Ike "Special"

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Fri Jul 11 16:30:26 EDT 2008


I was a mere lad of nine in 1952 but I do remember part of the campaign talk
Ike gave from the rear of the train when he stopped at Union Station in
Lynchburg. To underscore his point on inflation, he used a precut 2 by 4 and it
was a certain length. He said that the entire board could be bought for so
much money in a certain previous year. But he said in that year, 1952, the same
amount of money would only buy a shorter board and he broke it broke it to
illustrate his point. I was amazed at how strong he was until my Dad explained
that the 2 by 4 must have been already cut partly though!

Twelve years later in May 1964 when Ike was at VMI for the dedication of the
Marshall Research Library and I was a new journalist, I was able to speak
with him about the 2 by 4 thing. It happened that President Johnson was late
arriving and while everyone was waiting, Ike strolled over to the media and
came directly to me. I didn't wash my right hand for several days because I had
actually gotten to shake his hand. Later that day, I got a pretty good
picture of Ike which was used widely in newspapers across the country, by way of
the Associated Press. If anyone wants to see it, contact me off list at
_VgnRy43 at aol.com_ (mailto:VgnRy43 at aol.com)

Aubrey Wiley




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