Bill Clinton Sleeps Here
Trip Start
Nov 22, 2004
1
17
20
Trip End
Dec 01, 2004
Little Rock,
Arkansas,
United States
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/index.html It stretches long ahead, a narrow, slender building there, foot traffic pretty heavy here, I try this door and that, but I am wrong, I see a tour-crowd headed in and follow them. You register, and pay. I verify - okay with cameras? Of course! Is the reply. I like this place, already now. The crowd is milling everywhere, and there's a Presidential car, the sign say who was passenger, event and all, but I don't stop to read.
I take the elevator up, I see the Oval Office there, you can partly step inside, I do, the desk, the chair, the special things that Clinton chose, a bust of Kennedy, for sure. Walk a little further down, to balconies, or overwalks, displays up here to see, but look down too, the senses pick it up, the noise, the voices talking, history is taking place, or did
00 Bill Clinton Definitely Slept Here
. The world is changing, watch it, hear it, movies playing up and down and pictures everywhere, an odd design that fascinates, bookcases (made of cherry wood?), but two floors high, how many books are here? Rows and rows and rows of them. Everything they did, eight years of it, the gifts from foreign lands, the sports events, the saxophone. And hanging from the ceiling there, Chihuly glass, it's glittery and glamorous, ah, there's a gown from Hillary. I want to be a part of all I see downstairs, go down and walk each display, economic change, world hunger, peace talks and wars (but not too much of that). The gains, the good that happened in eight years. Remember this! It speaks out loud and clear, a lot of good accomplished, don't forget. The place is crowded, jammed, there's hardly space to walk, excitement, you can feel it and I'd like to stay all day, the energy has charged me up, but I remember bigger plans, a room in Memphis waits for me, it's up to me to drive, so I depart.
Back in the car, I scan the guidebook blurb, here's what it says.
The William J Clinton Presidential Center and Park. Located on the banks of the Arkansas River in downtown Little Rock. The Clinton Center houses the largest archival collection in American Presidential history (I heard inside that enough items were stored to keep an archivist working every day for the next 100 years!). The Center includes the museum, the archival collection, and educational and research facilities.
Designed by architect James Polshek, the main building takes the form of a glass bridge symbolizing President Clinton's theme of Building a Bridge to the 21st Century
01 Side of Clinton Library
. Exhibits in the 20,000-square-foot museum are designed by Ralph Appelbaum of New York, the firm that created the powerful Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. Next to the main building is the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. Sitting in a 30-acre park, special features of the Center include a Great Hall which seats 220, a café overlooking the Arkansas River, classrooms, an 80-seat theater, a park pavilion, and a pedestrian bridge across the river.
I also heard inside that there are penthouse quarters where the Clintons will stay whenever they're in town. How cool is that?
But hit it gal, you've got to GO, I tell myself, and start to drive.
