Dennis and Judy Travels: June 2014

Sunday, June 29, 2014

A Visit to the Queen Mary, Long Beach and the Spruce Goose

The Cunard Lines ship the Queen Mary started build
in 1930 in Scotland and was ultimately launched in 1934. The Queen Elizabeth
was built at the same time as her running mate.
The Queen Mary was a magnificent ocean liner and today serves as
a hotel in Long Beach California.

Here are our two queens, Betty and Judy taking in the sights

June 29, 2014

1965 was a year that Cunard Lines was operating at a loss. With the
Queen Elizabeth 2 under construction,Cunard sold the Queen Mary for $3.45 mil to the city of Long Beach California
She arrived at Long Beach in December 1967.

The Queen Elizabeth was retired in 1968 and sold off with the QE2 beginning transatlantic
in 1969.
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Long Beach California would buy over 72% of the Naval real estate
that included the Naval Station, shipyard and the many ship piers to prepare
itself for a renaissance or cultural rebirth.
The face, harbor, and skyline today would leave a sailor of the 1960's asking what city
was he in. It's a very nice city.

Harbor view of Long Beach skyline today

Nice view of Long Beach

Queen Mary view with cruise ship dock right behind it on opposite side of the

dome with a cruise ship arriving in the background.

The cruise ship Carnival Imagination

directly behind the Queen Mary

readying to depart during our visit.

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Interestingly, alongside the Queen Mary is and old Russian submarine, the Scorpion

a diesel-electric Foxtrot class sub. It was commissioned in December 1971 and one of

56 Foxtrot class Russian submarines. The Scorpion was decommissioned in 1994. Australian businessmen successfully negotiated with Russia to bring the sub

to Sydney Australia Maritime Museum. In 1998 it would be moved and sold

located next to the Queen Mary in Long Beac.

Windows? Below the Bridge

for cold weather surfacing. American subs do not have.

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Not to be seen on our visit, but in February 1982 the Spruce Goose aircraft made by

Howard Hughes was brought to the dome directly behind the Queen Mary as an exhibit. The

Spruce Goose made entirely of wood and not spruce but birch was completed in 1947.

It made only one flight with Hughes as the pilot.

The Spruce Goose as seen was acquired by

the Aero Club of Southern Calif in 1980.

The white dome next to the Queen Mary is

where the Spruce Goose would be exhibited until February 1993.

With no takers, and Disney the owner of the Spruce Goose no longer wanting it,

the Evergreen Aviation Museum of McMinnville, Oregon won the bid.

It would ultimately build its museum around the Spruce Goose. It remains

on exhibit today at the museum, about 40 miles south of Portland Oregon.

Evergreen Aviation Museum at McMinnville Oregon today.

The Spruce Goose inside the Evergreen Aviation

Museum today.

Pat Nixon

First Lady Pat Nixon was born Thelma Catherine Patricia Ryan on March 16, 1912 in Ely Nevada. Her father William M. Ryan, Sr., was responsible for nicknaming her Pat as she was born the day before St. Patrick's day and he of Irish ancestry.

The Ryan family would live in Ely Nevada, where Pat's father worked in the mines, and in early 1913 move to what was Artesia now known today as Cerritos California.

At age 13 Pat would lose her mother to cancer. She became the anchor for cooking and cleaning for her father and two brothers. School activities were somewhat confined to classes only as she would have to get home for chores and dinner preparation.

Pat would ultimately graduate from USC, the University of Southern California with honors and high academic achievement in 1937. As a young woman prior to college graduation she worked often more than one job at a time to support herself.

Fast forward and Pat and Richard Nixon married at Riverside California in 1940.

President Nixon view of his wife Pat

on the campaign trail

Family Nixon with Julie and Trish, their daughters.

Nixon concedes to Kennedy during the 1960 election.

Nixon lost to Kennedy by a margin of 49.6% to 49.7%.

The anguish on Pat Nixon's face tells it all.

Fast forward to 1969 and Nixon becomes the 37th President of the US.

