They Liked Ike!

My grandfather (click Grandpa label for pic) had a tiny office where he kept all of his personal papers and manly, grandpa like stuff. As a little girl I loved his office. I loved looking at all the neat little things that he kept there. There were calendars that had long since served their basic purpose which gave me a funny feeling that he kept them there not for the cigar smoke stained, numbered pages but because of the images of very pretty ladies that graced the now age yellowed, stiff cardboard displays.

There were stacks of wooden cigar boxes which held old receipts, notes, pencil stubs, erasers and the like. He kept private papers filed away within the drawers of an extremely heavy steel desk. There were also bullets; big ones, gun oil and hunting rifles. The guns were carefully placed in a hand made gun display rack from which also hung a pair of high powered binoculars. There were fishing poles, hooks, rubbery thingys that looked like little octopi and the warm, rich, oily scent of leather hung in the air throughout. One of my favorite items to look at was a small tin box that once held Sucrets cough drops.

Inside the tin was a tiny brass lighter, the kind with a wick, that had the Rainier "R" on it, and several campaign pins of varying sizes. Each one printed on it "I LIKE IKE" in one form or another. One had a baby on it with "I LIKE IKE" printed on its diaper and "Time for a Change" printed around the diameter. There was even one with an image of Mamie Eisenhower on it.

I loved these pins and when I played dress up on my visits to my grandparents house, my grandmother would often allow me to pin them to my "Grown Up" outfit which usually consisted of a pair of grandmas wonderful heels, a sparkling purse studded with beautiful rhinestones, a necklace of "Pearls" and a high fashion "dress". (one of grandmas pretty blouses with a belt at the waist) I would be allowed to wear the pins only if I were very careful, which I of course, always promised to be. I have long since inherited the Campaign pins and the tiny brass Rainier lighter, many of the rhinestone purses and other things.

 Even after all these years (I'm 44 and my grandfather passed away in 91, grandma in 2007) my grandfathers office still feels the same. the outline of one of the calendars is still visible and the smell of warm leather has somehow seeped into the walls of that tiny room. The Gunrack still hangs there along with the binoculars. Once upon a time Robert Ellis McCormick and his wife Evelyn liked Ike...and so did their little granddaughter.