Ohio - Day 26 - Cincinnati

Rocky Fork State Park
Sunday, 26 May 2019

I'd intended to spend the day in the campground today to give myself a break, but I looked the campground reservations up online and learned that almost everybody is planning to stay here tonight too, which means they'll all be around all day, which means I'll have serious trouble with the dogs.  So at the last minute I decided to go see a couple of things in Cincinnati.

today's route

William Howard Taft National Historic Site

Taft was born (9-15-1857) and raised in this house in a ritzy area of Cincinnati.  In fact, compared to the mansions that are still there, this house is practically a shack.  Taft's father was a lawyer and influential in many circles, serving as Pres. Grant's Attorney General and Secretary of War.

note the lace on the curtains

fireplace surround

Taft (the son) graduated from law school in 1880.  By that time, politics was so corrupt and chaotic that few of Taft's background went into public service.  Taft was an exception.  He became known for his rock-solid integrity.

• He was a federal revenue collector and made night raids on illegal stills.  At that time he controlled 115 jobs and infuriated Pres. Arthur by not filling them with political patronage folks.
• From 1892-1900, he sat on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals and tried hard to improve the credibility of the legal system (which, at the time, could be bought).
• He served as Pres. T. Roosevelt's Secretary of War 1904-1908; in that capacity he was in charge of the Isthmus Canal Commission that built the Panama Canal.

This photo I found online shows Taft hearing the news that he'd been nominated by the Republican Party for president in 1908 (that was in an era when the candidates themselves were considered too above-it-all to go to conventions).

Taft ran against William Jennings Bryan, Democrat, running for the 3rd time; Bryan claimed to be TR's rightful successor because TR had enacted many of Bryan's proposals.  Eugene Debs ran as a Socialist candidate.  A big influence on Taft winning the election was support from TR, who was still extremely popular.

There was a late winter snowstorm on Taft's inauguration day in March 1909.  Taft joked that he'd "always said it would be a cold day when I got to be president of the United States."  He was our 27th president.

Taft's presidency was unique in a number of ways:

• He was the first president to throw out the first pitch of the baseball season.
• He was the first president to have a motor car.
• He was the first president to appoint a woman to head a federal bureau.
• He was the first president to have his wife ride with him in the inauguration parade (all previous presidents rode alone).
• He was the first president to preside over 48 states - New Mexico and Arizona were admitted to statehood over his signature.
• He was the last president to keep the family cow (Pauline) at the White House - she grazed on the White House lawn (ah, those were the days).
• He still is the only president to go on to sit on the Supreme Court - he was Chief Justice from 1921 to 1930.
• He was the first president to present a consolidated budget to Congress.
• He was the first to regulate communications - telephone, telegraph and wireless companies.

Taft was known as the Trust Buster: his administration filed 90 antitrust lawsuits against the powerful monopolies in steel, tobacco and oil.

Taft lobbied hard for the 16th amendment to the Constitution, that would allow the personal income tax.  He argued, "We have passed beyond the laissez-faire school who believe that the government ought to do nothing but run a police force."

He called a special session of Congress to try to lower tariffs, attacking them as promoting big business while raising the cost of living for everyone.  Congress passed the bill but it wasn't politically popular.

He called his diplomatic strategy (remember those?) in Asia and the Caribbean as "substituting dollars for bullets," or "dollar diplomacy," using trade and investment to promote peace and stability abroad and prosperity at home.  When that failed, he switched to "Marine diplomacy," and sent troops to Central America during various crises.  He negotiated treaties of arbitration with England and France, trying to settle international disputes judicially (instead of with war).  The Senate opposed these treaties, so Taft made a tour to appeal directly to the public on this foreign policy issue - another first for a president.

Like Theodore Roosevelt, his predecessor, he supported conservation, but he didn't agree with TR's doing it by executive order.  Taft pulled out 8.5 million acres and created 10 national parks.

The mayor of Tokyo sent a gift of cherry trees in honor of the Pres. and Mrs. Taft, and it was Nellie Taft who decided to have them planted along the Tidal Basin. More than a century later, Americans still owe gratitude to the Tokyo mayor and to Mrs. Taft for so much spring beauty.

