The Waterstraut Waterspout: Happy 125th Birthday, Ike!

Tomorrow is actually Dwight Eisenhower's birthday, but we have an aquarium class. It seemed best to celebrate a day early so Asa could be here. So today we celebrate our 34th president!

Meet David Jacob and Ida Elizabeth Eisenhower. David cleaned train engines for a living, and Ida was a teacher and they lived in Denison, Texas. Fun Fact: They previously had lived in Hope, Arkansas where David owned a general store (If they would have stayed there we could have had a second president from Hope!)

On October 14, 1890 they welcomed their third son: David Dwight Eisenhower. But, his mother soon realized two David's was confusing, so David Dwight Eisenhower, became Dwight David Eisenhower. Dwight's birth date also makes him the last president born in the 19th century.

All in all, the Eisenhower's had seven boys, (I can't even imagine his poor mother, as if I don't have to yell enough about toilet seats being left up!) though one of the boys died at age 3 of diphtheria. His parents may have thought two David's was confusing, but not two Ike's... or four ... or six... Ike was a nickname given to all the kids at some point, but Dwight was the only one who kept it his whole life. (My favorite is the Ike-ster, but the boys liked Ike #5).

Lots of kids, and lots of mouths to feed, the Eisenhower's decided to move back to their hometown of Abilene, Kansas. They had $24 to their name at the time. But, David's brother gave him a job in the creamery, and he kept working as a mechanic for the railroad, and things got more stable financially.

Ike, meanwhile, was an adventurous.. and.... rambunctious child. I feel like that was a nice way of calling him a trouble maker. He got into fist fights a lot, and there's even some weird story about how when he ran out of kids to punch, he punched a tree until his knuckles were bloody.

You see, most president's are crazy. Modern presidents were crazy ambitious and obsessed with power, while earlier presidents were crazy in a more general, certifiable sort of way. Ike bucked the trend of modern presidents, and embraced the tradition of old school aggressive insanity pioneered by men like Andrew Jackson. (In short: He was an early 1800's crazy in a 1960's world).

Anyway, Ike spent a lot of time running around the woods and the river banks in Abilene, when he met a 'traveler' who lived 'down by the river' and started hanging out with him. (Somehow I don't think that would fly today.) Bob Davis taught Ike how to hunt and fish. And while Bob was illiterate, he was some sort of mathematical genius- at least as far as poker percentages go, and he taught Ike about all of that as well.

The Eisenhower's were Jehovah's Witnesses (Ike not so much, he was baptized Presbyterian)... but this is interesting because Jehovah's Witnesses aren't so much about war.

But, Ike's mom still had all kinds of history books laying around, including a few all about military strategies (and yes, I totally made a 'Military Strategy for Dummies' book for my props. And I love it, thank you very much.) Ike soaked up the books from the time he was a young boy, becoming fascinated with war and strategy.

War wasn't the only thing Ike was interested in. He excelled at math and spelling at school. (Though I found no record he was any sort of spelling bee champion), but he really liked his extracurricular activities: baseball and football.

But when Ike was 15, he had a football accident, developed an infection, and nearly had his leg amputated. But, Ike was tough as nails, and he never let anything keep him down. I mean his name is Eisenhower, which is German for "one who cuts iron." Obviously, he kept his leg, because Dwight D. Eisenhower isn't going to lose a fight.

When it was time for college, he couldn't afford it, so Ike made a deal with his brother (his name was Edgar, but I like to think of him as Big Ike). Anyway Big Ike would go to college for two years, and Ike would work to help pay for it. In two years, they'd switch. But, Big Ike never had to pay up, because Ike got in to West Point, and tuition there was free.

Fun Fact: Ike is one of only three presidents to go to school at a military academy. (You should be able to name the other two). His mom, even with her aversion to "wicked" warfare, let her son go.

