I live in Ronald Reagan's Boyhood Home -- Dixon, Illinois. Reagan's 100th birthday just passed, and there was quite a celebration here. -- a gala ball, commissioned music, a specially commissioned statue and ... a book. It's a book that could only come from Ronald Reagan's boyhood home, published by the local media company. It’s called Ronald Reagan, The Dixon Connection. It is filled with photographs of Reagan, mainly taken while he was in Dixon growing up, and when he returned on visits as a movie star, or as a politician. The photographs are rather interesting to peruse, whether you are from Dixon, or not.
One event that brought Reagan back home was Injun Summer Days, August 1950. While here, he dedicated the opening of the local pool, a new wing of the local hospital and a softball diamond. He stayed at Walgreens estate, founder of the Walgreens drug store chain. But what he is remembered for during this visit particularly is riding a Palomino horse in a parade. He cut quite a figure that day, even in the plain clothes he wore.
Because I live from Dixon, I've seen a number of photographs over the years of Reagan atop that palamino horse. Many local citizens went to the parade with their cameras to see Reagan and the 600 horseback riders accompanying him. And those pictures turn up from time to time. What strikes me as interesting is that he was wearing glasses that day. You don’t find too many photographs of Reagan wearing eyeglasses.
And yet, on the back cover of the book Ronald Reagan, The Dixon Connection, is a photograph of Ronald Reagan on that day –without eyeglasses – probably for a special photo opportunity. Little did he know how many photographs would be taken of him that day with his glasses on.
Glasses or no glasses, Reagan was a man with vision and charisma, two important qualities for somebody aspiring to the highest office of the country. Whether you agree with his politics or not, you can’t argue that he exuded these qualities. And you can almost imagine him as Mr. President even in those parade photographs back from 1950.
This book is for sale at: Amazon: Ronald Reagan the Dixon Connection
