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By Root 364 0

and she fetched me a blanket to cover the deteriorating bench seat. “I probably should have told you not to wear good clothes.” (Not that my clothes were that good anyway.) I lowered myself into the car, barely squeezing behind the big three-spoke steering wheel. The headliner had fallen, and I had to hold it up with one hand. With my other hand I grabbed the wheel. Above it was the same half-circle speedometer I’d seen in the 1953 New Yorker that Alan Hais had let me drive. I pressed the ring on the wheel that sounded the horn, but I heard nothing. I ran my fingers over the buttons on the radio. Dangling by some wires from the door was a gadget with a single row of four buttons. I hadn’t known that Harry’s Chrysler came equipped with power windows.

I was sitting exactly where Harry sat when he and Bess drove themselves halfway across the country and back in the summer of 1953. It wasn’t exactly an existential experience; Harry Truman’s Chrysler New Yorker was not my Holy Grail.

But, boy, it did feel pretty cool.

Acknowledgments

On my travels I was blessed with an abundance of hospitality, helpfulness, and humor. Thank you Daniel Barber, Nancy and Norman Barter, James Blauvelt, Steve Chou, Jim Clark, Murray Clark, Jill Cordes and Phil Johnston, Carey Creason, Clifton Truman Daniel, Jim Grass, Mary Griffin, Bill Herman, the Hohman family, Elise and Robert Kauzlaric, Carroll Kehne Jr., Rodney Manfredi, DiAnne McDaniel, Frank McKinney III, Martin Rothstein, Jim Schneithorst Sr., Judy Sherrow, Max Skidmore, Lynn Smith, Christopher Squire, Scott Strong, Harvey Sunday, Mitch Teich, Doug Tucker, Richard Weingroff, Randall Wight, Lowell Wilson, Herbert Zearing, and Floyd Zerfowski.

The following institutions provided invaluable support: Allegany County Library, Cumberland, Maryland; Citizens Library, Washington, Pennsylvania; Columbus Metropolitan Library, Columbus, Ohio; Decatur Adult Transition Center, Decatur, Illinois; Decatur Public Library, Decatur, Illinois; District of Columbia Public Library, Washington, D.C.; Federal Highway Administration, Washington, D.C.; Frederick County Public Library, Frederick, Maryland; Hannibal Free Public Library, Hannibal, Missouri; Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, Independence, Missouri; Harry S Truman National Historic Site, Independence, Missouri; Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, West Branch, Iowa; Historical Society of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania; Historical Society of Frederick County, Maryland; Indiana Historical Society, Indianapolis, Indiana; Indianapolis—Marion County Public Library, Indianapolis, Indiana; Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri; Leland Residence, Richmond, Indiana; Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Mid-Continent Public Library, Independence, Missouri; Morrisson-Reeves Library, Richmond, Indiana; Office of the Senate Curator, Washington, D.C.; Ohio County Public Library, Wheeling, West Virginia; Pennsylvania State Police Historical, Educational & Memorial Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania; St. Louis Mercantile Library, St. Louis, Missouri; State Library of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York, New York; Washington County Historical Society, Washington, Pennsylvania; and Wayne County Historical Museum, Richmond, Indiana.

Special thanks to Liz Safly and her colleagues at the Truman Library, who made my time there so productive and pleasurable, as well as to my friends in Bamako, who suffered my Truman tales with good humor for two years.

For going above and beyond the call of duty, I am especially indebted to Claire McKinney Clark, Alan Hais, George W. Pappas, Manley Stampler, and Toni Walker.

To my parents, Tracy and Jim Algeo, as well as my brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews: I couldn’t have picked a better family. Same goes for my in-laws, Gigi and Frank McCollum.

To my agent, Jane Dystel: you’re an all-star in my book. To my editor, Jerome Pohlen, and everyone at Chicago Review Press, thank you for your kind