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Admittedly my library visit on Pat Nixon was not high. My after library visit reading reveals that Pat Nixon was truly a genuine First Lady. What I have come away with about Pat Nixon, she was a First Lady that many after her tried to follow. She was a strong supporter of her husband, and always with him. She was involved in the goodness of our country.

Pat would die in 1994 at her home in New Jersey.

Nixon

"Going Places"

Nixon was still a Lt. Commander in the Navy when he received

this letter from California Bank of America Vice President

H. L. Perry. Nixon ultimately won his congressional campaign

and took office January 1947 at age 34.

He would be re-elected to a 2nd House Term in 1948

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Nixon defeated 5-term Democrat Jerry Voorhis by working 1946 in the district

and Voorhis did not return from Washington until August 1946 to focus on the election.

Nixon campaigned by casting Voorhis as not effective

and receiving an endorsement of a communists linked group. Such a tactic would be used again by Nixon.

The anti-communist period of the late 1940's and 1950's would be an ally of Nixon and his early political career.

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Ironically Richard Nixon and John Kennedy enter the House of Representatives at the same time in 1947.

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Nixon and early congressional activity

Nixon and the Marshall Plan - 1947

The Mundt-Nixon Bill

The Taft-Harley Act

The Taft-Hartley Act followed the National Labor Relations Act

of 1935. It somewhat balanced the one sided Labor rights of unions

codifed in the NLRA of 1935. It reduced or attempted to reduce the Labor gains of the NLRA of 1935

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Richard Nixon and John Kennedy were members of the House Labor Committee

during the passing of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947. They were chosen to debate

the Act prior to passing it at McKeesport PA. While no vote was taken who won the

debate, both returned to Washington that night on a train with Nixon winning the lower sleep berth via straw vote with Kennedy.

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Nixon and the Alger Hiss Case

January 3, 1947

Nixon is sworn in as Representative for the Twelfth Congressional District of California. His tenure lasts until his resignation in November 1950 following his election to the Senate. He was assigned to House Education and Labor Committee and House Committee on Un-American Activities

Nixon was then appointed to a subcommittee of the Un-American Activities committee with two other congressmen to attempt

to determine who was lying about the Communist affiliation that Whittaker Chambers declared that Alger Hiss was a Communist.

Ultimately Alger Hiss was convicted on two perjury counts and sentenced. He was not convicted of being un American or a Communist due to statute of limitations had run out.

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Fascinated about these elements of the Nixon Library, it became clear to me as a visitor that Nixon was a homeland and anti-Communist warrior so to speak and the Alger Hiss case would have died had it not been for Nixon and the tenacity of his pursuit of Hiss. It would also propel him to Senator in 1949. Nixon diligently worked hard at all that he did.

Nixon meets with General Eisenhower in May 1951 at

NATO Headquarters Belgium. Both leave each other mutually impressed.

They go on with Ike President and Nixon V. President in 1953.

Kennedy and Nixon at the

White House April 1961

Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Tse-tung
In 1949 Mao won rule of China with
Chiang Kai-shek fleeing to Taiwan

Soviet dictators Brezshnev and Krushchev.
Nixon moment with Krushchev in July 1959, then
Vice President Nixon had a "kitchen debate"
with Krushchev in Moscow at an American exhibit.

Churchill DeGaulle Sadat

The Nixon Library recognizes leaders that many of us recall

and where Nixon crossed paths with most of them and under

what circumstances.

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This segment briefly covers a period in Nixon's political life. I now think Nixon was brilliant, tenancious in direction and policymaking. He was not charismatic, charming nor always agreeable in nature. He was tense in character.

Visiting the Nixon Library

Judy and I enjoy visiting presidential libraries as we travel. While we were in Southern California we visited the Nixon and the Reagan Library. Some have said presidential libraries satisfy and favor the President they document or commemorate. Yea, could be true, but they all give a visitor the chance to get a different perspective and fill in voids we may have about the president (museum) we visit.

The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
Yorba Linda California - Southern California

Richard Nixon Museum. Nixon was the 37th President of the United
States and sworn into office in January 1969. He was re-elected by a landslide in 1972