The Smiling Driver

[W. Gray]

In 1958, I was a senior at William Chrisman High School in Independence, Missouri. Our school system had many years earlier graduated a future US president—but I do not recall that it was ever mentioned in class.

We had a four-year high school but due to a lack of space, the ninth and tenth grades were located in another building a few miles away. Sometimes after school, I would drive over to the other building and pick up my younger sister if she had after school activities.

The easiest route was to drive down Highway 24 to the Truman Library exit ramp, stop, and then turn left going under the highway overpass and away from the library. My car, a 1953 Ford, had a loud horn. I had discovered that when going under that particular overpass, the reverberation from honking my horn made a tremendous noise. The noise was such that it would startle other drivers. It became a habit of pressing the horn twice when I passed under.

On one particularly nice day, my girl friend and I were headed to pick up my sister. Going under the overpass, I pressed the horn twice getting the usual loud racket. We both started laughing at the noise. I then heard a faint "honk," "honk" and saw a 1957 Dodge sitting on the ramp on the other side of the overpass.

The driver was very energetically waving and smiling at us as we passed. When we realized who the driver was, we both started frantically waving and smiling back.

In those days when there was no Secret Service protection, the lone occupant of the Dodge was Harry S. Truman.

[Janet Harrington]

What a neat story.  I bet that was fun to see Harry Truman.

[Roma Jean Turner]

Yes indeed.  A great story.  I want to go do an overnighter in Independence one of these days.  It has been years since I have been through the Truman Library.

[W. Gray]

Roma Jean,

I lived in Springfield many years ago while at graduate school.

The last time I was there, it had grown and changed so much, I could not readily find my way around.

Since I like history, there are two things I remember about Springfield--both probably trivial to most folks.

As I recall, the Springfield public square is the only public square in the U.S. in which the streets arrive at the square in the middle of the block rather than at the corner. If it is not the only one, it is one of very few. For instance, at the Independence, Missouri, public square and the Howard, Kansas, public square the streets arrive at the corner of the block.

The other was that Wild Bill Hickock had a shootout on that public square.

[Rudy Taylor]

What a fine memory you have of waving at the former President!  There are many
such stories out there, as indeed, times were different before Nov. 22, 1963.

[W. Gray]

Well, I can remember some things from long ago, but I cannot remember what I did last week.....

[Roma Jean Turner]

I don't know how long ago you were here, but it is changing by the day again.  I am often shocked when I go into an area
I haven't been in even for a month.  At the end of my block a field that I always enjoyed looking across is now full of big
equipment digging up everything and two more lanes of road are being put down.  Shopping centers and huge apartment complexes are shooting up.  The traffic is getting worse by the day. I often yearn to look out across the rolling hills and fields of Kansas and Oklahoma.  When I go to Wichita at the end of this month, I may be taking the back roads.