Rocking It in Little Rock

Clinton Library with "Washed Ashore" Trigger Fish

2019-08-22 Thursday

I’m writing this a day late, and that is always a mistake-- it is so hard to remember what we’ve done when we do so much! Yesterday we left our park campsite and drove for about 20 minutes into downtown Little Rock. We easily found the William J. Clinton Presidential Center, and the large parking lot allowed us to park along some grass at the far back of the lot. After giving Cassie a quick walk, we walked to the museum building, which is a very modern and attractive one, oddly situated beside an old rusty-looking railroad bridge crossing the Arkansas River. We quickly found out that the bridge was part of an urban trail following the river, and was part of the “Park” part of the complex.

Dryer Lint Vest

Campaign Buttons

As soon as we walked into the building, we were greeted by one of the very lovely volunteer docents (we met them everywhere). We hadn’t even paid for our entry before we were fascinated by a display in the lobby, of items of clothing created from recycled materials by high school age kids. What caught my eye was a vest--it looked like an argyle vest, basically, but it was made entirely from dryer lint!  Next to it was a fabulous flamenco-style dress made with recycled paper which was folded into fan shapes. There were a number of other examples which were simply delightful.

The Clinton “library”, so to speak, is really more like a museum, utilizing all the modern interactive multi-media techniques which make modern museums so fascinating. The first thing we did was watch a short film about Clinton’s political life and his goals and ideals in being attracted to public service. Before we were long into it, Joey started moaning, and I knew what he was thinking-- the idea of going into politics to help people seems so foreign to our current Oval Office occupant. That was just the beginning of the inevitable comparisons. I realize that Clinton had his faults, and that his library would always put a positive spin on his career, but still. Looking at photos of him genuinely and warmly interacting with all kinds of people (of all colors, of course), was a huge contrast to what we see today.

Topic Alcoves

"Putting People First"

Outside the film orientation theater were panels covered with Clinton campaign buttons from his runs for congressman, Arkansas governor, and  president. Next there was a reconstruction of the Cabinet Room. At each seat, there was a screen allowing the visitor to find out more about how critical decisions were made. I read through one to learn about the budget fights and government shutdowns during the Clinton administration--it was quite interesting. The rest of the second floor was taken up with invidual galleries, each of which focused on a specific area of public policy and accomplishments under Clinton, such as education, scientific research, foreign affairs (a lot about Kosovo and the Israeli/Palestinian Peace Talks), protecting the earth, building a better society, etc. They were all interactive with short videos and materials to read. There was also a timeline--8 large panels representing the accomplishments of each year of Clinton’s presidency. One interesting part of these was notebooks under the panels, which contained Clinton’s daily schedule of activities for each day. He was scheduled down to the minute, including things like “walk back to limo, 5 minutes.”

Gifts to the Clintons by other Heads of State

The final display on the second floor was small, but we lingered by it. It was a reflection of the Little Rock Nine, who integrated Central High School in Little Rock during the Civil Rights movement which we’d read so much about yesterday. The display had photos of each of the nine (now, of course, in their 60s) and quotes from them. There was also a Congressional Medal, which they had (each) been awarded with; they as a group had donated one to the Clinton Library.Joey and I were about to head for the 3rd floor, but realized it was well after noon, and Joe needed to eat (and rest!) So we went to the ground floor restaurant. There, I got to look at the rusty bridge walkway while we had something to eat.

Ocean Reef made of plastic items "washed ashore"

That gave us the energy to go back to the third floor, where we read through panels about state dinners (Joe loved reading the different menus-- he told me that every single state dinner included “cookies” at the end!) and life in the White House. The latter included panels of the many ways the Clintons invited the public in to experience events such as holidays with them (again, a difference from today.) There were photos and memorabilia of various Thanksgivings, Chanukahs, Christmasses, Easters, etc. There were also displays on this floor of Clinton’s early years (I hardly had time to look at these at all.) And there was also a complete replica of the Oval Office (where I was not allowed to take photos.) The fascinating items there included a replica of the Resolute Desk, which was specacularly carved, the many books on the shelf about Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, and, a personal and quirky item, a small statue thing of a family of three meercats! I mentioned them to the docent, who said her best guess about them was that Clinton was very fond of Nelson Mandela, and perhaps the meercats were a link to South Africa. Anyway, they were cute and who would expect that to be in the Oval Office?

Ocean Waves panel made of plastic waste found on the beach

There is also a temporary exhibit gallery in the building, and I must say we enjoyed this exhibit just as much as the permanent one. It was an “art show by a group called Washed Ashore. This group cleans trash off the beach, and then created incredible art with it. We were just enthralled and delighted with the jelly fish hanging from the ceiling, the seahorse (with it’s mane of reclaimed brushes of various kinds), and the whale ribcage made entirely from white plastic bottles. The colorful reefs were spectacular, and there were some flat “paintings” as well. We thought the art was amazing, and it’s a good thing it wasn’t for sale!

Seahorse "washed ashore"

By this time, it was about 2:30 in the afternoon, and we really had to think about leaving. So we went outside, NOT taking the time to walk on the bridge over the river, and forgetting to look for the Anne Frank tree or enjoy the gardens outside (well, it was really too hot for that stuff anyway.) We went back to the RV, walked Cassie again, and then hit the road.

Our destination for thursday was Tulsa, OK, but we didn’t think we’d get there tonight. Sure enough, we decided we were tired of driving at about 6:30, and we spent the night at the Cherokee Casino in Sallisaw, OK. The casino offers a large RV lot, paved and pretty quiet, for free. We had dinner and then went inside to look around. It’s not a big casino (their much larger casino, with a buffet and musical acts, and with hookups for their RV overnighters was about 17 miles down the road, but we passed it up for this one.) We are not, of course, big gamblers, but i did manage to lose 90 cents while we were “testing” how to play the machines.  Then we went back to the RV, where I was suddenly so tired that I lay down and promptly passed out from exhaustion. Which is why this blog is a day late.