The Visit At Fort Abraham Lincoln

Fort Abraham Lincoln is a favorite stop for Jack, and what made it even more fun were the two Ben Stiller movies about how things came alive in the museum, where Stiller was a night watchman.

Jack loved both films, but the second one is where Custer appears for the first time. Our trips to Minnesota made it easy to appreciate history, especially the historical figures who appeared in the films I just mentioned.

Mount Rushmore was a lot of fun for Jack. We went there at least four times.

Fort Abraham Lincoln is a spot we've visited twice. We made a second trip there after I lost the camera with the pictures. They set it up in an interesting way.

For the first visit, the guide was completely in character. Everything was frozen in time, so when we told him where home was, he corrected us by letting us know that we lived in the Utah Territory. For a brief minute, my life as a carrot snapper passed through my mind. I smiled as I contemplated the meaning: I would never have to merge politely into a lane after a sign appeared letting me know the one I was in would end, because I could drive like a madman to the end and butt into traffic; I could speed up when someone turned on a blinker to signal entering into my lane, because I could forget common courtesy; I knew I should feel no remorse when my schedule meant I had to ignore basic principles of safety and courtesy, because I knew I was the new center of the universe.

And then everything came crashing down as I realized at the end of the tour that my "new" life was an illusion.

I was from Idaho, the place where the wind always blows, because Utah sucks.

Everything in the quarters, once used by Custer and his family, was set in an interesting way. It was almost as if they left to do something outside, and they would return in a few moments, but given my knowledge of what things were like in an area like that where roads and everything else was quite dusty, I have to admit that I know the house was very clean.

In fact, no dust was visible at all. The only thing that let you believe for an instant that dust might be a problem was the fact that dishes on a table were set upside down.

There are always things you do. Experience makes people pragmatic. When my dad and I worked at the ranch, we didn't have time to do dishes, so we bought a large box of waxed paper. For each meal, we would tear off a sheet, place it over the plate, and put our food on top of it.

After finishing, we simply threw the paper away, placed the plate in a neat spot on the table, and rinsed off our utensils. The process irritated my mother, so my dad and always tried to ensure that we put those dishes away before she came to the ranch in early summer after the conclusion of school. But sometimes we forgot to do that.

For me it was alright, because my mom tended to correct only my father for that, so it was even a bit of fun allowing the scene to remain for my mom's eyes to discover.

I was a kid with a warped sense of humor.

It's what you do when you sit on a tractor for a long period of time. It's not madness or anything. It's just a realization that some things are funny. Most people, I guess, don't have the opportunity to think that much about it.

Jack loved the things to be seen in the "Custer House." The second tour was not as good as the original. At one point, the guide shows a small box in Custer's desk. I guess the general kept a mouse in it.

The first guide last year let Jack look at the tiny thing inside it. It wasn't a mouse. No one in their right mind would allow a rodent access to a place with all those fun things to gnaw on during free time.

For the second visit, I waited in the car.

There just wasn't enough time for me to walk the 300 yards to the site. Ann and Jack went in to get pictures, and I waited. The time was going to be close, especially since we had an appointment for the river boat immediately after the tour.

Jack was excited about that too, but the weather on this day wasn't the best. It was a bit cold, and clouds were threatening. It was as if we brought the Idaho Falls spring weather with us to Minnesota.

In the weeks before we drove, the temperatures during the day and at night were warmer in Rochester than in Idaho Falls.

We began our trip, and by the time we arrived, we spent one day of living in summer temperatures, and then it became cold and rainy there too.

It's what happens when you look forward to a trip so much. I saw that happen in Germany a lot.

Sometimes it rained for weeks at a time in Germany, especially in the North, where storms came in from the North Sea. My memories of Berlin are vivid, and I miss it, but I also remember that some years the rain would continue through May well into the end of June.

In spite of the poor weather during the fist leg of our trip to Minnesota, everything was so beautiful, and it gave Jack a second chance to hear tales from a different storyteller.

It's always interesting to get the same story from another perspective, which is also the reason why today's news is often unreliable.

Fox News is like the Forest Gump channel--you never know what you're gonna get, although you can count on it being radically anti-Democrat, appearing pro-Tea Party, maintaining a thorough feeding of an ultimate cuckoo mentality.

But that's my take on the whole thing. I really don't like modern journalism, yet the whole Custer enigma is an example of how individuals can shape society's perception.

When I was young, the status quo was that Custer was a brave leader, standing tall in the face of ultimate defeat.

I never knew how much his wife had to do with maintaining that view, and it persisted even through the 50's and very early 60's.

My Government teacher was the first one who caused me to question what really was at play, and I realized during the next decades, that people with a political agenda, like Custer obviously had, are dangerous. You have to feel saddened by the brave men who followed Custer's poor judgement.

My grandson knows more about Custer than I knew when I was a senior in high school. He spent time at The Little Bighorn. Jack also did two tours at Fort Abraham Lincoln, which was the last place Custer served before the fateful day when he and his troopers set out on horseback to find renegade Sioux.

The area around Fort Abraham Lincoln is so quiet and serene. The grassland is beautiful, and while I waited for Jack and Ann to finish the tour, I listened to a meadow lark.

The day was not busy when we were there.

My only regret was not buying my grandson Tommy an army hat while we were there with him and Anna and Jack last summer. I bought one for Jack, but Tommy chose not to get it.

He regretted it immediately. I took care of that mistake during this trip.

One of Jack's funny responses was hearing the tour guide talk about the "chamber pot" during the presentation. Jack didn't like the idea of using something like that, and then leaving it in the same room.

I think it made him realize just how great it is to live in the day of indoor plumbing, I-pod movies, kid's meals.

Shooting dinner is not something that endears Jack to the past. He understands that he is eating what once was an animal, but he doesn't like talking about it. My Annie feels that way about some of my former high school principals.

And I agree now, you recognize the bad ones for what they are, but it would have been nice to place them in a porcelain pot and place them under something.

These trying times for Jack also meant that it was not an era with the convenience of anti-bacterial soap.

I even remember one professor at the university complaining about his family, who refused to poor wine into a well to kill the germs in the water. It was a 19th century way of dealing with water purity issues.

The family did nothing, and they lost a number of children to sickness because of bad well water.

But the billiard table--that was another story entirely. I guess a little bit of Pop Pop had an effect of my little grandson, because I always liked playing pool. Playing on our table my dad bought when I was in my sophomore year of high school was something that relaxed me.

I loved the sport, and Jack likes playing too. Any time we are in Boise at Homewood Suites, Jack and I try to take advantage of their having a pool table. It's something we love to do. And next time, I plan to play a little chess too.

The books were interesting too. I wish I could remember why they placed them like they did. Most museums like this, regardless whether in the United States or in Europe, have things of interest from the time period. I'm not sure if the things were authentic or not.

The hunting trophies, however, were authentic as I remember. Custer was an avid hunter, and there were many things about the house that were interesting.

Jack is not a fan of displaying dead animals like this. It's interesting how they develop views like they do.

When he just small, maybe four or five, he discovered my four point deer head hanging on a wall in the basement.

The thought that Pop Pop shot Bambi or Bambi's father was not a popular idea with Jack. He looked at me with sad eyes for a while, and then he became desensitized to the idea somehow.

One thing for certain, Jack loves museums, and as young as he is, it is fun for me to see how he absorbs information and thinks about the things they tell him.

It makes it easy for me to want to visit something historical. He appreciates it more than some high school students I once took overseas.

It's probably why I want to take him to Germany so badly. And I hope I can take Tommy too.