the Cup. The Stanley Cup tradition started back in 1892 and has been part of American hockey since 1915. Even someone who isn't really into hockey can't help but feel something special about such a storied piece of history.

Greg was a trooper and got up early with me today to go see the Cup. He had a really long (or short, depending on how you look at it) night last night. Someone died, so he was gone from midnight until 3:30 a.m., but there's nothing like a cup of genuine Stanley to wake you up in the morning! This would be a good Christmas card picture, don't you think? Tiff, Greg, and Stanley. As you can see, it's a pretty good-sized trophy. It is tradition for the winning team to drink champagne out of the cup, but we didn't drink any champagne today.

Greg and I even had the opportunity to meet Jay Blunk, one of the Vice Presidents of the Chicago Blackhawks. His aunt lives in Springfield, and he wanted her to be able to see the Cup, so he was instrumental in arranging the trip to Springfield. He was really nice and even signed a hat for Greg and me. What a memorable morning! It's good that I had a good morning because the rest of the day was filled with sweaty, grouchy visitors :-)

State Fair Time

It has been FAIRly crazy around here lately! During this past week, we wrapped up the summer Living History season at the Lincoln Home. On our last day, the whole Living History crew got together to have our picture with Mr. Lincoln. From left to right: Ashleen, Me, Trevor, Abe Lincoln, Melissa, Bob, Crystal, and Beth. It has been such a fun summer, and I loved working with all of these wonderful people! We had a great Lincoln Home Living History party yesterday evening. It was fun to reminisce about all of the exciting (and weird) experiences we've had this summer.

On Sunday evening Greg and I attended another Living History party (with all of the Springfield Living History people) including Fritz Klein (aka Abraham Lincoln). I think Greg was quite smitten with Fritz :-) It's not every day that you get to dine with Lincoln! Speaking of Lincoln, I guess you could say he went out with a bang (no pun intended) on Saturday. Each Saturday during the summer Lincoln (Fritz) has given his farewell speech on the front steps of the Lincoln Home, then led a parade down to the Old State Capitol. Well, this past Saturday--the last farewell address of the summer--Fritz went into the house in preparation for the speech. Then the fire alarm went off! (Remember a few weeks ago the police almost broke down the front door on him because of another alarm.) No one knows what set the alarm off--it was kind of creepy. (I know it sounds like something I would do, but I really didn't pull the alarm.) You could say that the fire alarm was "on the fritz" :-) They had to delay his speech for about 15 minutes while the fire department came and checked the house. It was definitely a memorable way to end the season!

And it's that time of year again for the STATE FAIR to roll into town! Greg and I are having a new experience living close to the fair grounds (we're about one mile away). We can hear everything going on at the fairgrounds--especially the nightly fireworks--which seem to be getting later every night. But it's all quite exciting. We went to the fair yesterday afternoon and, of course, started out by seeing the butter cow. This year's butter cow was a bit of a let-down after last year's butter cow AND butter Lincoln, but it was still cool. Maybe they should make Butter Lincoln a tradition too?

We saw a lot of pigs (actual pigs, not people pigs--well, I guess we saw a few of those too), horses, baby chickens, food stands, and a wide variety of people. The state fair truly is an ethnic Illinois experience. Since we tried the Key Lime Pie-on-a-Stick and the Fried Snickers last year, we decided to go easy on the fried fare this year and just stick with a good ol' funnel cake. It was delicious. We passed the chocolate-covered bacon booth, and Greg was tempted to try it, but it's probably better that we didn't. I have never seen so much fried food and/or food items "on a stick" before--it's amazing. Good times!