At school, Ike was just an average student. He continued his rebellious streak, and wasn't keen to listen to the detailed regulations of a military academy (he'd graduate with a... um... less than stellar discipline rating).

You see, Ike would rather play poker than do anything really. Probably because he was so good at it, he used it as a regular source of income. He was so good, people stopped playing with him.

He also focused on sports, but he suffered his "biggest disappointment" in life when he didn't make the baseball team. He settled for football until he was taken out, by the one man who could do such a thing to a guy like Ike: Jim Thorpe.

He also picked up a nasty smoking habit. Eventually he'd be smoking a couple packs a day. (Blah!)

Ike graduated in the middle of the class of 1915, which became known as "The Class the Stars Fell On", because 59 members of that class became general officers.

Ike was stationed in Texas after graduation, where he met rich girl Mamie. (I mean, her name was Mamie Geneva Doud, could she be from anything other than a wealthy family, you might as well call her Kitty and throw a mink around her. I had trouble with this casting for sure, none of the Disney Princesses were really making the cut).

Four months after meeting the couple were engaged, they even moved up the wedding because it seemed like any minute now the U.S. would end up in WWI, and Ike would be off to war.

But, Ike wasn't off to war, to his disappointment. (I told you he was crazy). Instead, after moving around a lot (The Eisenhower's would move nearly 30 times in their life), he was off to Pennsylvania to work at a tank training center.

It was in PA that Ike and Mamie had their first child, a son named Doud. But, Doud would die of Scarlet Fever when he was only three.

A year later, Mamie had another boy, John. Meanwhile, Ike got stationed in the Panama Canal Zone, and attended grad school (where he did much better than he did at West Point-- he was Valedictorian!)

Ike toiled in relativity obscurity as a junior officer until General George C. Marshall recognized his skills and helped him move through the ranks. Ike was a man with a high military IQ (must have been all those 'Military Strategies for Dummies' books), and he knew how to PLAN attacks and inspire men to go along with his plans. He was so good in the military, he never really even tried to do anything else.

In between WWI and WWII, Ike stuck around in the general field of warefare, even though there were no wars to fight. He just kept studying military history and strategy as he had done as a child, and worked on and wrote about tanks. He earned so many different badass military titles, some of which (Military Governor, Supreme Allied Commander) sound completely made up.

Ike even tought himself how to fly a plane (even though nobody asked him to), just in case he wanted to dabble in being a fighter pilot at some point. Ike was just a professional soldier running tanks and planning the downfall of bad-guys for his 9 to 5.

It was during WWII that Ike reached the highest rank in the army: five star general.

As a top commander, he planned the Invasion of Normandy. You know, D-Day. (Fun Fact: on D-Day, John Eisenhower graduated from West Point!)

You guys, I shouldn't have to tell you about all of this. But, brief simplistic overview. Hitler is in Germany, trying to take over France (and the world!)

The French, British and U.S. stockpile troops, ships, and weapons in Great Britain.

Germany is no dummy, they see the stockpile, but they're wrong about where they think the attack will happen, and the weather makes them think their safe from an attack for the day.

They were wrong.

And it turns the tide of WWII to the Allied Powers. Bam, Eisenhower wins and can now add "Super Sexy Supreme Defeater of Adolf Hitler" to his fancy pants resume.

But you guys, you want to know something amazing? Something I didn't know when I started on my research... Eisenhower never actually saw combat. He just PLANNED combat. Crazy, right?

Anyway, his mad planning skills was enough to attack both Democrats and Republicans, and they both wanted him to run for president.

Ike turned them both down at took a job as a different kind of president- President of Columbia University. Oh, and fun fact: Ike quit smoking, cold turkey around this time. But, he would always keep cigarettes on him just to test his own will power! (Even in his desk in the Oval!)

Then Harry Truman appointed him Supreme Commander of NATO.

Everyone still liked Ike, and there was a grassroots campaign just to get him to run for president in 1952. The 'Draft Eisenhower Movement' persuaded Ike to finally run for the Republican Party. It was the first successful political draft of the 20th century to take a private citizen to the Oval Office.

