The Lincoln Highway National Museum & Archives-#255-Hmm...Never Thought of That!!

The Lincoln Highway
National Museum & Archives
102 Old Lincoln Way West
Galion, Ohio 44833

(419) 462-2212 Voice
(419) 462-2214 Fax
(419) 566-0790 Cell

Number 255
Hmm...Never Thought of That!!
September 26, 2003

Dear Friends,

It is the common thread,
throughout...

Me...Born and Raised,
Lincoln Funeral Train Passed through
Dr. Sam Waggner at Gettysburg
Carl Fisher's Birthday...1914 Campaign
Galion Speech
Destiny
That's the Town
All Roads lead to Galion
The Galion Way
George Washington's Funeral
General's wife...

and the glue
that holds it all together.

Without Galion,
none of this would exist.

And without the
"Spirit of the Lincoln Way"
Fire Truck
as the bridge
Millions and Millions
wouldn't have a clue.

So how did that
come about???

After the meeting on January 12th
about my recent adventures in Washington,
and the
Top 10 list to Mrs. Clinton,
The Galion Inquirer
ran a front page story
about inviting
The First Lady
to Galion.

They published the complete list,
which included...

"The Living Lincoln"
on the square.

Shortly,
thereafter I received an email
from a friend from high school.

We knew of each other,
and I knew his mom and dad real well,
they owned the local print shop,
but aside from that we never had much contact.

So to say,
"It came out of the blue",
would be an understatement.

Due to various computer crashes
while on the road,
I don't have the actual email with me,
but it's still on the computer at home.

It said,
"If the first Lady ever comes,
I've got this Fire Truck,
and fly a huge American flag
off the ladder,
so it might make
for a neat back drop."

So I called him up,
and as always,
one thing led to another...

The idea was to commemorate
the 85th Anniversary of
The Lincoln Highway Film Trip
of 1915 where they took movies of every town
and carried a huge flag across the country.

And there were two options...

Fly out,
pick up the bucket truck...

then turn around,
go to New York,
and do it all over again.

But I already did that,
so the logical choice was
The Fire Truck.

"I don't think so..."

and

"Are you nuts??"

Are both phrases that come to mind.

"Well think about it
and we can talk another time..."

Two months later,
I called him again and said,
"Come on down..."

for
"The Day Mr. Lincoln Came to Town"
and the opening of the Museum.

It was Love at first sight!!

I took one look and said,
"Guess that solves that..."

But he wasn't convinced,
so I tried everything
to change his mind.

I finally wrote him a long email,
explaining why it was important
for the fire truck
to make the journey.

His reply surprised me...

"While I can't go,
I would sell you the truck
for what I paid...$6,000."

Which was all well and good,
assuming I had $6,000.

So I tried every which way
to come up with a solution.

Half now half later...No
Maybe if I rented the truck...No
No, No No...

No matter what I said,
the answer was still No.

You've heard the expression,
"Money talks and BS walks".

"Well start walking..."

No matter how much he wanted to help,
it still came down to one thing.

Later I found out why,
but for now this will suffice.

So on to Plan B...

While against the founding
principals of the Museum,
"Spontaneous Combustion"
I tried anyway just to be sure.

"Yep, I was right!!"

Everybody thought I was nuts,
and said,
"Don't let the door hit you
in the ass on the way out."

What to do??
What to do??

I could always hock my Silver Dollars,
but they were the last remaining item from
"The Good Old Days"
so if I let them go,
it signaled the end of a era.

Ah...the stories I could tell.

It was a complete set of
Morgan and Peace Dollars
with only three or four missing
and all but a few BU.