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January 19, 2009
WOLF CREEK HERITAGE MUSEUM NOTES by Virginia Scott MUSEUM / LCHC HAPPENINGS January continues to be a relatively quiet month with all of us summarizing 2008 for our annual report. Lovella has finished our final numbers for the year and our annual visits for 2008 was 1395. This lower than last year probably due to the price of gas and fewer out of county visitors. Our highest volume year was 2000 with 2089. This was the year we opened our new building. I announced last week that our board would meet on the 21st. We had to reschedule and the board will meet the 29th at 4pm at the museum. As mentioned before will begin the review and development of the THC assessment tool and developing our needed policies,etc to comply with their levels of achievement. There are five levels of organization : Organization, Membership, Training, Core Preservation, and Preservation in Action. We will begin with Organization at this meeting discussing meetings, bylaws,partnerships, and goals(short and long term). These discussions will be on the Historical preservation for the county with the museum being considered separately. If you are an amateur preservationist in the county (historical sites or homes) , we need to hear from you and need your participation in preserving our county sites,etc. A personal note : Our thoughts and prayers are with Mildred who is in Dallas receiving treatments for a medical condition recently diagnosed. We wish her well and hope she will return to us soon. HISTORICAL MUSINGS January and February have a lot of historical dates. January 17th is Benjamin Franklin's birthday ; the week of his birthday use to be observed as Thrifty week. A week where everyone was to observe and practice frugal habits to honor Mr. Franklin's thrift. Monday, the 19th was our observance of Martin Luther King's birthday, and Tuesday was Inauguration day. This being an especial historical one with the first African-American President giving the observance of Dr. King's birthday and work greater meaning this year. President Obama has been compared with Lincoln, Kennedy and Franklin Roosevet due to the problems he is inheriting and his personality. To understand this comparison , I researched our archive of newspapers at the time of Roosevelt's inauguration and found in the Follett Times reports on March 23rd (he was sworn in on March 4, 1933) of his progress with the headlines of "Administration shows speedy action: Important Bills Passed" The article continued with the report that FDR's main focuses were on the Banking System and Employment . Roosevelt put in force a "Banking Holiday" soon after he took office and in an article on March 9th, the Follett Times reported that the "U.S. Banking System is facing an overhauling from start to finish. " ..."Our local bank here namely the Follett National Bank is in the best shape it has been in for years and is said to be one of the strongest banks in the Panhandle." On March 16th, F.B. Sumpter, cashier of the Follett National Bank, received a wire from Federal Authoritatives stating that the bank could open and resume business in the usual way Wednesday morning."This had to paper reporting that "Happy Days are here, again" The article reported that while other towns throughout the Panhandle were taking scrip , Follett was continuing business as usual with the accepting of bank checks . The Paper reported that the nation's confidence had returned due to President Roosevelt's leadership. " Hats off to President Roosevelt he is a Man that gets things done". By March 23rd , the President's leadership had obtained congressional passage of an economy bill, an employment bill and a tax bill. I can see the comparison with today's crisis and I hope our congressional leaders do also. President Obama is going to need everyones assistance and cooperation and I hope they learn from Lincoln,Kennedy, and Franklins successes and failures so that we don't repeat history. Most important lesson is that the citizens of this country supported these Presidents and their programs which included sacrifices. The U.S. Constitution requires that the President, Vice-President and other members of the government to swear to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. The National Conference on Citizenship suggests that every American reflect upon our own duties and responsibilities to our great nation. They suggest we begin by reading the Citizens's Oath: As an American I embrace the responsibilities of self-government. We are blessed to be living in this area in this great country,and I hope everyone participated and enjoyed this historical week. A lot of work will follow but our country has always met its challenges and committments. |
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