Journal Gazette from Mattoon, Illinois • Page 17

Mid-Illinois Newspapers Saturday, January 13, 1996 Weddings C2 Bob Greene C3 Entertainment C5 Smimmer 1995s JBubs, ttraimu travel amid Ineaitt yyyy- llttlt'M .11.. I 1 -J H5 t-t HttJHH r- it 3 The National Baseball Hall of Fame is a treasure house National Baseball Hall of Fame, Rockwell museum offer retreat in East By SCOTT CRAWFORD In mid-July 1995, 1 had the chance of traveling east to visit my wife, Penny, who runs the summer program at a residential school in New York State. The Kildonan School is about 30 miles south of Poughkeepsie, Vassar's hometown, and about two hours by commuter train from Manhattan. The 400-acre campus is only a hop, step and jump from the borders of Connecticut and Massachusetts. I decided to travel from Mattoon to New York on Greyhound buses via Chicago and Cleveland.

My spirits were buoyed by the childhood jingle Travel by bus, 'tis a lot less fuss." In actual fact, it turned out to be a nightmare. In Chicago as I sat and sat and sat at the bus station, waiting for the connection to Cleveland, I tried to let my spirits soar as I saw buses lumber off to exotic spots such as New Orleans and Seattle. For entertainment I watched a soap called "All My Children," which was awash with infidelity, intrigue and mass hysteria There was a foreboding of doom as I noted that the Greyhound bus line was one of the sponsors of the program. The journey from Chicago to Cleveland took nearly 12 hours and the countryside seemed uninspiring. There were no spare seats, and the phrase Tike sardines in a tin can" would aptly sum up a constricted marathon of immobility.

Arriving in Cleveland in the wee small hours of the morning, my defining moment was artingasareferee between aiiAustrian student with a colossal backpack who had trampled on a Jamaican with a Bob Marley look-alike hair cut The two did a series of Charlie Chaplin type swings, and kicks that, fortunately, only caught air. The leg from Cleveland to New York was even more anguished. Again there was no space and I was surrounded by a group of cheerful, but chattering, Chinese sailors who seemed to be enjoying their first moment of freedom after months of confinement at sea. They were headed to New York to sign on with a container ship fcound for the Far East Nearly lVdays after leavingCharleston I found myself walking up tile hill toward the school. It was wonderrul to be released from the steel cell of my bus prison.

ildonan School is a private, resi-1 1 dential, school de-JJLjL signed to help dyslexic students. The students are bright and creative, but frustrated because the standard school systems do not cater to their needs. Almost all students make astounding progress under an individual tutoring program. There are no grades and there is no competition. Students progress at their own rate.

The campus is situated on the crest of a hill. The view from the upper campus is spectacular, a series of colorful panoramas thatgentiy undulate toward the horizon. In the fall, magnificent formations of Canadian geese migrate southward and fill the sky over the school like military planes in a massed fly-past One of Kiidonan's dyslexic students, Brian Toomey, wrote: Fly, goose, fly free So I can hear The strength in your call Fly, Goose, fly So I can see The power of yourwings I cannot lean my body into wind And move free through blue skies like you BuO great Canada goose, lean fly on Wings of thought, soaring within my mind-space There I can be free and strong. New York State, and especially the upstate area, is attractively contoured. The terrain rises and falls lazily and the blend of meanderingroads, snug villages, hills and forests, makes for an ideal region as a vacation spot PopularattracticindudetheU.S.Mil-itary Academy at West Point The steep walls looming over the river reminds one of a European castle and medieval fortress." Traveling north one finds the campus of Vassar in Poughkeepsie and the Roosevelt Home in Hyde Park, the site of President Clinton's talks with Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

NATIONAL K' BASEBALL HALL OF FAME Above left, this brochure alerts visitors to the different memorabilia found at the hall of fame and museum. At left, during the summer the museum will have a cial exhibit commemorating the 50th anniversary of World War II. 43 2 At 1 s. AS ALL4AML.5 1 r--mtmmm0mmmmmmmmm mmm fVY.3 in The exhibition notes point to a mere game becoming an instrument for national solidarity. "Patriotism joined the roster.

Baseball has enlisted." One of the cameo figures covered in this special exhibition is Bob Feller. He was the best pitcher in the majors, yet two days after Pearl Harbor, he enlisted. In 1948, the same Feller was the star for the Cleveland Indians as they bested the Boston Braves. And, on Oct 17, 1995, the venerable Feller was on hand as his beloved Indians became the American League champions with a series victory over the Seattle Mariners. The National Baseball Hall ofFame is a treasure house of American icons.

Legendary figures such as Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig are prominently featured and a recent addition, the National Baseball Library and Archives, reminds us that, despite recent vicissitudes, baseball continues to be a much-loved game. There are two caveats. Summer crowds can pack the place and a clutter of noisy children can bombard any personal sense of tranquility. Also, an admission rate of $9.50 (adult) and $4 (juniors) is expensive, especially when Cooperstown judges adulthood to begin at 13! Several days after visiting Cooperstown I was shopping in Millerton. It was one of those blistering hot days that we try not to remember from the summer of 1995.

