Home Is Where The Heart Is

Omaha, you've been weighin' heavy on my mind

I guess I never really left it all

I'm turnin' all those roads I walked around the other way

I'm coming back to you Omaha

[Waylon Jennings]

Whoever said you can't go home was wrong, wrong, wrong. Why not? The last two days have been spectacular!



First stop this morning was over to my friend Susan's and her husband's home for bagels and coffee. This Susan and I met in junior high. She's a great writer, essayist, and all-'round nice person. She's always been clever and quick with a turn of the phrase that can leave you rolling on the floor laughing. Mon Dieu! 8th grade french class was always a riot. 

The last time I saw her was at our 10th high school reunion--30 years ago! She gave me the best hug--one of those `great to see you' hugs that stay with you. 

She had all of our old yearbooks out and it was fun thumbing through them together.

Just like last night with Patrick, Julie, and Jay, we caught up, shared some laughs, and solved most of the world's problems. Susan and her husband Dave (also a Westside grad) were open and hospitable hosts. I was so glad to spend some time with her and introduce John to her and Dave.

After that we met up with (the other) Susan and Danny. Our plan was to take John to all the Omaha sites he wanted to see and some others we wanted him to see. 

Ignore their faces.
These people were actually
happy to be at the museum.

First up the Strategic Air & Space Museum. This museum is fairly new (1998). Used to be you could drive up to Offutt Air Force Base and see bombers and missiles and other war stuff displayed outside. Now there's a whole museum devoted to this and more. You can sit in planes, touch them, walk through them and read all about them. A whole section of the place is devoted to restoring various aircraft. All of that is done by volunteers. 

Did you know the Enola Gay was built in Omaha? [Technically, Bellevue. That's where Offutt Air Force Base is]

Well, we stayed there for hours. John loves this stuff. After awhile a B52 looks just like a B29 to me. 

Next stop was Boys Town, which now also has a lot of girls. Don't know if you know this or not, but Boys Town is also the home of the world renowned Leon Myers' stamp center. I know that because my former father-in-law collected stamps and he told me ;) 

House where a 'family' of boys live

Boys Town is always impressive. Not just because of its  mission, but also because it's almost all self-sustained.


Interestingly, there are two chapels on campus. The Dowd Chapel is a Catholic chapel, The Chambers Chapel is a Protestant chapel. 

Oh, and you can see Spencer Tracy's Best Actor Oscar he won for his role as Father Flanagan in the Boys Town movie.


After Boys Town we drove to Westside High School--my alma mater! So many memories came flooding back. I thought about the teachers I loved (and the ones I didn't love so much), my friends, where I parked in good weather and where I parked in bad weather, even how I walked across the street after school most days to Westgate drug store for a coke at the soda fountain. 

Westside has an impressive campus. The sports fields are pristine, the building itself is extensive. Omaha has great schools. We were lucky to attend them. When I went to college I tested out of a full year of requirements. Our graduating class was close to 750, but most of my classes had fewer than 15 students. The biggest mistake Westside made with me was assuming I'd follow in my brother Steve's math footsteps. They automatically put me in Senior Math as a sophomore. I'm convinced they did that based on his stellar record. Needless to say it was a HUGE miscalculation. My dad wouldn't let me drop the class, so I had to flirt with Jim Greenspan the entire year to get him to tutor me through the homework and help me study for tests. Sorry, Jim, couldn't be helped.

We headed downtown to take a look at the Omaha Riverfront and the Old Market district. The riverfront doesn't have an arch, but it's really pretty. If I moved back here I'd want to live in one of the riverfront condominiums. What a view. There's a 3000 foot pedestrian bridge over the Missouri River, boating, hiking and biking trails, a riverfront boardwalk, restaurants…

The Old Market has been around since the 60s. Still has eclectic shopping and good food. And it's busy. It's what the St. Louis riverfront wants to be.

I didn't realize until we drove past it, but Gallup has its operational headquarters here. An Omaha company (SRI) purchased Gallup a few years after George Gallup died. They kept the name because it's so widely recognized.

Omaha is home to five Fortune 500 companies: ConAgra, Union Pacific, Mutual of Omaha, Peter Kiewit & Sons, and Berkshire Hathaway. Speaking of employment…unemployment rate in Nebraska is 4.2%, in Omaha it's 4.4%, in Lincoln it's 3.2%. The national unemployment rate is 6.7%, in St. Louis it's 9.9%, in Kansas City it's 7.2%. Just sayin'.

We looped around through some south city neighborhoods and drove past the new home of the College World Series (can't help it, but I'm sad there's no Rosenblatt Stadium anymore).

To finish off our "This Is Omaha" tour day we went to Anthony's Steakhouse. Could there be any doubt the steak will be good when there's a big black cow on top of the restaurant? Mr. C. was happy, happy, happy.

But then we got sad because it was time to say au revoir to Susan and Danny.  Already can't wait to make plans to rendezvous with them soon. (apologies for the sudden onslaught of Frenchisms).

Kathryn

P.S. John thinks too many people in my life are named Suzan, Susan, or Sue and I need to give some of them aliases so he can keep them straight.