Throughout Taft's presidency, he was hampered by Theodore Roosevelt, who had been instrumental in getting him elected in the first place but apparently expected Taft would be his (TR's) clone.  Taft, on the other hand, saw himself as a moderate who would make TR's reforms work, but without making radical changes of his own.  This wasn't good enough for TR.  And TR's enduring popularity and bullish personality made it difficult for Taft to get his own message across.

In addition, as president Taft inherited a Republican party that was becoming ever more divided within itself: the "progressives" were challenging the "Old Guard" Republicans over control of Congress and, between them and TR's supporters, Taft was never able to unite the party.

The 1912 election was an unusual and hard-fought contest.  TR's popularity won him primaries, but Taft controlled the party leaders and won the Republican nomination.  TR then formed his own National Progressive (aka Bull Moose) Party and ran as its candidate.  Democrats nominated Woodrow Wilson, governor of New York.

This display explains the surprising differences in approach to the presidency taken by 2 people ostensibly from the same party.  Note also that, though Taft was indeed quite overweight, TR was no lightweight himself.  Taft had been large even as a boy (nicknamed "Big Lub"), and during the presidency he grew to 333 pounds.

The voters chose Woodrow Wilson.  Perhaps a factor was Wilson's clearly thinner profile?

When Taft left office, Will Rogers said, "It's great to be great but it's greater to be human.  He was our great human fellow because there was more of him to be human.  We are parting with three hundred pounds of solid charity to everybody, and love and affection for all his fellow men."  (I doubt if there's anything nicer anyone could say about anyone.)

Following his presidency, Taft first taught law at Yale Law School, a job that he later said was his favorite of all.  He chaired the Lincoln Memorial Commission - yes, the famous one in Washington, DC.  It was dedicated in 1922.

He was appointed as Chief Justice to the Supreme Court in 1921, a job he held until 1930.  During that time he streamlined the entire federal court system, which had become in impenetrable maze.  He was also instrumental in getting funding for a separate building to house the Supreme Court.  Until Taft, the Supreme Court had met in rooms on the Senate side of Congress.  None of the justices, including Taft, had official offices, or even official storage for files.  Most of them used space in their own homes for these things.  Hard to imagine now - actually, hard to imagine even then.

In my opinion, Taft was unfortunate in being bracketed between flamboyant Theodore Roosevelt and Wilson's WWI and League of Nations.  With few major national or world events during his term, Taft gets overlooked and underappreciated.  In the midst of political chaos and the patronage system, Taft still did everything he could to help the ordinary people over corporations, to stick to the role prescribed for the presidency by the Constitution instead of trying to see how much he could get away with, to organize and streamline government to make it function better, to keep America safe without appeasement and without starting wars.  And even more importantly, his integrity was unquestioned - by anyone - which isn't a given in politics by any means.  (Plus, he managed to keep TR from getting another 4 years in the White House, and I wouldn't want to think of World War I with TR in charge of US policy.  Not that I agreed with Wilson either, but he was certainly more restrained.)

Cincinnati Chili
On lists of iconic foods in each state, one list didn't have any for Ohio, while another had only something called Cincinnati Chili listed.  Of course I had to check it out.  It turned out to be a plate of spaghetti, topped with Ohio's version of chili, topped with grated cheese.

Skyline Cafe's Cincinnati Chili

The birthplace for this dish was Skyline Chili, a cafe originally located on a hill with a view of Cincinnati (thus "skyline").  This business now has 150+ locations in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Florida (huh?).  The original cafe grew too old to renovate and was razed and replaced with another cafe half a block away.  Which is where I went.

Some very nice employees instructed me in the intricacies of ordering this delicacy.  There's the 3-Way, which has the original 3 parts.  There's the 4-Way, which can include the addition of either chopped onions or beans to the other 3 parts.  And there's the 5-Way, which is both beans and onions piled on with the spaghetti, chili and cheese.  I opted for the basic 3-Way, since that's how this started.

I can say with absolute certainty that no Texan would recognize the chili part of this as chili.  I'm not sure what ingredient(s) these Ohioans added to achieve this flavor, but they aren't in any version of chili I've ever had.  And of course I've never had chili on top of spaghetti before.  Given all that, I'll say that this dish was tasty and filling.  I didn't expect it but this amount turned out to be enough for 2 lunches - I barely ate half of it today.

