Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum

Thanksgiving weekend is a good time to go for a drive and visit local areas.  I’ve been to the Reagan Library too many times to count, but aside from one lecture, I hadn’t visited the other presidential Library in Yorba Linda. So off we went.Only to discover that the museum wing is being renovated and is closed to the public.  I was a kid living in Israel when he was president so for both those reasons, I didn’t know much about him. Of course I remember that when the Yom Kippur War broke out – America immediately sent military supplies to Israel and for that I am eternally grateful. A simple gravesite, right next to his beloved wife Pat.  A very interesting fact, he was born a few feet away in the home his father built and is buried here. Very few people are born and buried in the same place – while traveling and visiting more parts of the world in between.The home he was born in is still standing on the exact same spot. It was lifted at one point to reinforce the foundations,  his father Frank never imagined that his simple catalog home would one day need to be strong enough for thousands of visitors.  When originally built there was no fireplace, or a bathroom for that matter. Two sones commemorate Nixon, the home and farm were dedicated as a California historical site after Nixon served as vice president to Ike Eisenhower.  Later his daughter Julie would marry Eisenhower’s grandson David – small world.The home is tiny, hard to imagine today a family with 4 sons (the fifth son was born after they left this home and unfortunately one son died here) in such a small space. Life was very different in the early 20th century. I was so thrilled to see wonderful examples of handwork. The docent said that most of these items had been in the home originally and one of the daughter in laws gave them to the museum when the Presidential library was founded. I have no way of knowing if this quilt was from the Yorba Linda period or later, but either way – LOVE IT!How cool is this one lone blue and cream basket?  And then through the doorway I spied this. So maybe Hannah made the quilt herself, she certainly had a lot of sewing to do with her large family.  This one is not only a workhorse but is quite the beauty.As is this stove. Of course the house had no electricity or running water. This would have been a woodburning stove and for food storage, an icebox – where the iceman delivered a block of ice. You know the saying, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater?  Here is the bathtub, Adults first, and by the time you get to the youngest – it’s not clear if the baby comes out dirtier than he went in, or if he simply gets tossed with the dirty water. More crafts, a braided rag rug.A crochet afghan,  done in a pattern that today we’d call modular squares. A closer look reveals that the moths are getting to the wool and there have been some repairs done.

I love old photographs, especially when they touched up or a composite like they are here. The five Nixon boys, Richard is second from the left.  By the time Edward was born (far left) Arthur had been dead for five years.  Another thing we don’t experience much anymore – the death of children.

I’ll have to go back next year to visit the actual museum when it reopens.  Historical figures are best viewed through the lens of history, not through the headlines of their own day.  Richard Milhous Nixon was a fascinating man.  HIs tombstone states accurately, The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of Peacemaker.