Eisenhower Book Talk

The Eisenhower Center in Abilene has a book discussion program. The local library gets copies of the books and then once a month or so during the winter the Eisenhower Center hosts a book discussion. All of the books are associated Eisenhower or events during his administration. For the most part, I am not really interested in spending a lot of time reading about Eisenhower, but I thought I would pick a couple that sounded the most interesting to attend.

The first one I went to was last week. The book was about Mamie Doud Eisenhower (Ike's wife) and written by a local historian, Marilyn Holt, so the author actually led the discussion. I realized that I knew practically nothing about Mamie and the book was a shorty (approx. 140 pgs.) so a few days before the event, I signed up to be in the audience and read the book ... well most of it. Before I go on, I should really stress those two things here - I singed up to be in the AUDIENCE (not discussion group) and I did NOT finish reading the book.

On the night of the book discussion, I had a pilates class at the fitness center that ended at 6:30. After it was over I quickly changed then hightailed it to Subway to get some supper. I got to the Eisenhower Center at 6:52, snarfed down my sandwhich and chips in the parking lot and raced into the auditorium. At 7:02, I made it into the auditorium as the event is being introduced by a librarian from the local Abilene library. I was trying to sneak in and sit with this lady from my pilates class near the back when all of a sudden the librarian intorducing the event stopped what she was saying and shouted out "AMBER!!!" I couldn't believe it. I froze. She went on and suggested I come sit up front at the discussion tables becuase I had read the book. Oh no. How could I refuse? She stopped the introduction to ask me to come up to the front of the room. How did this lady remember my name, much less my face!? It must have been my neon yellow Columbia coat. Damn that coat! However she remembered me I was impressed and horrified at the same time. Remember when I said I didn't quit finish the book? Now I was sitting up in the front of the room, right next to the author and I had to try saying something intelligent about the book at some point during the hour and a half discussion. It looked like it was going to be a nightmare.

Well, it ended up not being as bad as I thought it would be ... like usual. The author was really interesting and she ended up talking most of the time. I made two comments about Mamie Eisenhower and the book that didn't sound too stupid. However, when I read the rest of the book later last week I realized that I asked a question that I probably could have figured out had I read the last chapter before the discussion. At any rate, the whole thing went pretty well, except for right before I left. The librarian who remembered my name came over to chat. I had the book in my hand and she said she could just take it back to the library for me. I paused for a second and then tried to act like it was no big deal and told her I had 10 or so pages left. "10 or so pages" might have been a little too vague or just plain false - I really had about 30 pages left. I think my feigned confidence kept it from being too akward. But I finally finished the book and I learned all about Mamie Eisenhower.