we arrived at Eureka, Illinois, the home of Eureka College which Ronald Reagan had attended...being Sunday they opened at noon..but we arrived about an hour before...and to our pleasure a young man invited us in to the Student Meetin Hall where the museum is located...They were having an annual luncheon to celebrate an anniversary date...so we entered the museum being entirely alone and entirely on our own...The camera got overheated in my snapping of pictures...and we certainly learned a lot about their favorite alumnus...
The coolege is a Christian school...and Reagan and his older brother and hus Mother were members of the church that sponsored the school...It was a small, typical little mid-western school..leaning to theologic studies and Ronald received a BA in Social Studies and Economics...He apparently was involved in extra-curricular activities, being a guard on the football team, on the swimming team and in their drama and acting department...There were many pictures and letters attesting to the fondness and attachment he had to thbe school and it's teachers..occurring during his political career as Governor of California as well as the Presidency...Mention was demonstrated of his Motion Picture career as well. We watched a biographical video of him after we turned the VCR on ourselves!...After thanking them for their courtesy we left to drive to Tampico, Illinois which is the town Ronald Reagan was born in...We made it just before closing but the woman who invited us into the storefront was more than gracious in showing and telling us all about the President!...She mentioned that she also was the Postmaster for the town and her husband who was nthere was also generous with anecdotal comments!...We found out that Ronald was born and lived in an apartment which was directly over the bakery which was next door...On the other side of the former grocery store we were in was a still existing funeral parlor!...His father who apparently was alcholocic was Irish Catholic, and his mother was of a Protestant den omination...was musically trained..played the piano in the church she regularly attended with her 2 sons! The funeral dircto0r whose name was Max Parent was very fond of all the children in the neighborhood and took on the role similar to a scoutmaster...Ronald's father worked for the grocery..did odd jobs and was a salesman...He changed locations frequently following one of the more prominent merchants who he worked for..so Ronald moved from this nlocation as a baby of 3 months...and had many other moves until he settled into a small city named Dixon which was about 30 miles away, at athe age of 6....
I was escorted up the steps to the apartment of what had previuosly been the bakery..shown all about and saw the actual room he was born in...weighing in over 10 ponds, with his mother being advised to have no more children after that episode!...Apparently his father when first seeing him after the birth...suggested that he looked like a "Dutchman"...and the name, DUTCH remained with him!...I bought an autographed book...told the woman and her husband thanks...and we left to drive to Dixon. Found dinner and lodging....and will visit the house and city he lived in during his formative years...see you then!
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