Family Time Eisenhower Style
The small back parlor was the heart of David and Ida Eisenhower’s home. On one wall was Ida’s piano. Before she married, Ida inherited $1000 dollars. She spent $600 of her inheritance for a custom-built piano. Before dropping out of college to marry David, Ida had intended to be a music teacher. She taught all of her boys how to play, with varying degrees of success. The youngest son Milton played well enough to earn his way through college with his piano-playing skills.
Dwight Eisenhower’s great-grandfather wove the coverlet that lay across the daybed on the wall opposite the piano. He raised the sheep, dyed the wool, and wove the coverlet.
In the back parlor, parents and six boys gathered for family activities, but first were their nightly Bible readings, when the weather was too cold to read sitting out in the front yard. One brother read until he made a mistake, and then the Bible passed to another brother.
When President Dwight Eisenhower signed the bill inserting the words “under God” into the Pledge of Allegiance, he made this statement:
From this day forward, the millions of our school children will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural school house, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty. To anyone who truly loves America, nothing could be more inspiring than to contemplate this rededication of our youth, on each school morning, to our country’s true meaning.
Especially is this meaningful as we regard today’s world. Over the globe, mankind has been cruelly torn by violence and brutality and, by the millions, deadened in mind and soul by a materialistic philosophy of life. Man everywhere is appalled by the prospect of atomic war. In this somber setting, this law and its effects today have profound meaning. In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America’s heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource, in peace or in war.
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God
as a workman who does not need to be ashamed,
accurately handling the word of truth.
2 Timothy 2:15