Mr. Eisenhauer and the President
Ray and I are a one-car family and have been a one-car family for most of the forty-one years of our marriage. In November our car had to spend some time in a body shop after a too-close encounter on a foggy road one night. Our insurance company paid for a rental car, so Ray went to a car rental company — I’ll call it Cars-4-U — to pick one up.
While he was there, another customer came in. The Cars-4-U attendant recognized the other customer and began to get his paperwork together. However, he didn’t remember the customer’s name and asked him what it was.
The customer replied, “Eisenhauer.”
When Ray heard the customer’s name, he commented: “That’s an interesting name.”
Mr. Eisenhauer (I know how to spell it because Ray eventually asked him.) replied, “Is it?”
The Cars-4-U attendant joined the conversation then and said, “There was a famous person with that name. I don’t know what he did exactly . . . . .”
My normally quiet, mind-your-own-business husband — unlike his wife who “teaches” clerks in stores* — couldn’t help himself. “He was President of the United States,” he said.
The Cars-4-U attendant replied, “I think he was a general also.”
My history-loving, history-writing, history-breathing husband was silently incredulous. “I don’t know what he did exactly . . .” and “I think he was a general also!”
Before leaving with a rental car, Ray had a conversation with Mr. Eisenhauer. He learned that he was distantly related to President Eisenhower and that Eisenhauer is the original and more authentically German spelling than the one President Eisenhower’s family chose to use when they changed how their name was spelled.
Ray emailed our children to tell them the story and asked them, “How could a young American man graduate from high school and perhaps enroll in or graduate from college and not know who Dwight Eisenhower was? What are they teaching the children in those schools?”
Of course you know that Dwight David Eisenhower served as President of the United States during the 1950s after serving as the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe during World War II, but maybe you haven’t heard these things about President Eisenhower and his family:
- Dwight Eisenhower’s wife Mamie, to whom he was devoted, believed that once you pass fifty years of age you should be able to stay in bed until noon.
- Pink became a popular color in the 1950s because Mamie liked pink.
- The Camp David retreat where American Presidents go to take a break from the pressures of the White House, or sometimes to meet with foreign officials, got a name change while Eisenhower was in the White House. Presidents Roosevelt and Truman had called it Shangri-La. President Eisenhower changed the name to Camp David in honor of his grandson David. David grew up to marry President Nixon’s daughter Julie.
- When President Eisenhower and Mamie left the White House, they retired to a home and farm they had purchased after World War II beside the Gettysburg Battlefield in Pennsylvania. Because of his career in politics, followed by eight years in the White House, their home in Gettysburg was the first and only home President Eisehower ever owned.
History is stories and one story leads to another one. I know because I just started out to tell you the story about Mr. Eisenhauer and the young man at Cars-4-U, and here I am telling you one after another.
I like hearing stories about President Eisenhower for several reasons. For one thing, Eisenhower was President when I was born, so he is, of course, the first President I remember.
We have visited President Eisenhower’s home a couple of times. I like every president’s house I’ve visited, but his is special to me because it’s filled with things from my childhood. Andrew Jackson’s house has an outdoor kitchen and French wallpaper, but President Eisenhower’s house has TV trays and “modern” 1950’s appliances.
And a modern security system for the Secret Service men assigned to him.
And, because Ray’s storytelling Daddy served in the headquarters company of the 1st Army in World War II, we even have a family story about Eisenhower. When Ray’s daddy was finishing up his service in Europe during the war, he obtained leave to go back to England for a few days to get married to Ray’s future mother. When it was time for him to return to the war, he got a ride on a transport plane carrying cargo. His seat was a case of horseradish bound for General Eisenhower. Wes loved to tell how he knew all the time that if the cargo got too heavy he knew he would be booted off, the horseradish would continue to its destination, and he would have been outranked by a case or horseradish!
Eisenhower committed himself to following God late in life and believed that he was elected because God willed it to happen. He was President when “In God We Trust” became our national motto and was a strong supporter of that happening.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6
* For those of you who were curious what the “product” was that I bought Monday night, it was elderberry syrup.