This isn’t a presidential election year; it just seems that way.
But it’s an election year, nonetheless, and on Tuesday we’ll have congressional contests (and more) all over the place — and we know it, because we geezers, more than anyone else, tend to pay attention to this stuff.
Proof?
In the 2008 general election, according to figures from the U.S. Census Web site, 78.1 percent of eligible voters 65-74 years old registered to vote, and 72.4 percent actually voted. Nearly 68 percent of registered 75-and-older voters found a way to cast ballots.
In general, the younger the demographic, the lower the turnout. Less than half of our 18- to 24-year-old kids and grandkids bothered to vote.
You can see the same situation at presidential museums and libraries and related historic sites. Sure, schoolkids are hauled in by the busload, but check out the folks who come voluntarily.
“If you look at our crowd,” said Anne Wheeler, spokeswoman for one of the best, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library & Museum in Austin, Texas, “it’s by and large generally a more mature crowd.”
Presidents and presidential history have a special place in our memories. And this isn’t nostalgia-wallowing, though in some cases (for sure, Reagan and Kennedy) there may be an element of that. It’s because as a “demographic,” we genuinely care about the country. We’ve witnessed so much.
And the kids? How do you draw them into this?
It’s not easy.
“That’s one of our challenges here,” Wheeler said. “President Johnson passed away in 1973. So very few people under the age of 35 have a memory of him.”
Most of us older than 55 do. It’s not all positive — and neither is the museum.
“He wanted people to learn from the successes and the failures,” Wheeler said. “When he dedicated the library, he said, ‘It is all here, with the bark off.'”
There are dozens of sites across the country (and even Canada) dedicated to our presidents. Thirteen, including the LBJ Library and, in the works, one for George W. Bush, are official presidential libraries administered in part by the National Archives and Records Administration (archives.gov/presidential-libraries). Others, some under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service, include presidential libraries, homes, retreats and, in the case of Lincoln’s New Salem in Illinois, a largely reconstructed village.
Each is worth a visit. The Clinton (Little Rock, Ark.), Lincoln (Springfield, Ill.) and Ford (Grand Rapids, Mich.) museums, as well as the Johnson, are favorites, but here are five that may surprise you.
The Roosevelt Cottage, Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada — The main attraction of Roosevelt Campobello International Park, the cottage is a classic example of rustic yet luxurious summer places built near water in the rural Northeast by wealthy families. ( New York’s Adirondacks are dotted with them.) There’s a certain irony here. This is where Franklin Roosevelt, while on a family vacation in 1921, was stricken with the polio that would cost him the use of his legs for the rest of his life; yet, this is one of the rare presidential sites with limited accessibility. The cottage was built in 1897, and the second floor isn’t accessible for folks with mobility issues. 506-752-2922, fdr.net
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum, West Branch, Iowa — A timely destination, given our current economic doldrums. A visit reveals a man always associated with the Great Depression but deserving of a more careful, nuanced evaluation. As with the Johnson library, exhibits don’t flinch about the failures, but this is where we can discover the forgotten, underappreciated Hoover: engineer, humanitarian, reformer and trusted adviser. His birthplace cottage and resting place are both here. 319-643-5301, hoover.archives.gov
Harry Truman home, Independence, Mo. — The Truman Library & Museum is a beauty, another one of the best; the president and Mrs. Truman are buried in a courtyard there. But a few blocks south at 219 N. Delaware St. is the modest white-frame Victorian built by Bess Truman’s grandparents in 1885, where he and his wife lived much of their adult lives. It doesn’t feel like a museum; it feels like Harry’s house and like he just stepped out for a walk. Love it. 816-254-9929, nps.gov/hstr
Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site, near Springfield — A 30-minute drive from the flashy, multimedia-heavy Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (which, yes, is wonderful, especially given the truly historic buildings surrounding it), is the re-created village where Lincoln flopped as a storekeeper — and found his calling. When the weather’s nice, costumed interpreters and school groups abound; in quieter times, the ghosts take over and the grounds are magical. 217-632-4000, lincolnsnewsalem.com
Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Museum, Yorba Linda, Calif. — As with the Hoover museum, this one has both the house where the man was born and his final resting place. And like the Hoover and the LBJ, the Nixon museum, while celebrating the man’s triumphs, notably his diplomatic breakthrough with China, doesn’t duck the negative. It’s all there: Checkers (without the bark); Ike; video of the first 1960 debate, with a weary-looking Nixon jousting with a vigorous Jack Kennedy; his defeat later in California; the comeback; and the impeachment. Fascinating man, remarkable museum. 714-983-9120, nixonlibrary.gov