Now that I've tried Ohio's iconic dish, I understand more clearly why I haven't found any grocery stores more upscale than Kroger in this state.  These folks just have a different standard for food choices than folks in other states.  All other states.  At least, all those I've visited so far.

The drive back to the campground
I don't think I've mentioned the water here in Ohio.  At first I was using water running directly into my faucets from the campgrounds.  Later I filled up my water tank, which was low after West Virginia, where I'd wanted to avoid their iron-rich water.  But I started to find here in Ohio that more often than not I was getting brownish or reddish water coming through.  As I've come farther south, the brown color has become more pronounced.

Today in a suburban area I passed a pretty water feature that was quite large and included 2 ponds connected by a large waterfall, complete with a Mallard swimming around.  Nice landscaping.  Except all this very prominent water was beige.  Distinctly beige.  Beige water falling in a wide sheet down from one pond to another.  Beige water in the large pond below.  Clearly beige.  And completely ruining the look the landscaper had certainly been aiming for.  And I wondered if it's always like this and they've forgotten what color water's supposed to be?  Or if this is just an aberration and I was unlucky enough to be in the state when it happened?  Very odd.

Kings Island

I passed Kings Island Beach and Amusement Park, which I could see parts of from the highway.  They bill themselves as the largest amusement and water park in the Midwest.  For all I know, they are.  This photo from online was part of what I could see, which may give you an idea of how big it is.

I passed a sign saying turn here for Historic Lebanon and the Golden Lamb.  I didn't but I was curious so I looked them up.  They are indeed old.  Lebanon was laid out in 1802 and was named for the junipers in the area, which many people mistake for cedars - ergo, the Biblical cedars of Lebanon.

The Golden Lamb was a "house of public entertainment" when it opened in 1803.  It's still open today as a restaurant and is Ohio's longest continually operating business (I believe it).  It has entertained 12 presidents beginning with John Quincy Adams and going up to George W. Bush (oddly, those were our two presidents whose fathers were also president).

Little Miami River

Twice today at different places I've crossed the Little Miami River, which signs say has been designated as both a State and a National Scenic River.  The glimpses I got from the bridges showed it to be scenic indeed, as you can see from this online photo, which is something of what I saw.

Lots of businesses and other things have signs that remind me that the Cincinnati area is another Tri-State Area (as Huntington, WV, is).  When the Ohio River stops forming Ohio's southern border, it turns south and becomes the border between Indiana and Kentucky.  I see lots of license plates from those 2 states in this area.

When I drove into Cincinnati this morning there was almost zero traffic - the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, I thought.  But driving back this afternoon I've found a great deal of traffic, much more than I expected.  I guess folks are out shopping, or maybe going back home from their weekend, or maybe going to some Memorial Day event?  Lots of them were on the move for some reason.

I stopped in Hillsboro again to walk the dogs before going back to the mob I expect to see at the campground.  Very hot weather.  They were glad for the walk and glad to get back to the air conditioning.

Back at the campground
As I expected, nobody's left and everybody's running around - or rolling around - and having a great time.  And then suddenly the heavens opened up and it started pouring rain, complete with lightning and thunder.  And people were still letting their kids play outside!  I guess they were thinking only of the rain and how it wouldn't hurt the kids to get wet.  Being from Texas, land of lightning rods on rural houses, I was thinking about the lightning.

I almost went outside myself to tell the kids' parents about the boy who got struck a few years ago in Austin by lightning that was literally a "bolt out of the blue."  Blue sky, no thunder, no warning, just a bolt of lightning that struck this kid standing out on a baseball field.  He recovered, but I don't think he'd completely returned to normal by the time I left town.  (His parents sued the coach, which I thought was just plain ugly.  The coach was just a volunteer and who on earth could have predicted something like this would happen?  I don't know how that lawsuit came out.)

I had the AC turned on anyway because of the heat, and then I was glad it was on to drown out the thunder to keep from scaring Gracie.  The rain let up around 6:30 and I quickly took the dogs out for a last walk before everybody else came out with their dogs.