A visit

[Joe Di Cola]

GREETINGS FROM ME AND THE LINCOLNS--Springfield, July 12, 2012

[RJNorton]

Cool picture, Joe! You must be the tall one.

[Rob Wick]

So Joe, what did you think?

Best
Rob

[BettyO]

Thanks, Joe!

It's good to put a face with a name!

[Joe Di Cola]

(07-12-2012 05:13 PM)Rob Wick Wrote:  So Joe, what did you think?

Best
Rob

Well, Robert was a little aloof, Willy was introspective and a delight to talk to, Tad used me to give him a horse-back ride back to the house (ouch), Mary made a divine cake and lemonade (she is really charming), and Abraham actually opened up a little and talked some of his New Salem days. It was wonderful.

[Rob Wick]

I enjoyed my visit there, although I thought the television "coverage" of the election of 1860 was a bit cheesy. I will have to go to Springfield next year to work on my book, so I plan to visit the museum again and see what a second visit brings.

Best
Rob

[Joe Di Cola]

(07-13-2012 12:56 PM)Rob Wick Wrote:  I enjoyed my visit there, although I thought the television "coverage" of the election of 1860 was a bit cheesy. I will have to go to Springfield next year to work on my book, so I plan to visit the museum again and see what a second visit brings.

Best
Rob

Actually, Rob, the Museum ois always a good choice since they change things in the artifact exhibits, abd usually deature something new in another part of the museum. I am VERY excited about your Sandburg reseach. I met him in 1962 and, at that time, wrote a personal piece abot that experience. My first personal purchase of a Lincoln item was his one-volume edition of his master work--it cost me $6.00 in 1954 and I had to save up for weeks to get it!! I still own it. Your bio will be, I believe, the first one since Harry Golden's in the 1960s--a copy I have that is signed by both Golden and Sandburg. Have you been either to Connemara at Flat Rock, NC or to Galesburg yet? Great experiences!

[RJNorton]

Joe, Vicki and I have been to Connemara, and I want to second what you said. Our tour guide was phenomenal. Love those goats, too!

[Joe Di Cola]

(07-13-2012 03:13 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Joe, Vicki and I have been to Connemara, and I want to second what you said. Our tour guide was phenomenal. Love those goats, too!

As I understand it, reporters who visited Sandburg and, hoping for a drink of some alcoholic substance, were always dismayed at being offered goat's milk.

[Rob Wick]

Joe,

In 1991 Penelope Niven wrote Carl Sandburg: A Biography which I think is probably the standard work for generations to come. I don't see what I'm doing as a biography as much as a meditation on how history is written in our country by both avocational and vocational historians using Sandburg as a case study. And hopefully it will be a hell of a lot more interesting than I've just described it.

I've not been to Connemara but I did speak in Galesburg during the Carl Sandburg Days Festival for the Mind last year. The one thing which really struck me about visiting Sandburg's birthplace is how small it was and how, even today, it is literally on the "wrong side" of the tracks. The neighborhood isn't someplace I'd like to be after dark.

I would have loved to meet Sandburg or listened to him lecture and then play the guitar. Reading his letters makes it seem like I am doing that.

I've attached three photos from my trip to Galesburg. The first is of me next to Sandburg's grave, the middle one is me and my wife in front of Sandburg's birthplace and the last one is of me speaking during the festival.

[img] [/img]

Best
Rob

[LincolnMan]

Always good to be in the Mecca that is Springfield. I plan on going back next year in 2013. Last time I was there Lincoln's home was being painted on the outside. Didn't make for the best photographs!