EARLY RISING ON CHAUTAUQUA LAKE: Nick Graduates, We Head to Arkansas, To The Crystal Bridges Museum Of American Art

A daily journal of our lives (begun in October 2010), in photos (many taken by my wife, Evie) and words, mostly from our home on Chautauqua Lake, in Western New York, where my wife Evie and I live, after my having retired from teaching English for forty-five years in Hawaii, Turkey, and Ohio. We have three children, seven grandchildren, and one great-grandson, as you will notice if you follow my blog since we often travel to visit them. Photo from our porch taken on 11/03/2024 at 7:07 AM

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Nick Graduates, We Head to Arkansas, To The Crystal Bridges Museum Of American Art

Tom And Family

Lee Summit Class of 2016

Some of us are up early, Marlena for school, Tom for work, Evie and I because we want to be on the road for the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, in Bentonville, Arkansas, home of Walmart, benefactors of the museum. We will spend a couple of hours at the museum, longer if it's pleasant out because they have four miles of walks through the grounds, then spend the rest of the day and night in Fayetteville, where we are staying at the historic Inn at Carnal Hall, on the campus of the University of Akansas, near the middle of town. It should be neat.

In Front Of The WW I Museum

Granny And Nick At Liberty Tower

W W I's Glass Floor Atrium

Yesterday was typical, Tom and me up early, Marlena off to school, then I waited for the gang to get up, first Mary, then Evie, and finally Nick had to be gotten up by Mary. He showered and then Evie and I drove him to downtown Kansas City for a visit to the WW I Museum, the only museum of its kind in the United States. The parking lot was full and the museum was busy with young and old. We watched two cinematic presentations, one about what led up to the war, one about the devastation and nature of the war itself. The rest of the time we slowly toured all of the accoutrements of war, guns, rifles, pistols, cannons, tanks, trucks, planes, uniforms, patches, even replicas of the sometimes rough, sometimes sophisticated trenches of that period. And there were lots of explanation and charts and graphs, with the staggering statistics of the loss of lives by each of the major participants, the US seemingly having lost the least (53,000 which seems like a lot) because our soldiers did not see action until 1918, as things were winding down. It was an impressive and depressing exhibit of the madness of mankind, with echoes of the present, especially in the presentation of the factors that led to the war. It seems as if we could almost be one assassination away from a major conflagration, emanating from the Middle East.

Each Poppy (Beneath The Glass Floor) Represents 1000 Combat Deaths with a Total of 9,000 Poppies

On the way home, we stopped at Spin Pizza, in Lee's Summit, and had a great lunch, Evie had soup and a salad and Nick and I split a pizza. It was one of the better pizzas I have had. We were home around 2:15, and Nick then went to work out. We waited for Marlena to arrive home from school, always happy, at 3:00, relaxed until it was time to get ready to shower and dress up for graduation. Graduation was at 7:00 but we left at 5:30, to get good seats. We did not want to miss Nick's 30 seconds of fame as he walked across the stage. He promised to go slow.

After Graduation

The Brainy Buddies, Nick, Chris, And Peyton (Head To Chautauqua in Two weeks)

The graduation venue was in Independence, MO, at a 'huge' mega church as Trump would say, with a parking lot the envy of any stadium, the church itself looking like a Big Ten Basketball Arena, seating at least 10,000. We were lucky to get decent seats off to the side even though there were long lines outside. I have to admit, however, the administration knows how to run an efficient graduation. They graduated 500 seniors in little over an hour, awards, short speeches, honors and name calling and a walk across stage for each graduate. Despite the size of the church, with its vast interior and balcony, it was easy to see because they had three large TV screens, broadcasting the speakers. After wards, we gathered outside with all of Nick's friends and their parents and took picture after picture until the kids said enough. Around 8:45, we headed home happy, with Nick getting an award for being in the top 5% of his class and his best friend, Chris, was valedictorian...two pretty smart cookies.

Grandson #2 Graduates From High School

We stopped and picked up a pizza on the way home, sat around eating it and drinking beer and watching the Cavs game until it was clear they would win. Mary, unfortunately, had volunteered to chaperone the seniors all night party so she reluctantly drove off with her girlfriends to the venue. Tom was happy to stay home. We were in bed by 11:00, tired, knowing we had to get up early and hope to be off to Arkansas by 8:00.