So, who was Eisenhower running against. The guy who never really had a chance was Adali Stephenson. Don't feel too bad for him. He didn't learn his lesson, and in four years, there would be a rematch. (In 1960, he even tried to get the Democratic nomination AGAIN, but the Dems went with one, JFK). Adlai was no stranger to the game of politics though, his grandfather was Grover Cleveland's VP. Basically, Adlai was the William Jennings Bryan of the 1950's.

At the age of 62, Dwight David Eisenhower became our 34th President, and Richard Nixon became Vice-President. Fun Fact #1: Ike never held a political office before serving as president. The first man since Zachary Taylor to hold that distinction.

Fun Fact #2: Until Ronald Reagan (and then later George W. Bush), the only Republican presidents who served out two complete terms were Ike and Sam Grant, who coincidentally were also both generals and West Point grads).

It was the 1950's, and unless you were black, or lived in the line of the interstate highway system, things were going alright for you. This generation of the 50's clocked in the necessary hours at work, and headed back to their family for casserole night (my kind of people!)

And the Eisenhower's weren't much different than those families. Mamie clipped coupons, and wouldn't serve alcohol before 6pm (so they wouldn't have time to drink more than one).

Ike, meanwhile, had "several scotches" a day. He did manage to make lots of time for his golf game while president. He had the first putting green installed on the White House lawn, and had Secret Service Agents remove pesky squirrels from the property if they got in his way.

The Eisenhower's were our "First Couch Potatoes". They loved quiet nights in front of the TV, and asked for TV dinners to be eaten while watching their favorite shows. Mamie became so obessed with the Soap Opera "As the World Turns", if she had to miss it, she'd task a Secret Service Agent with watching it and taking notes to report back to her on what she missed. (Does anyone else feel like the Secret Service was not a fan of the Eisenhower's with all these weird jobs).

The Eisenhower's also renamed FDR's retreat Shangri-la to Camp David, after their grandson. (The same grandson who married Julie Nixon!), because Ike said the name was "a little too fancy for a Kansas farm boy".

But Ike was doing more than watching TV and golfing. His moderate brand of politics focused on reducing government spending, and keeping the military strong (of course). He kept most of the New Deal policies in place, something you wouldn't have expected a Republican president to do.

His first order of business was to bring the troops home from Korea. Ike was all "yea, that's enough of that, even I can tell when something is a lost cause".

The Cold War dominated the 8 years Ike was president. His Eisenhower Doctrine, told everyone the United States could and would aid any country threatened by Communisum.

..And even though the U.S. and the Soviet Union had developed atomic bombs, Ike managed to keep the peace.

Cuba became Communist under Fidel Castro's rule toward the end of his presidency...

...which would cause a whole lot of problems for someone else later.

Communism wasn't the only threat Ike was facing; Ike considered racism to be a National Security Issue. In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled (in Brown vs. Board of Education), that segregation in schools was unconstitutional. We know just because the court ruled that way, everyone didn't exactly follow suit.

In Arkansas, when nine African American students tried to go to class at a previously 'White School', all hell broke loose. And their governor was no help, so Ike sent in the troops to make sure the kids could go to school.

He also signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, protecting the rights of everyone to vote. missing ballot boxes under people's beds were no longer going to fly.

The next generation (or couple of generations) Henry Clay, Strom Thurmond, did his best to keep the Civil Rights Act of 1957 from being voted on. So, we all know Strom, or we should. He was a democratic senator from South Carolina who served in the Senate for 48 years (he was our oldest Senator ever!), and he was an ardent segregationist (but we're pretty sure one of his daughter's is biracial, so um, yea.). I'm only really telling you this story, because it was here that Strom pulled off the longest one-person filibuster (you know, talk a bill to death, delay the vote, stall basically) in the history of Congress. The record time in which he read every states election laws, the Constitution, and even George Washington's farewell address? 24 hours and 18 minutes.

