Hosted this hour long event. First i want to say good afternoon, and i want to thank some people, of course, tim for giving me this opportunity to come down and speak with you today. Im really excited about it and samantha who handled a lot of the publicity for the event she did just a wonderful job and without people like that, also there was a local Radio Station that did a great interview, and between newspaper, radio, im always appreciative of all the people who support your visit and so i want to thank all of them before i get started. Im going to jump right into it and tell you a little bit about why im here. The kansas city monarchs was a Negro League Baseball team and most of you have heard of them. Maybe you heard of Jackie Robinson or Satchel Paige. They were organized in 1920, 194 they won the first world championship. That was 90 years ago. I was trying to figure a way to honor these great men who purely played for the love of the game because they didnt make great salaries
So when he actually when he left the white house in early 53, he had had to take a loan out from a bank in washington to help make ends meet, and he also refused to commercialize the presidency. He would not take lucrative speaking fees. He would not sit on corporate boards, that sort of thing. Im glad the president s still dont do that. So anyway, he was really kind of a poor guy. He was the last president to become a regular citizen again in a way, and so on this trip they stayed at hotels, and they ate at roadside diners, and they crashed with friends in indianapolis one night, and so its kind of the story of this trip and also how being an expresident has changed. Yeah, they came to new york. They actually stayed at the waldorf in new york for four nights, and i was curious how they could afford that, and then harry saved all his correspondence and at the Truman Library i found a letter from the general manager of the waldorf saying, i hear youre coming to new york. We would be hap
Scoreboard and hear the you know, hear the music between plays. The music all the time it is so loud i dont know why it is so loud in stadiums today. You cant even talk but thats just my thing. But you really do see a direct line between pedestrianism and modern professional sports. And most of the pedestrians tried to switch to bicycles but they werent very good at it. But two of the pedestrians, Edward Westin and Daniel Oleary they continued to stage walking expeditions well into their 80s. Westin walked from new york to San Francisco in about 1907 and again sold one of these pamphlets along the way. He did a walk from new york to minneapolis and sold a pamphlet and the sponsor was the packard car company. Westin did not like cars just because he thought they made people walk less. Iconically, westin, in 1927 was crossing a street in manhattan and was hit by a car. And was left crippled and never walked again and died two years later at the age of 90. Oleary fared a little better. He
Cspans sundays at 8 00. I always knew there was a risk in the bohemian lifestyle and i decided to take it and whether its an illusion or not, i dont think it is, it helped my concentration. It stopped me being bored. Stopped other people being boring to some extent. It would keep me awake. Make me want the evening to go on longer, to enhance the moment. If i was asked would i do it again, the answer is probably yes, i would have quit earlier possibly hoping to get away with the whole thing. Easy for me to says of course. Not very nice for my children to hear. It sounds irresponsible if i say i would do it again. But the truth is it would be hypocritical of me to say. But i did know. Vote union and the soviet system in Eastern Europe contained the seeds of its own destruction. Many of the problems we saw at the end begin at the very beginning. I spoke already about day tempt to control all institutions and control all parts of the economy and political life and social life. One of the p
You know, the conditions werent great. They did not have any of the advantages of modern endurance athletes in that regard. No nike. I greatly enjoyed your book this gentleman talked about Harry Trumans excellent adventure was what did you say . Greatest book ever written. I think you said greatest book ever written. Im writing that down for a blush. Harry trum trumans excellent adventure they took a road trip. They lived in independence, speech in washington and their daughter lived in new york. They decided to just drive their chrysler from missouri to the east coast and back again. I think it took about two and a half weeks. But at the time, expresident s had no secret Service Protection and no pensions and harry was not a wealthy guy by any means. The expenses of the white house was paid out of his salary. When he left the white house in early 53 he had had to take a loan out from a bank in washington to help make ends meet and he refused to commercialize the presidency. He would n