Thursday, November 8, 2007

The Road to Hell


You know what they say? The road to hell is paved with good intentions. I had wonderful plans to be a faithful blogger and it has been 5 months since I've made an entry. I'm not proud of it, just stating the fact. It seems as though I haven't had a minute since then. Let's see, what's been going on?


TRAVELING EXHIBIT


The Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln's Journey to Emancipation national traveling exhibit was in the library from June 28 through August 10. What a wonderful adventure. We had so many great programs. Two gentlemen from the Civil War Veteran's Museum in Nebraska City helped us open the exhibit with their display of Civil War artifacts. Bill Dean was kind enough to leave some of his personal collection for us to display during the exhibition. We also had Ken Winkle, Lincoln Scholar, give a very informative program on the part the Great Plains played in the Civil War. Then we hosted Spencer and Vivian Davis during Tilden Prairie Days. They portrayed Abraham Lincoln and Sojourner Truth (who actually did meet in the White House) They also rode in the parade in Don Mollhoff's wagon. Mr. Davis did an afternoon program as Lincoln and answered many interesting questions from the attending crowd. He did a great job staying in character. They both seemed to enjoy the day. The final day of the exhibit, Dan Holtz presented a program featuring Civil War songs. These exhibits value go far beyond their physical presence. They provide the subject and the incentive to do terrific programming. Thanks to the Nebraska Humanities Council the library could afford to provide these quality programs.


TILDEN PRAIRIE DAYS


The library was instrumental in starting Tilden's Prairie Days celebration in 2004. It continues to do a lot of things in conjunction with Prairie Days. This year we hosted the Lincoln exhibit and hosted the two Lincoln programs as well as the annual Pieces of the Good Life Quilt show. The beautiful Lied Auditorium of the library is the perfect place to display the 100 items that are featured in the three day show. In addition Yvonne Hollenbeck did programs on Saturday and Sunday. Yvonne is a nationally recognized Cowgirl Poet. Visit her website: http://www.yvonnehollenbeck.com/ She is definitely worth knowing about. She was so personable and such a good sport. The Library also sponsors the annual, sanctioned, "Triple T" C1o*w Chip Throw. Yvonne consented to be a VIP contestant. It was great (see picture above)-. She was joined by Rod Wagner, Nebraska Library Commission Director from Lincoln, Nanette Day, Tilden City Council member and State Senator Mike Flood.


Needless to say it was a very busy 3-day celebration. Everyone should mark their calendars for next year. It will be the last full weekend in July.


There's a lot that's happened since the end of July 2007, but I'll have to add more at a later time. I'll try to be more faithful. Don't want to go down the path of good intentions.