Prez Lincoln

I have never really paid any attention to the Gettysburg address. I know that it is a very touching speech at a very important moment during the Civil War. I had read all these things in history books, which do very little to express the enormity of any event in the past. Watching the video, I got the feeling of what had happened on the hallowed ground in Gettysburg, and a lot of the words in the address of Lincoln, although here spoken by a robot, hit home. Such as who are we to have the power to make any ground hallowed when our words or efforts were not even present. I always respected that in such a huge event he kept it simple and to a few words. I felt that he didn’t disrespect the thousands of lives lost on that ground. The robot speaking, though, was very creepy in a sense that it pretty much went through the same route over and over again while giving the speech. Even though it is realistic, I would have preferred to hear the speech from a live look alike because I feel that those robots are more for the little side show on the rides in Disneyland and our own respectable President giving one of his more famous speeches should be given more thought than that.

Even at the end, when everyone got up and left right away, I can see how the past is lost on the people and that we will eventually make the same mistakes because we do not care enough about the past, only the present. People are so absorbed these days that we fail to remember where our own country came from and it is rather sad to see. Hopefully, something will change were the country’s awareness and national pride are raised to be more mindful of their roots and their past.

The Beauty of Cars

I went to the car show on Havelock a few weeks ago by accident. A few football players and I were supposed to help break down an event at an elementary school. All we knew was that the school was somewhere near Havelock. The major event that day was the car show. The whole street was shut down for beautiful cars to be put on display. The cars ranged from the old mobster refurbished cars to modern day corvettes. I am not a big car enthusiastic, but two cars catch my attention: the Dodge Viper and Cobra. I think they are the most beautiful automobiles to ever be created. The first row of cars that I saw when we entered was just Vipers and Cobras. I was in heaven. The beautiful racing strips running up and down the hood to the roof to the trunk. The multiple color schemes of red and white, blue and white, silver and blue, or black and silver were most appeasing to my eyes. Even if the cars were beaten up and old, I would still love them because of the feeling that arises whenever I see one. Of course, many other beautiful cars were being judged. The corvettes had their sleek, well-polished look. The older cars carried a sense of pride and age. All around the hicks and red necks were looking in through windows or conversing about this engine or that one because they are the only ones who really enjoy coming to car shows. Therefore, the music had to appeal to such a crowd through classic rock bands, such as Lynyrd Skynyrd. The smell of food having been cooked all day hung in the air, popcorn, hot dogs, and pretzels. But I will not forget the gleam that those cars gave when I first walked in and how it sent my heart racing.

Mi Amigos

The other day after taking my friend to the hospital, we decided that taking a detour to a restaurant before returning to practice would be a good idea. We ended up at Amigo’s. I have never been to an Amigo’s before in my life because none are in Colorado. So sitting down on the concrete benches, I observed the people passing by in their cars and the beautiful sunset silhouetting the building across the street. The umbrella added cool shade to sit under. The building itself is not that extraordinary. I chose it because it was new to me. The walls were the tan color of any Mexican color in the tradition of the early Native Americans. The sign is ugly and plain with the word Amigo printed in green and a sombrero sitting atop it. I sat drinking my strawberry milk shake, feeling I was in a less fortunate neighborhood or Lincoln. The building resembled this, as many of the other buildings did, by looking grimy and not very well-taken care of. I felt like I was back on Colfax, instead of Cornhusker Hwy, on one of the late night Dairy Queen runs. Altogether, the building and its surroundings were not that impressive.

Seeing buildings and surroundings like this always make me wonder what it looked like when it was first built. Now we have new shopping centers that look so nice and better, but these buildings and the Amigo’s have seen a much better day. I wonder about how the people thought of the buildings looked when they were first built, if they installed the kind of awe of newness that the shopping malls of O street do today. Otherwise, the street and people just seemed like normal people going about their business. Nothing was brand new though, not in this part of town.

Stealing Speakers

I was scrolling through the local section of the Journal Star, Lincoln’s town newspaper, when I came across the story of speaker boxes being stolen at both a Subway and Kentucky Fried Chicken over the weekend. This story stood out to me for no apparent reason other than the absurdity of stealing the speaker boxes. So reading through the police report, I saw that the speaker box from Subway was valued at two hundred dollars and the one from Kentucky Fried Chicken was only fifty dollars. I did not even know how expensive those things were and I honestly take them for granted. I know I would never think of stealing one of those speaker boxes and it makes me ponder the weird people we live among.

It would be really interesting to meet the people who took the time out of their days to figure out to steal two speaker boxes. Either they are totally insane or were under the influence of a narcotic or alcohol because no one in their right mind steals those things. What are they supposed to do with them now? Are they going to set them up at their house so they can talk to people who come around to the back? It would be kind of suspicious to have one of those just sitting in your front lawn. So I think these people are not the crème of the crop. Or they could possible sell it on ebay. Would their advertisement say stolen speakers for sale? I just do not think that this was the wisest idea even though they must have had a plan of attack to snip the wires and get away without getting caught. I would like to meet someone who is unique enough to pull that one off.

My trip to the Frank Wood National Telephone Museum was interesting. The day first started off as I was unable to find the building because it is a very plain building with few distinguishable marks. Once inside, the building was dull with plain white walls. The most interesting part of the museum was the baseball caps lined along the top of the walls. I believe there was one hat for every telephone company that existed. I found it unique to see how the telephone companies have come and gone throughout the years through baseball caps. Mostly this was unique because I did not expect to see baseball caps in a telephone museum so it really caught my attention. Otherwise, the museum was what I had expected to see with many different types of phones as they progress through history.
Many of the types of phones I had already seen in text books but what I did not know was the different companies. The creepy wax models were displaying various types of headsets that looked very cumbersome for earlier operators. I was surprised also to see the different types of the original phone there were because I thought there was only one generic type but depending on the company many designs were available. By visiting the museum, I have found a new appreciation for the advancements made in development of telephones because I would not like to carry around some huge phone or have a cord constantly attached to a wall. Gerald, also, made the trip more interesting. He was the volunteer worker who seemed very versed in telephone history and eager to answer any and all of our questions. Although it was as bland as could be, the telephone museum fulfilled its purpose and showed me the history of the telephone.