Just, a fun side story for you.

Ike may have seem like an outspoken kind of guy, but he really preferred to work behind the scenes. When Senator Joe McCarthy went on a wild communist witch hunt, Ike worked behind the scenes to get McCarthy censured (the political equivalent of "shut the hell up"). He worked behind on the scenes on that because, in his words he "refused to get in a pissing contest with a skunk." (Apparently presidents talked cooler back then).

Ike's presidency also saw the start of the "Space Race". Americans were not impressed with the Soviet Union beat them to it with Suptnick, the first man made satellite. But, Ike did create NASA, and that's something!

He also supported the creation of an Interstate Highway System. (Is it just me, or sometimes do you read this things and think "how was this not a thing BEFORE then?")

Ike's presidency saw some firsts.

He was the first president with an active pilots license.

He was the first president to be bald.

He was the first president in office who appeared to the nation on color TV.

And, when Hawaii and Alaska joined the union in 1959, he was the first president to preside over all 50 states.

There was one more notable first. Ike was the first U.S. president constitutionally prevented from running for re-election. (The 22nd amendment came into effect during Harry Truman's presidency, but apparently didn't apply to the incumbent at the time)

But, Ike probably wouldn't have run again anyway. He was losing a bit of popularity (people didn't think he was doing enough for Civil Rights, and they were not pleased with the loss in the Space Race), but he also wasn't a well man.

By the time he was halfway through his presidency, he had a list of ailments a mile long, including (but not limited to): malaria, tuberculosis, high blood pressure, shingles, Crohn's disease, bronchitis, and at least one heart attack and one stroke. Ike, however, would sum it up by saying "lots of troubles with my insides lately."

((One of his heart attacks had even taken him away from the presidency for over a month, and Nixon had to step in. ))

Anyway, Ike was done. Nixon ran for President that year, but the Van Buren effect tells us no VP had ascended to the office by running and being elected in over 125 years. (Anyone know who broke that streak?) Instead, as the oldest man to ever leave the office of presidency (at the time, the record was broken later), left the country in the hands of our youngest ever ELECTED president.

Ike and Mamie headed on out, and bought their first house ever (they moved around too much before to buy a house) in Gettysburg, PA. There Ike wrote his memories, hugged his TV guide and drove Mamie crazy with his constant channel surfing.

It took six heart attacks to eventually kill Ike. Even then, it's debatable if the heart attack killed him or if he willed it on his own. His last words were "I want to go, God take me". The message was clear: war, disease, and heart attacks don't stop Eisenhower. He decides when he's good and ready to die.

Ike had a state funeral and was buried back in Abilene, Kansas. After he left office, his reputation declined. But, time gives us a different perspective, and he's consistantly mentioned in the top 10 presidents.

American didn't lose a "soldier or a foot of ground" during Ike's administration. He controlled the arms race and still kept the peace. And lets not for forget, he's one of the most brilliant military strategists we've ever seen. Even if he learned everything he knew from "Military Strategies for Dummies".

Ike's famous quote: "America is best described by one word, freedom."

My Favorite Fun Facts:

His poor dog got kicked out of the White House for peeing on a $20,000 rug!

He once considered moving to Argentine to work as a cowboy!

Presidential Issues...

We put a scotch in one hand, and his Military Strategies for Dummies in his other hand.

We did something a little different for our presidential dinner. Instead, we had one of Eisenhower's favorites for lunch: TV Dinners!

And of course we had to eat them while watching TV.

We did our owl mail this morning...

watched our president in 60 seconds..

...and made our birthday cards.

Our activity today was Ike's favorite: golf!

We all made a putt putt hole.

Then we got out our clubs...

And added the gator golf for our hole (He had to move from hole to hole, we only have one Gator Golf), and we were ready to play. I went with the classic castle for my mini golf course.