Audio
Dreams of a Barefoot Boy
Transcript
Here's dwight d eisenhower at about 15 years old, he's sitting wearing overalls boots and a simple button-down shirt. His arms are on his knees.
The sculpture by sergey lombakov is human scale. Young eisenhower looks peaceful happy maybe because he's in abilene, kansas his hometown
Abilene is more than 1000 miles from where you're standing. It was once a wild cowboy town where cattle drives gave way to the railroads. But by the time eisenhower was growing up there abilene was a quiet farming community where all the streets were dirt.
He was one of six boys in a family from the wrong side of the tracks. But abilene informed a lot of who eisenhower was
And what he became?
general
wartime commander
president
Eisenhower always said that out of everything else. He was most proud of where he was from. He was an independent-minded young man who liked to hunt and fish and especially play seven card stud poker. He stood out on the football and baseball fields.
He also knew about hard work putting in long hours at the local creamery and doing many chores around the house, feeding animals gardening and canning food.
But it was the influence of his mom ida. That would set him on a course to greatness. Ida instilled in him the value of education. Eisenhower's high school yearbook named him the best historian and mathematician in the class, and so in 1911
eisenhower was accepted into the united states military academy at west point.
He took the train all the way from abilene to the hudson valley in new york. He brought with him everything. He had learned at home, the good and the bad
He chafed against authority racking up constant demerits for sneaking out to smoke cigarettes. But the hard physical training of west point was no challenge for a hearty country boy like eisenhower.
He was well liked by his peers and took the first steps towards growing into the leader that he'd become later in life.
Take a look here at young eisenhower's right knee in the sculpture, it's still healthy
But at a football game in his second year at west point eisenhower injured that knee so badly that he never played football again.
Yet instead of despairing. He went on to coach football at west point. He soon developed a reputation for getting the most out of his players. After graduating this talent led him to train army recruits just the beginning of a long celebrated military career.
But as you see him here, that's all in his future. If you can try to follow his line of sight and see what's written there. It's an excerpt from a speech eisenhower made in abilene when he returned there as a war hero.
June 22 1945. Just over a month after germany surrendered to the allies in world war ii eisenhower returned to his hometown on a victory tour.
It is a privilege this afternoon to present to you the supreme commander of all the allied forces in europe. Five stars general but more than that the son of abilene dwight eisenhower.
After a parade through town eisenhower stood and addressed the gathered crowd.
Please note that this speech has been edited for length.
Because no man is really a man who has lust out of himself all of the boys. I want to speak first of the dreams of a barefoot boy frequently they are to be a streetcar conductor or he sees himself as the town policeman. Above all he may reach the position of locomotive engineer.
But always in his dreams is that day when finally he comes home? Comes home to a welcome from his own hometown. Because today that dream of mine of 45 years or more ago has been realized beyond the wildest directions of my own imagination.
I come here first to thank you, to say the proudest thing I can claim is that I am from abilene. Never has this town been outside my heart and my memory.
Here are some of my oldest and dearest friends. Here are people that are lifelong friends of my mother and my late father,
the really two great individuals of the eisenhower family
They raised six boys and they made sure
that each had an upbringing at home and an education that equipped him to gain a respectable place in his own profession.
And I think it's fair to say they all have.They
and their families are the products of the loving care the labor and work of my father and mother just another average abilene family.
One more word, there was one thing in the parade today that was in error a number of times. I saw a sign welcome to our hero.
As I before mentioned I am not the hero,
I am the symbol of the heroic man you people and all the united states have sent to war it has been my great honor to command three million american men and women in europe.
And now on the part of myself and my wife my brothers and all their families,I want to say thanks to kansas to dickenson county and to abilene for a reception that so far exceed anything any of us could imagine. That all of us are practically choked with emotion. Good luck and god bless every one of you
This audio guide has been made possible with the generous donation from the boeing company
Description
This tour centers on the sculpture of Eisenhower as a young man, located in the northwest corner of the memorial. How did a small-town boy from Kansas grow up to be the leader of the free world? Hear about Ike’s humble beginnings and his first steps towards greatness — and hear from Eisenhower himself on what his hometown meant to him.
Duration
7 minutes, 45 seconds
Credit
Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission
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