1 noticed a pink-cheeked lady in a white blouse and black shorts herding a corral of four very lively young children into a Chevy Blazer. I braked and jumped out All I had was a blunt pencil and a photograph of our son, Marc Tould you sign, sorry for troubling you." She signed on the back of the photograph Meryl Streep and said, "Handsome fellow." I wonder if she meant me? She was back home after an exhausting tour promoting the film she co-starred in with Clint Eastwood, "The Bridges of Madison County." For my second trip, Penny suggested the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stock-bridge, Mass. The attraction was a Centennial Celebration commemorating the 100th anniversary of Rockwell's birth (Ffcb.3,1884). Rockwell always wanted to be an ill us- I bb3 if 'i Yv lliijJiSSliin S2i Ear? BOB GRIM OF THE YANKEES Bfttimlng Nn Seriei I Dittingiiitlwd THE FACE OF AMERICA 7' 1 1 out of family moments and ordinary things captured with his extraordinary eye for the unusual. He could capture vacation trips, restaurant time-outs, movie stars, inter-generational connections, and presidents, with equal facility.

Nevertheless, while his work on the 1960s civil rights struggles is very moving, one wonders at his scant attention to World War II, and the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. While he is remembered as an enormously successful recorder of contemporary American life, there is a nagging feel that he frequently presented his vast audience with a series of caricatures and stereotypes. Rockwell succeeded well in showing ourselves as we would like to be. Whether this is a complete canvas is uncertain. A major asset of the Rockwell Museum is a group of energetic curators.

On our tour we met several who, as well as being informed and thoroughly grounded in Rockwell arcana and history, displayed Photo by Bill of American icons. I WHAT: The National Baseball Hall ofFame and Museum in Coorjer- stown, N.Y., founded in 1939, honors the game's heroes and presents a fascinating history of the sport through artifacts, photographs and memorabilia. One of the nation's leading tourist attractions, the Hall ofFame has more than 400,000 visitors annually. WHO: Abner Doubleday is believed to have invented the national pastime in Cooperstown in 1839. Dou-, bleday Field, IY2 blocks down the street from the museum, is the site of the annual Hall ofFame game, which matches two Major League teams each summer.

Visitors are also welcome to stop by this historic landmark. WHERE: Cooperstown is located in central New York, 70 miles west of Albany and 30 miles south of the New York State Thruway. WHEN: The Hail of Fame is open daily year-round except for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's. Hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

May 1-Sept 30 and 9a.m. to 5p.m. Oct 1- April 30. Group rates are available with advance reservations. 607547-7200 ADMISSION: Adults $9.50 and juniors (712) $4.

an unbridled enthusiasm for what they were doing. Here was a group of sionals following an avocation ratheij than merely a job. The museum is open all year except Thanksgiving Christmas and New Yesg day. Costs are $18 for a family group rf any size, $8 for an adult and children (uh der 18) and students get in for $2. For additional information, call (413) To return to Charleston I chewed bus travel.

No more Greyhound confinement. I would avoid the strain and travel by train. As it turned out the Amtrak train journey from New York to Chicago wa the most miserable journey of my fife. The locomotive seemed to suffer froni chronic fatigue. There were three speedji slow, slowing down and stopped.

toilets were dirty and that is taking a pod-iUve spin, compartments were decrepitj doors frequently jammed and the traih seemed to have a sad and tormented lifi; of its own as it grunted its pedestrian pad; to the Heartland. On returning to Charleston, the tenij perature hovered at the century mark; Family ties, Norman Rockwell and base? ball had cheered me up immensely. As fog Greyhound and Amtrak it will be a long time a very, very long time before give them a second try as a vacationing mode of transport Scott A.G.M. Crawford is a freelance writer who lives in Charleston. Sj7 7" The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, highlights Rockwell's covers of the Saturday Evening Post, as well as providing a look at some of his other illustrations.

his summer after the trauma of my bus trip, I limited myself to two foroftditions. I ooted. firstly. for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Cooperstown. Despite lying only 30 miles off the New York State througnway, it can be awkward to locate.

I suggest writing to: Hall ofFame, PO Box 590, Cooperstown N.Y. 13326 and you will be sent full travel information. During 19951996 May to December, the museum has on display a special exhibition entitled "Baseball Enlists This commemorates the 50th anniversary of World Warfl. The exhibition reminds us that in. 1942, only weeks after Pearl Harbor, Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis asked President Franklin Roosevelt, "What do you want baseball to do?" The answer was unequivocal.

The president gave the green light and spoke of the game as "thoroughly worthwhile." trator rather than a painter. In 1913, he became the first art director of Boy's Life. His enthusiasm for the Boy Scouts of America lasted throughout his life. On May 20, 1916, Rockwell produced the first of 322 Saturday Evening Post front covers over a period of 46 years. The museum does much more than highlight RockweEs brilliant gifts as an illustrator.

One room analyzes his artistic interpretations of Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms" address. Rockwell created Post illustrations to complement this speech, which became the centerpiece of a traveling war bond show. It raised a staggering $132 million for the war effort When he died in 1978 at the age of 84, Rockwell had established himself as the most prolific illustrator of all time in a career that spanned seven decades and more than 4,000 illustrations. His genius was best displayed in small-town vignettes that squeezed every drop of charm, quaintness and sentimentality.