DISCONTENT OF THE DOCENTS~

Observation of the Day!

Birthplace of Richard M.Nixon

Nixon Presidental Library

Yesterday, Doe and I and Neal Patton, my teaching pro golf pro in Coronado, took an early morning drive up to Yorba Linda. We lived in Yorba Linda in the late eighties, and it had been nearly twenty years since we had renewed our acquaintance with Richard Nixon’s birthplace. As with any memory journey, the place had really grown. We saw our old house and Neal visited his Uncle’s house, where he spent many Easter family dinners. It was fun trip down memory lane. Yorba Linda was the eighth place we had lived during our married life.

We then went to the Nixon Library and Birthplace. This was our first visit to a presidential library. Doe and I were actually at the groundbreaking ceremony back in 1988. The docents were an interesting group of old Republicans. They seemed impressed by the fact we had attended the ground breaking and the fact that I remembered the color of the birthplace house. Apparently, there is some disagreement among the docents about the color it used to be. I was speaking to the lady that had supported the pale yellow theory. Before the Library was built, the house stood by itself, surrounded by nothing much but empty brown ground, sort of lonely, just like its most famous son.

It was touching to this old observer that the Nixons are buried next to his birthplace where it all began. It was an interesting life in between.

However, your observer has gained an exclusive story about the discontent of the docents.

I was innocently standing in the back of a little theater that was showing interviews with Nixon about various aspects of his life. It was supposed to let the audience randomly ask various questions. It wasn’t working right, and the docent was quick to tell me it was the new director’s fault. He has refused to get it fixed. Then she railed on about the new director from “Washington and the National Archives.” She pointed out how he had removed a painting that was given to the president by Austria because “He didn’t like it”.

The Watergate exhibit was shut down to get a new display. I didn’t see anything wrong with that, but she was upset that the most popular display was gone. She was also upset that he was only forty-seven years old. She said that the docents were subjected to a meeting that apparently praised Obama. She was upset that in his introduction to a film about Nixon ,he wore a green t-shirt with a sport coat instead of a coat, white shirt and tie. I was amazed at the anger she showed to a guest of the Library. Can they fire a volunteer? There is nothing more dangerous than an angry old Republican woman.

Nixon was and still is the most vilified president in history and the only president to ever resign. The Dems still hate him. They don’t seem to remember he did end the Vietnam War, a war started by Democrats, through some lies and half-truths about the Gulf of Tonkin incident. This would seem to be the exact story of today’s Iraq war, repeated by the opposite party. Politicians have short memories.

After the Library, we played golf at our old country club. It served to remind Neal that, as my teaching pro, he has been a complete failure through no fault of his own

It was a great and wonderful day. By the way it was eighty-one degrees.

Have a nice day!

Sam