Roadtrip pics, part 1

[rustydog]

Registration today threatened to be one of our most harrowing ever, but turned out to be one of the smoothest, thank goodness. Crossing my fingers tomorrow goes as well, then the next couple of weeks while my boss is away. I actually had a full hour for lunch and used some of it for labeling roadtrip photos.

Here's the whole set: Great Plains road

Comments

[rustydog]

Hee, I know! It doesn't really go with the "historic downtown" thing, does it? But I liked that the place was *used* by the locals - not just sort of frozen in time.

::glomp and love::

[sunbrae]

Wow, that's some serious propaganda. And for kids, too!

Great pictures, Miss Rusty.

[rustydog]

Some of the posters, like one for a movie called THE RED MENACE, made me laugh uncomfortably. Serious propaganda indeed! But some of the stuff was just honest, concerned responses to the real threat of nuclear war. And that's scarier, in a way. My parents both told me about the nuclear fallout drills they did in school! (Like the tornado drills we used to have, I guess.) The sad thing is that most of those things, getting under a desk, digging a "foxhole" under your house, would really do nothing to save you if the bombs did drop.

Anyway. On to lighter things. I love Jack in your icon! Hee.

[nutmeg3]

I couldn't resist weird roadside sights, but I loved everything. I love all the anti-bomb/anti-communism stuff. Skeery!

[rustydog]

Skeery indeed! I am really glad to have grown up after the terror died down. The most I remember of the Cold War was a couple of articles in our Weekly Readers about Reagan and Gorbachev and hoping for peace, and I was a lot older before I understood the full reality of the fear people felt. ::shudder::

Roadside sights are so fun. Even if we're driving somewhere pretty boring, it's always interesting to be on the lookout for oddness. :)

[nutmeg3]

I grew up with bomb drills and booklets about how we should build bomb shelters in our houses. I actually had a recurring atomic war dream.

[rustydog]

Poor thing! I can only imagine - I'm pretty sure I would have been a much more anxious child. That's the kind of thing I would have really fixated on.

[phoenix64]

Toto's Tacoz! I love it! And hello Beatrice!

Why is there a preserved ear of corn?

[rustydog]

Hee, Toto's Tacoz was so... badly exploitative of the concept? I mean, what does the Wizard of Oz have to do with tacos? Nothing except the sound of the dog's name! I loved it too.

I assumed the corn was related to Truman coming from farming people in Missouri. He was a farmer himself for awhile, and he was able to get the agri vote because of it.

[jheaton]

I seem to recall from my visit to Independence several years ago that the local Mormons are not part of the main LDS church. Maybe they are descended from a group that didn't want to continue pushing west? I can't remember the details.

Is that a statue or a Truman impersonator up there? Or whatever they call themselves. I read once that people who make a living impersonating historical figures don't like that term. They call themselves... nuts, I can't remember that either. My brain is not so smart this afternoon.

[rustydog]

Ooh, you may be right about the Mormons. The name on the temple was Community of Christ, which I hadn't seen before.

The "Truman" is a real guy! He came over and talked to us in character and everything. The only other name I can think of is re-enactor, but that doesn't seem quite right for what he was doing. He sure seemed to enjoy it, though, and it was a thrill for my mom. :)

[jheaton]

The Community of Christ name was not familiar to me either, so I went and looked it up. And here's what I learned! Until 2001, the Community of Christ was called the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. (I was last in Independence in 1991, so that's why I didn't recognize the name.) After LDS founder Joseph Smith was killed in Illinois, there were various claimants to leadership; Brigham Young eventually came out on top and led most of the church west to Utah. Some of Smith's followers stayed behind with other would-be leaders, who eventually agreed to band together and invite Smith's son, Joseph Smith III (who had stayed behind in Illinois with his mom when the others moved on) to lead the church. The Wikipedia articles about the church and its history were pretty interesting. (Bear in mind my low standards when it comes to finding things interesting, though.) There's a congregation here in Madison, maybe I'll check them out one of these days.

[rustydog]

That is interesting, and good to know! It's nice to see that "Peace" plaque on the Independence temple up close (in the Wikipedia article) -- we didn't approach the building close enough to see the details.